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In-Page Analytics give Google Analytics Needed Visual Context

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:36:28 +0000

On friday, Google launched the Beta version of In-Page Analytics – a [free] visual aid that sits on top of your website to give context to the data that regular Google Analytics provides. Google Analytics is a great tool for webmasters to track traffic an monitor how users are interacting with the site.

How Do I Get To In-Page Analytics?

To get to the new feature, Log-In to your Google Analytics account, select the website you wish to view analytics for (in this case I have chosen Captico.com), click “Content” in the left hand navigation, and then click “In-Page Analytics“. It takes a minute to load, but once it does, your website’s home page pops up with percentages all over it.

Features of In-Page Analytics

A cool thing about In-Page Analytics is that it can be viewed while browsing your site. The percentage bubbles shown all across Captico.com show what percentage of clicks each link on the page has generated. Hovering over a link with your mouse gives more information. If a bubble is dotted, it means that there is more than one link going to the same page, so those numbers will be the same. In-Page Analytics cannot currently distinguish between two differently located links on a page linking to the same destination, but they hope to add that feature in the future.

Just as regular Analytics can be broken down to show different sources of traffic and how those users interact with your site, In-Page offers visualization of advanced segments as well – broken down by keyword or source for example – allowing you to discover how different market segments navigate your website.

If you are logged into your sites analytics account, you can also view In-Page Analytics outside of the Google Analytics environment. Simply visiting your website in your browser opens up the same data:

What Is In-Page Analytics?

Google says: “In-Page Analytics is a report available from the Content section of your Google Analytics account. It enables you to visually analyze your website pages in order to assess how users interact with those pages, and helps you understand the answers to questions such as:

Is my page layout optimal for what I want users to accomplish on the page?
Are my users seeing the content I want them to see?
Are my users finding what they’re looking for on the page?
Are my calls to action motivating or visible enough?
Which links are users clicking?

Beginning with your site’s homepage, you’ll see which links users clicked. In-Page Analytics can be navigated much like your site — that is, you can click on any link from your homepage. Once the new page is loaded, the corresponding data will be shown for that page.

Additional benefits of this report include:
support for image maps, where each linkable part within a single image can be tagged independently
support for advanced segments
availability of page-level information
complete list of outgoing links”

Trevor Claiborne, a product marketing manager, warns users “In-Page Analytics is still in beta, so some things in the report may not work perfectly yet.” Also, “In-Page is currently available for all English users of Google Analytics.”

Below is a video walkthrough of In-Page Analytics from the folks at Google…

A Tip for Better Google Local Business Optimization

Corrie Davidson — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:45:55 +0000

Clients often ask us, “What simple task can I do myself to improve my search engine results’ ranking and start appearing ahead of my competitors?” This Do-It-Yourself trick will get you moving in the right direction.

1. Go to Google Maps

2. Type in your field of industry and zip code and click “Search Maps” (For this example I have typed in HVAC and 21146 for Severna Park, MD) If I worked in HVAC in MD, I would now be looking at a list of my competitors on the left and a map of their locations on my right.

3. Click on a competitor. (In this example I clicked on “All State Plumbing Heating”) An info box appears over the location on the map where that company resides.

4. Click “more info” located below their name and to the right of “Write a Review” in the info box. You are now taken to what amounts to a free website from Google for this company. [Be sure you have YOUR company listed like this!]

5. If you scroll down you will find a section entitled “More About This Place”. Here you see links where this company is listed on the web. The more links, the higher their ranking on Google. By clicking “More” I can view all of the relevant links that Google has found on the web about All State Plumbing Heating. This is your gold mine. You want to make sure that your company is listed on all of the sites your competitors are. Sometimes its as simple as claiming a listing on a public directory or submitting your company to one. Other times, asking your customers to review your services on certain websites will give you the boost you need. (In this example, HVAC companies who want to better compete with All State Plumbing Heating will want to get listed on:

If this sounds like too much for you to be hassled with, don’t worry! Captico actually does all of this and more for our clients. Feel free to give us a call or stop by for a free consultation!

