Search Engines do not like ranking report software. Period.

In the past, some search engines allowed an API access key to be used for ranking report software, and it can still be utilized today. Without utilizing the API key for the reports, you could be blocked from accessing the search engine. Software-automated queries drain resources, bandwidth, and inflates ad impressions, which is used to compute quality score for Pay-per-Click Ads. In response, Google is particularly aggressive about blocking repeated queries from the same IP address. Google would rather keep advertisers happy then overly aggressive SEO’s who check their rankings incessantly.

Personalized Search

With the advent of creating accounts at the search engines, personal search histories have been accumulated. When AOL published only a few random search histories, I doubt they felt that any one of those anonymous searchers could be identified, yet some were.

Personalized search is important to the search engines for many ways, not the least of which is personalized advertising that can be crafted solely for you, based on your preferences, search history and associated accounts.

Personalization will affect search results. After all, the search engines are attempting to provide the best, most relevant results to the searcher, and using their search history will enable the engine to adjust the results as necessary to create that personal relevance.

I expect this to continue to grow, as the line of privacy and advertising becomes increasingly blurred. Many people choose to give up privacy in order to receive more relevant advertising, and do not see the risks.
As a result, the rankings you see may differ from your neighbor, simply based on your past search and click-through behavior.

Google’s Promote Results

Google’s search results instituted a feature recently, called promote results.
It’s simple. I you like one result over another, simply promote the result. Of course, many webmasters see this as a means to affect rankings. Sorry, but no. If it does, it is on a very minute scale. Anything that can be manipulated by people on a large scale tends to hold little value.

If anything I have seen this used very effectively by marketing managers that are able to go into their bosses’ computer and promote their website for specific search terms. That way, to the boss, they are always #1, and he leaves them alone, and stops demanding to know why the website is not ranking first.
Tricky, but effective.

Multiple Search Engine DataCenters

Each search engine has data centers located all over the country and all over the world. Even in one office, different computers may hit a different datacenter. Data centers are consistently being updated, and it is very easy to see different results, usually only within a few rankings, from a search of different data centers.

The API Access

With the API key, the search engine could direct the automated queries to a specific datacenter. However, it was immediately apparent that the datacenter was out of sync with the live results. We liked to joke that the datacenter for rankings queries was out-of-date and hidden in a forgotten closet.
Without an API Key, you would be likely to see this:

Either way, it was more accurate for a client to simply open a browser and search for words and rankings manually. The results are much more accurate. Having a company run a rankings report, save it to PDF, and then send by email, results in a report that is outdated before it was begun.

Regional Weighting

A New Yorker searching for the term “Zoo” on Google is going to get results that show the Bronx Zoo as being the most relevant result. A Google searcher in Southern California will see the San Diego Zoo as number 1. Regional searches are being weighted and slowly implemented. Obviously, this doesn’t work with many terms, as they are world-wide in scope.

However, Google has recently, within the past few years, placed a heavy emphasis on local results, maps and business listings. Offering searchers local based results creates more advertising inventory, and also connects users to locally-based providers. Intentional or not, Google is turning the world market back into a local market. Locally-based searches provide a more relevant result to a local searcher.

Social Network

A friend of mine was searching Google for analytic information, and he saw a result from my blog in the first page of results. While I’d love to thin that I earned that spot on the first page with my brilliant analytics writing, it was actually because I was in his social circle, and the results were presented because of the Social Circle Beta in Google. The reason that page was in the results he was logged into Google, had a Google Social Profile, and Google was recommending articles as a result of our social profiles being linked.

In addition to the Social results in the search results, there are news article suggestions and book suggestions rounding out the bottom of the first page of results. The search results page is becoming a very busy place, and also a very personalized space. As searchers start to link social profiles, ecommerce profiles, regional preferences, the search results are going to reflect more of a personal nature, and be nearly unique to each searcher.

Where is this Heading?

Continual changes like this Social Profile Suggestion Beta program show the direction that a search engine like Google is heading. Google is integrating social recommendations, multimedia, personalization and regionalization as a way of customizing search results specific to a person. The more information you provide to Google through your account, the more Google can and will customize your search results.

