Splitting Traffic, not Hairs

SearchEngineWatch: Split Traffic, Raise Conversion Rates, Repeat, Multiply

This is a very good article by Eric Enge over at SE Watch. It's very well laid out, and all the terms are defined for those of us that are still novices. As most PPC experts out there will attest, it is very important to segment your traffic, and find out what about your site is successful.

Put Yourself on the Map, Google Analytics

Website Optimizer Gets an Update

Amid all the updates and fanfare for the steadily improving Google Analytics service, there is one glaring omission, and that is the Google Map. We have the ability to see a "Map Overlay" of our visitors, showing us primarily where the people came from, but the map lacks the functionality of Google's own maps, which would actually be useful in this application.

Maybe this is part of Google's agreement not to divulge personal information of website visitors, such as I.P. addresses. An exact location, I suppose, may also fall within that agreement. Who knows?

Give us a Google Map, Google!

This is just a quick post to recognize a glaring shortcoming in the new (and old, for that matter) Google Analytics. Weeks ago, on the spur of the moment I decided to use both Google Analytics and Statcounter, another free analytics service, to track visitors on this blog. One feature I enjoy thoroughly is the visitor map, which displays the locations of visitors on... a map.

Here's the Google version of the visitor map:



And here's the Statcounter one:



Notice that the Statcounter version is actually a Google Map! However, Google is for some reason incapable of allowing us to use the very functionality that they created! Statcounter's version is a Google map, and therefore has most of the functionality of the Google map service. The Google Analytics version, however, is useless by comparison, as it has none of this functionality. There's no zooming in, no satellite photos, and no click-and-drag of the map. What is this?!

This is all said with a certain amount of surprise, given Google's apparent commitment to innovation and excellence. I would bet that a Google map feature will be available sometime in the near future within the Analytics service. It's probably just a matter of time. Such an addition would greatly improve any already useful analytics service.

Even the Little Guys Can Influence The World of SEO

Google Updates Analytics

I just wanted to point out, as I've seen everyone else already do, that Google has again updated Analytics, this time adding a feature that I called for on this blog several weeks ago: quicker reporting.

I think this is an indicator that anyone can have an effect on those big giants of the internet game - even little guys like me, trying things out and then blogging about what they like and don't like. Honestly, though, this is probably the result of hundreds of hours of review and development on Google's side, since they seem to be just as perfectionistic (is that a word?) as the rest of us. This is a great improvement.

The other great improvements in this new edition of Google Analytics are clickable URLs and the ability to cross-segment reports by network location. This adds a lot of functionality to the already redesigned interface, making it even better than before.

However, some questions have been raised about the entire Analytics service, and why in the world it has been offered for free. I will be blogging about this very interesting caveat soon.

The Bigger, Better Google Analytics

Google has recently introduced a redesigned beta version of its analytics software, touting it as an improvement that takes the application to the "next level," making visitor information more accessible and organized for webmasters than before.

While it seems to do everything short of show you the users' IP addresses, I do have one thing I don't like - again, it's the graph. It seems to waste space, and I don't like the fact that it has to be at least 2 months.

Also, what's the deal with the time intervals always being a day behind? If I'm going to use analytics software that is able to track information in real time, as GA seems to be able to do, I want it to show, by default, today's information.

That aside, I think it is definitely an improvement. The flexibility of the design and layout is now mirroring the flexibility of other Google applications, as well as the new iGoogle.

One of the best improvements is the improved accessibility of information about referring sources. The information was obscured before within the Marketing reports, but now there is an entire sub-section dedicated to "Traffic Sources." It's basically the same information, just organized differently.

More soon; now I must break for the season finale of Heroes. Sylar must die!

A few words about the new Google Analytics Beta Interface

I have to say that I am impressed with the overall functionality that Google has added with its new version of the Google Analytics interface, but it will certainly take me a while to warm up to it. It is definitely an improvement over the old interface, mostly because the new version better reflects the features that make other Google software good.


The only thing I really didn't like was the fact that the graph (pictured above) seems like it must show at least a month of data, no matter if you tell it to show only a week or a few days. Basically, it takes up the entire width of the screen, which makes it seem like they are devoting an awful lot of valuable screen real estate to the graph. It seems like they could have made it a quarter-screen module, and let you see another piece of info at the top of the screen. But anyway, it's annoying to me mainly because my blog has only been running for two weeks, so the first three weeks or so are zeros. Not a huge deal.

The best thing about the new beta is the added flexibility it grants the user. The user is able to add modules to the Dashboard easily, drag and drop them on the screen, and do other things that are reminiscent of the Google Home Page (oh yeah... it's called iGoogle, now that they admit it's a portal).

More commentary will come when I have time to write a proper post. I just wanted to get some words out there before dinner.