Weekly Web Redux: Design & Advertising Tips

Todd Fisher — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:25:25 +0000

In this series of blog posts, I’m going to summarize articles and tutorials I read during the week. If you don’t have the time to scour the web for blog posts about web related news, technology, and techniques, then come back here every week for a summary of my most interesting finds!

Email Newsletter Designs:

Summary of: Email Newsletters: Guidelines and Examples

Tell users why they should sign up (rewards, discounts, interesting news, etc).
Reward users for signing up (gift certificate, discount, access to limited information).
Create web versions of your newsletter for users to preview.
Simplified signup forms (don’t require too much).
3 things users look at: sender, subject line, the date.
Provide interesting subjects, well-written content, and make content relevant to your readers.
Have a call to action to get visitors back to your site.
KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid (I also like keep it stupid sexy)!
Attract attention using images, numbers and colors (plain text sucks).
Use layouts based on content type (newsletter, flyer, etc).
Use table of contents sparingly.
Don’t include advertisements in your newsletter.
Include links to unsubscribe without jamming it down their throats.
ABCDs- Always be collecting data. Use email marketing companies to track results of your newsletters.

Style Your Links:

Summary of: The Definitive Guide To Styling Web Links

Links styles to target: a:link, a:visited, a:hover, a:focus, a:active
Contrast your links with other text on the page (colors, bold, underline). Avoid making non-links from looking like links.
Use Title attribute.
Create button styles to emphasize “calls to action”.
Active Links (ones that have been clicked) styles illustrate that a new page is loading.
Padding on links increases area of click.
Use sprites to add icons to file links (pdfs, jpegs, etc…).
Use icons of recognizable external links and resources (rss, facebook, digg.com, etc…).
Avoid “click here”. Replace with descriptive text about title of where they are clicking to.
Main logo should always link to homepage.
Don’t open up new windows with target=”_blank”. Let users choose how to open links.
Use rel attribute to describe “relationship” to current page.

Sell advertising on your low traffic blog:
Summary of: Successful Strategies For Selling Ad Space On Low-Traffic Websites

Know thyself before selling thyself: why do people come to your blog, what pages are popular, what pages have the longest view times, what keywords are used to get to your site?
Use polls as much as possible (get your users involved for more data to give to potential advertisers).
How are other people talking about you outside of your site?
Find the advertisers:

Look for websites that link to yours that offer a product or service.
Visit commenter’s websites.
Use Google Adwords to surface ads. Contact advertisers in adwords directly.
Steal advertisers from competitors.
What companies “gel” with your content?

You have your list… contact those companies with an advertising package. Include the following:

Visitor interest.
Bounce rates, average time, and page views.
Monthly states (visitors, growth, etc…).
Track outbound links (don’t over promise results).
Keep your pitch personal to the company you are pitching.
Track conversions.

Convey the following to your advertisers:

Conversion rates (how many people are clicking on their ads).
Promotions offered on your site.
Keep advertisers informed of new advertisement types available.
Promotions for your advertisers (half price cpcs, etc…).
Ask your advertisers what they think.
Should you use an Ad-network or roll your own?
Rolling your own yields higher profits but requires more work.
Partner with other websites.
Try giving away ad spots for free.

Choose an ad-network based on your circumstances.
Don’t blindly accept ads.

Designing sites with AJAX:

Summary of: Developing Sites With AJAX: Design Challenges and Common Issues

When to use AJAX: adding large attachments, handling numerous small datasets, rating content, displaying constantly changing content.
Ajax should not break the web experience. Never rely solely on javascript. Your site should work without js.
Only request the content you want (don’t load an entire page with ajax). You can load partials / content wrappers conditionally. IE… only include the header and footer if the page is not requested via AJAX.
AJAX interactions need to be defined which requires states.
Use load indicators and progress bars for large requests.
Provide a way to cancel an AJAX Request.
Show errors when things go south.
Include back button functionality to allow going back to previous steps in your AJAX actions.
Make your AJAX accessible. Make everything available to screen readers.
Don’t ignore the keyboard for advanced users.
Highlight current field.
Clean interfaces are golden.
Don’t use AJAX when: handling sensitive information, loading content from another server.