The days of gaining the #1 ranking in Google, and knowing that everyone searching will see that #1 ranking are over. Rankings are the “sugar high” of marketing, but now it’s time get down to the main course and start measuring better things . . . .

Many people point to the bounce rate in Google Analytics and assume that those who bounced are worthless visitors. This is not the case.

Before I explain why, I want to say that I have changed the GA code so that Bounce Rate is calculated from those who spent less than 10 seconds on the site, not those who viewed one page, which is the default. The reason I did this is that many of my sites are blogs or are using blogging extensively. If a visitor enters on a category page, they can spend up to 10 minutes reading posts, yet the default GA code only sees one page viewed, and says that they bounced.

If you would like to use this bounce rate, you need setTimeout, and here the code and where to place it:

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-xxxxx-x”);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
setTimeout(‘pageTracker._trackEvent(\’NoBounce\’, \’NoBounce\’, \’Over 10 seconds\’)',10000);

Now, why are visitors who bounce not worthless? Simple, GA seems to be calculating bounces off of the most recent visit. This does not mean that the visitors have not spent time on your site before. Here is a screen shot of the Visitor Loyalty report, segmented by those who bounced.

(click to enlarge)

You can see that although the majority (93.5%) of visits were the 1st time to the site, around 6.5% of visitors were returning, some of them up to 9 – 14 times.

This means that these returning visitors liked what was offered on the site enough to come back, but then why did they bounce?

I believe that many of the Loyalty Bounces are looking to copy URL’s to send to other people. Yes, that may sound like wishful thinking, but when I go back to a site and leave immediately, it is usually for that very reason. Another reason may be to verify some piece of information. Every case is different, which is why Custom Segments are so important for your analytics.

To see this in action, you will need to create a custom segment by clicking on Advanced Segments in the left hand navigation of GA. Originally I used Metrics-Site Usage-Bounces with the Condition Greater than or equal to, and the Value as 1. This gave me the bounce rate of the site. Then I created another segment to combine bounce rate and returning visitors;

(click to enlarge)

Dimensions – Visitors – Visitor Type – Matches Exactly – Returning Visitors

Metrics – Site Usage – Bounces – Greater than or equal to – 1

There you have it. You created a custom segment, and you can see what I call a Loyalty Bounce.

Update: When I applied this to another of my sites, I believed it confirmed my suspicions about why people are returning to the site, then bouncing. The Top Landing Pages report segmented by Loyalty Bounces was very similar to the Top Content report for all visitors. The pages that are most popular on my site are the ones giving me the Loyalty Bounce.

So a visitor that bounces is not always a bad thing. They may be spreading links.

I know that there are a lot of people who are wondering if they should make the switch to Google Analytics, and I would say, yes. I was one of those people for a long time. I used Clicktracks (now Lyris) since the day I started analytics, and always resisted GA. It has only been within the last few months that I have really started to use GA extensively, and not only that, to like it.

Google does bother me a little bit with the amount of information that it has on the millions of people using it. Giving Google access to my analytics only increases its knowledge, and we all know that knowledge equals power. This ties in with Matt’s recent post on the failure of search engines, the bigger and more powerful the search engine (Google), the more we have to design and analyze for that engine. This can take away somewhat from the user experience and the conversion of those users.

In spite of all that, Google has given us a very powerful tool to analyze our visitors; and they gave it to us free.

Let’s take a look at some of the competition out there first.

Webtrends can cost upwards of $20,000 just for the first year. That buys you a massive amount of installation work, more graphs than you can graph, but not much actionable data. I have said that Webtrends is like a bodybuilder on steroids, it’s big and muscular, but it ain’t got no balls.

I have used Webtrends, but I found that it was too big and bulky, and I wasn’t able to really do my job and find actionable insights. I know there are people out there who will say that it is my fault, but it’s not. In my experience, Webtrends (and most other analytics programs) are implemented and run by IT or marketing people. Neither of which are web analysts.

I loved using Clicktracks. Because it uses log files, one of the major advantages is the ability to apply anything to historical data. That means I could set up a goal, and see the data for that goal for any time period I chose, even if that time period was before I set up the goal. Whereas in GA, you can only see the data from the time you implemented the goal. The only problem with log file based analytics is the slowness. A site with more than around 25,000 visitors really gets bogged down, and if you go over a couple hundred thousand, you might as well take the day off while it calculates the data.

Clicktracks is fantastic at segmentation. It is one of the basic features of CT and it makes it very easy to create custom segments, and to combine them any way you want. (Without segmentation, analytics is useless.)

GA is much easier to install, and is very easy to use. It does not look near as impressive as Webtrends, or have the ability to compute historical data like Clicktracks. However, there are a number of reasons I believe it is better.

First, it’s free. You can’t get a better price than that. Many people think that because it is free, it isn’t worth it, but they are wrong. Google wants your site to perform well. GA is their way of helping you make your site better, so that they have better quality sites in their index. Kind of selfish on their part, but it works.

Second, Avinash Kaushik is their Analytics Evangelist. Avinash helps Google to “…shape the vision, direction and features of 13 different Google tools that provide data to customers.” This is one of the biggest reasons for GA’s success, it has top web analysts working to make it usable and actionable.

Thirdly, because they give out the API, anybody can create code for Google Analytics, and there are some fantastic scripts and add-ons out there. Here are a few that I use;

Enhanced Google Analytics - This was a script for Greasemonkey, but was later made into a FireFox add-on. This puts a little button on the top of the Referral report and Keyword report that show you the “unusual” traffic. It graphs out sites/keywords that brought 50% more traffic over the last 7 days, and those that had 50% less traffic over the last 7 days.

The next is Better Google Analytics. This is a collection of scripts that give you many, many options. Here are a few of the cool toys it adds to GA;

Adds search function to each search term in the Keyword Report.

Converts percent values to absolute values in tables.

Allows you to go full screen and minimize the left hand navigation.

Links to Google Insights and allows you to check keyword terms and perform a Google Insight search.

Social Media metrics from Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and more.

These are only a few of the scripts that are available in the Better Google Analytics Add-on, and there are even more out there. With so many new scripts being written for GA, it will always have more to offer, and most of those offerings will be what we analysts need, not what some giant corporation thinks we need.

I am by no means a Googlephile. As I said earlier, sometimes I have to put on my tin foil hat before I start searching the web. However, Google has given us the tools to make our sites better, the code to make our own scripts for Google Analytics, and they have done it for free.

How can anyone compete with that?

If you think your analytics program is the best, tell me and let me know why.

Update:
Avinash has reminded me that by using Custom Segments in GA, you can create a goal segment and see basic historical data. I have used this, but my point was that even by doing this, there is still no historical data in the Goal Reports.

Also I have used Omniture Site Catalyst (another massive analytics program), and it does not even have segmentation abilities, and as I said above, without segmentation, analytics is useless. So I guess you can take from that what I think about Site Catalyst.

Part 1: Analytics: Is it Fun or Easy?
Part 2: Ambiguity is Opportunity

Part 3: Segmentation Finds Motivation

Why Segmentation?
Segmentation is the principle that people come to the website for many different reasons, they enter at many different points, the see different pages, and are looking for many different pieces of information. Basically – you can’t treat all of your visitors the same way, neither in the marketing and content nor in the measurement and analysis. As John Marshall of Market Motive (who also developed ClickTracks) famously said, “people are not cattle.” Therefore, we should not treat them as such.

Aggregate = Inaccurate
Funny enough, when we build reports on aggregate data (page views, visitors, top 10 pages, top 10 search terms) we are doing exactly that. Aggregate numbers view people as a herd of cattle, all with the same motives, behaviors and views. Segmentation allows a deeper examination of the website and the different types of people and their motivations.

Analytics finds Behavior based on Expectation
By simply segmenting visitors based on their keyword searches, motivation can be determined. By segmenting those same visitors based on goal completion and the entry point of the site, you can begin to compare behavior alongside the motivation. Comparisons allow new ways to interpret the data, and find areas of the website that need immediate improvement. Not all products can be sold the same, so why measure them the same?

Context, Context, Context
Building context is a primary step in developing new ways of viewing data. The more we know about a group of visitors, the more we can understand them. By viewing people as the complex organisms that they are, we can begin to develop the site around them and make changes suited to best market to that segment. This isn’t a difficult step; it’s actually very simple by using the 3C’s of Analytics: Context, Contrast & Comparison.

Context is simply building multiple data points into a specific view of activity. Essentially, the more data points involved, the better the story becomes. Adding content to a segment tells a particular story about a specific group of people and what they encountered on your website.

Start building context by segmenting visitors based on the acquisition method and their motivation. Contrast that with the average, which Google Analytics does by default, in order to see how this segment performs compared to the site average. Then, compare to other segments in order to find significant differences. Comparison allows the analyst to find specific segments that are performing at extremely high or low levels. This is the first method of a direct evaluation for the website.

Test poorly performing segments, and grow the higher segments. Compare segments and keyword rankings to be sure that you are targeting the right words. Get a clear picture on exit rates by finding the segment that is contributing the most. Comparing and contrasting segments is the basis of learning, and it is the easiest method to find opportunities for growth in your marketing. You may find that your best ranking keywords, the ones bringing in the most traffic, are also the worst performing group. Only segmenting and building context will allow that exploration.

More Data Points = More Understanding
The simple conclusion to this type of analysis is that there must be multiple conversion goals. One conversion rate doesn’t tell the story of who came to the website, what they expected to see, what they did see, and how they reacted to it. Multiple conversion rates; based on keywords, actions, product types, price points, keyword rankings, navigation methods are just a few of the ways that one can build conversion segments.

Action-based conversions, such as video views, navigation tendencies, point to the behavior of people within a segment and can provide insight as to how people respond when they interact with elements within the website. Understanding the actions and how they affect conversions will provide direction for continued development of interactions within the website.

Part 4: Compared to What?

Related Articles:
Segmentation: Analytics According to Captain Kirk
Social Media Under the Microscope
Multi-Channel Marketing and Self-Fulfilling Prophesy

Part 1: Is Analytics Fun or Easy

Part 2: Ambiguity is Opportunity

Hamster-Wheel Analytics
From Part 1, setting goals is the first and only place to start when developing an analytics strategy. Otherwise, the analyst or the website marketing manager will spend the majority of their time developing reports with numbers on them. The rest of their month will then be spent justifying why those numbers are higher or lower than the previous month. Without goals, there is simply no direction.

Large numbers become the goal, and people become enamored with large numbers, even though everyone knows that more visitors is not necessarily the goal. Qualified visitors are the goal . This is hamster-wheel analytics. The endless cycle of doing the same thing and going nowhere.

Why Do You Have a Website?
Clearly stated goals are the first place to start. I find that the best answers are the clearest and simplest. Points are awarded for brevity. Two word answers are clear, and everyone involved in the website should have these printed out and displayed clearly, as they are your new measuring stick – The measurement upon which every decision about the website should and must be based.

No guesswork, measurement.
1. What is the purpose of the website?
2. What is the company goal for the website?
3. What do we want visitors to do?

One of the best goal statements I heard from a company was the simplest. Make Money, Sell Shoes. Simple, to the point and a clear measuring stick from which to base every decision. From design, analytics, social media strategy and continued development, the questions are simple – “Does it make us money? Does it sell shoes? From that, a successful website marketing strategy is born.

Into Action
How these are answered provide the framework for building measurement outcomes for the website. By now, I am hoping that the numbers developed for typical reports would start to seem like foreign concepts. How can you measure company goals and visitor expectations by unique visitors and page views? Hint: you can’t.

Clearly, we need to think differently about our concept of analytics.
This concept was made clear when I read Iconoclast. The book features examples of those individuals who went against common thinking and the wisdom of crowds. Gregory Berns, a neuroscience attempts to explain how iconoclasts think differently, respond differently and can even learn things differently.

Pursue Ambiguity
In one of the sections he discusses the concept of Bayesian updating. Most people learn by entering a subject with a preconceived idea of what they need or want and then find the information that develops and reinforces those ideas.

People tend to avoid ambiguity – as ambiguity is traced to a fear of the unknown. People desire some semblance of structure, which is why it is easy to cling to the concepts of unique visitors, hits, page views, time on site, etc. However, when the goal is to increase sales and get to the “why” of analytics, it requires foraging into the unknown and making guesses. Some of those forages may not yield substantial information; most will reward the analyst with a gold mine of information.

The most important trait is the ability to learn and respond as new information is found.

Bayesian updating is important to an analyst as it is the process of using new information to update probability. As Berns writes, “The key reappraisal for ambiguous circumstances is to view ambiguity as an opportunity for gaining knowledge.”

Once the goals have been established and the analyst has been freed from the shackles of mundane reporting, the process can be viewed as a blank slate. Start from the company goals to determine how the website is doing.

The very first report I would recommend building is an acquisition report based on motivation. Who came to the website and why? Segmentation is the principle that answers motivation.

Part 3: Segmentation Finds Motivation

Related Articles:
Why are Analytics So Difficult? Can you appreciate the irony of this title?
Analytics 1.0: A case of Velliety
The Lost Art of Sales

Multi-channel merchants suffer from a self-fulfilling prophesy, and it is completely understood. On the surface, it makes perfect sense. For those that slept through Psychology 101, Self-fulfilling prophesy is when you tell yourself that you are no good at math, you keep telling yourself this and as a result, don’t study as much, give up easily, so that when you finally take the test, you score low, and you mark it up to the reason: “I’m not good at math”.

Multi-Channel marketers tend to overstate the reach of catalog sales, they see that catalog makes up 90% of sales, and the website makes up 10% of sales. So, they reason, the catalog will continue to have most of the marketing resources, and website will have a small amount of resources, because it doesn’t perform as well as the catalog.

Obviously, I have a number of responses to that proposition.

1. Is there a sales tracking mechanism in place that covers each channel?
   Many catalog retailers that I’ve talked with don’t have sales tracking on the website. It is an assumption based on a number of factors, but mainly their gut instinct and initial sales numbers, which can easily reinforce that thinking.

   It’s not a wrong assumption at its face value, but it must be explored more in depth. Each channel must have a sales tracking mechanism in place in order to know for sure which channel accounts for a percentage of sales.

2. Have the basics of search engine optimization been implemented on your online catalog?
   If not, then of course, your printed catalog will perform better than the website. If search engine optimization has not been performed on your website, then the average amount of search traffic is about 20% of total visits, and 80% of that 20% is most likely branded searches for the company.

   Search Engine Optimization reverses the traffic sources from your website. It takes general product searches that result in visitors and increases it to 60%-80% of your traffic. The branded searches and other means of accessing the website actually slightly increase their levels, but get dwarfed by the incoming search traffic very quickly.

   Because of the increase of search traffic, sales from the website will increase, as should sales from every channel; call centers, catalog requests, and the catalog itself. This is where tracking is critical. Knowing the source of growth and action is vital to continuing marketing efforts.

3. The Internet is not a single channel.
   The internet is a broad term covering significant channels and it has changed the very definition of multi-channel to include: Organic Search, Paid Search, Shopping Search Engines, Email, Banner/Networks, Social Media, Online Public Relations, Link Building, Blogging, and more every day . . . .

   Tracking is vital again in order to understand the value of each channel. While some channels are more effective in providing a direct response for sales, others are just as vital in providing an accurate story of your company and product. Others are important simply for visibility, others for buzz.

4. The channel determines the motivation, expectation and the qualification level of the visitor.
   Segmenting the channel is important because the source determines the motivation and the behavior of the visitor. To treat all visitors to your website the same, regardless of HOW they got there is to ignore the individuality of the consumer and the method of which you acquired them.

   Expectations of the visitor are everything; understand what they expect and tuning the message to them is vital to convert them into a long-term customer. I am surprised by the amount of companies that do not start with the simplest of segmentation analytics just by channel. There is an immense amount of intelligence to be gathered, but just starting with the basics will provide a significant reward.

5. To quote a famous stand-up philosopher, the website gets no respect.
   I remember talking with one multi-channel manager, who took the website to an amazing 70% of sales revenue for the company. But as he asked me – “Do you think I can get even 50% of the marketing budget for the best performing channel in company history?” Here is the case where the tracking, search optimization, and marketing were all in place and humming along, but the majority of the budget still goes to print. Maybe because “it’s the way it has always been done”? I’m not sure, but history will have to answer that one.

   My guess? Print is tangible, and it wins awards, but the web will win sales.

Related Articles:
Make Your Website Content Explode
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization
Analytics 1.0: A Case of Velleity

I’ve read two books in the past few weeks, and have been amazed at the difference they make in my understanding of two subjects: Grammar and Algebra. I wish I have had access to these two books while in school, as I know they would have made an impact on my learning and understanding of the subject matter.

I hate x
I used to be really good in Math, until I met Algebra. Then I learned to hate x with a passion. I never understood why endless equations were so important, or how it would affect my life – why are we learning all of this? If I want to find out how many cans of paint are necessary to paint a room, I’ll buy four cans and return one if I don’t use it. That’s what Home Depot is for.

Traditionally, algebra classes are simply about performing harder and more complex equations, and I remember my teachers getting frustrated with me, as I simply did not understand algebra. I think the main reason is that I didn’t understand “why.” Why are we doing this – what does it prove? What am I learning?

Learning the “Why”
Enter a friend’s recommendation of a book, “Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea.” And now I have to ask myself – why don’t we start math classes with history lessons? Why do we not learn about why these equations were done in the first place and what they were meant to prove? This book showed the history of zero as mathematicians, philosophers and scientists either embraced or refused it.

More than Math
The author showed how zero challenged all areas of life; mathematics, theology, science, philosophy – all affected by the principle of zero. And so was my conception of algebra. By learning the history and context of this amazing subject, and its influence throughout history in so many disciplines, I learned to appreciate what I once hated, the infamous x.

Language
The second book was a fascinating romp into the formation of the English language – Bill Bryson’s “The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way.” Now, I love English and language studies to begin with, as that has aligned perfectly with understanding search marketing and semantics algorithms, but this book (again) showed the historical; changes and influences upon our modern language.

I learned to never split an infinitive.
I wish I had been armed with some of this knowledge as I defended my papers from the dreaded grammar errors that seemed to dominate my purpose. Knowing that the “rule” to never split infinitive was the result of an 18th century bishop who decided that English should be like Latin. Never mind that English is not a product of Latin, as are Spanish, French or Italian, and is it impossible to split an infinitive in Latin because the verb and infinitive are hopelessly joined together in the same word. (to speak = hablar. You can’t split the Spanish word “hablar” because the construction of the verb and infinitive are one and the same)

Yet, somehow, the romance of making the English language reflect the Latin language because of the love affair with the enlightened Greeks and Romans stuck, and now fourth graders have to beaten into submission to comply with random phrasing that is nothing like our normal verbal patterns of speech.
If you need an example, try rephrasing the heading of this section, “I learned to never split an infinitive.” In a way that sounds natural. You can’t do it without sounding like a pretentious grammar stickler.

If I had known these things in my youth, I could have argued up another letter grade – or at least befuddled the teacher to an extent that she may question the roots of grammar for the reminder of her life. At the very least I would have been satisfied to be an irritating pest to the teachers that constantly reinforced ancient writing rules that aren’t reflected in our natural speech patterns.

Bringing it together: Context Builds Understanding
In all areas, knowing the historical accomplishments and milestones always promotes understanding. Our modern educational system is not based on presenting this context. I would think that all classes should start with a history lesson of the factors that have shaped the modern understanding – how we got here. I do this in my marketing classes. It provides context as to why there is such crappy advice about search engine optimization on the internet.

Context determines everything. The same content can be presented on two different websites. However, the context of how that content is presented will cause two very distinct reactions. The readability and accessibility of one will usually trump the other, simply based on the context in which it was presented.

Understanding how information works online and how it is viewed by both humans and machines helps to create an understanding of the online marketing world. Understanding the history of online communications can help a marketer realize that social media will last much longer than any campaign, and that he had better be ready for the long-term investment, rather than a short term campaign.

Simply focusing on one part of marketing, say search engine optimization, (or in other words, the equations), without including other factors of usability, analytics, design, marketing and customer testing is neglecting a serious part of a successful campaign. Everything must be done in context in order to fully reach a targeted audience effectively and build a long-term association.

Related Articles:
The Difference Between the What and the Why
Content vs Creative
Search and Sushi

Your analyst is the most dangerous person in your company.

A good analyst is one that cannot be trusted to follow the company line. They probably always ask for proof or data to back up claims, they challenge long-standing assumptions, and they don’t settle for status quo. That’s their job.

A company needs to be questioned to grow. Questioning is the only way that companies can get past lock-step obedience to notions. Many companies are held captive to beliefs about their website and how effective it can be. Unfortunately, they don’t have someone so subversive as an analyst that will ask the right questions which will result in increased profitability.

The Best Tool for Success
Questioning is an untapped fundamental human resource. Cultural Critic Neil Postman wrote that “question–asking is the single greatest tool human beings have. Is it not curious, then, that the most significant intellectual skill available to human beings is not taught in school?”
Precisely.
Precisely because question-asking is subversive. Teach someone to ask questions, and they will invariably question the teacher.

Question-asking is not comfortable. Question-asking can quiet any business meeting. What tends to be interpreted as rebellion is usually someone interested to know the “why,” and couldn’t there be a better way? Or simply, “why?” However, in our society we have frowned upon those that ask questions, and many employees feel that their position would be threatened if they were to question processes, decisions and memos. Unfortunately, someone needs to question if success is to be attained.

Can You Answer these Two Questions?

1. Why do you have a website?
2. What do you want visitors to do on your website?

A good analyst will hold a company hostage to the answers of these questions and ensure that the website strategy is able to meet these goals. Unless these goals are specific and stated, there is no purpose to having an analyst. Without clear goals, you are simply reporting information, month-to-month, and trying to justify small changes in visitor numbers. Analysts evaluate everything in order meet the goals of the company, and ensure that every page of the site is evaluated to ensure that these goals are in sync with the design, copywriting, layout and call to action that will support those goals.

This is the role of the web analyst. Questioning long-standing beliefs about the behavior of the website visitors and examine them under the scrutiny of neutral data. Finding the things that don’t work and constantly searching for the things that do work – by asking questions. Testing is done by asking questions, improving conversion rates accomplished by asking questions.

Socrates held that the unexamined life is not worth living. I believe that the unexamined website is not worth hosting.
So do something subversive and start questioning your strategy.

Related Articles:
Analytics 1.0 – A Case of Velleity
Marketing Without Metrics?
Analytics is Not a Passive Activity

What is Engagement?

At the recent eMetrics conference in Toronto, Canada, I heard a number of people talk about site engagement. They all seemed to have their own idea of what it was exactly, but for the most part, it all had to do with time on site and page views.

Time on Site/Page Views Engagement

I heard the Director of Customer Intelligence and Analytics for a certain major software manufacturer say that they have such a successful site because people spend so much time on it, and look at so many different pages. I have my own idea about what that is called, and it is not engagement.

I think people spend a lot of time on his website because they have purchased the new operating system, are having problems with it, so they go on the the site to find help. They look at so many pages because they can’t find what they need.

Is that engagement?

Are visitors really engaged with your website when they are unhappy?

As an analyst it is always very tempting, and easy, to tell a client, “Look at that, people who searched for this term spent 10 minutes on our site, and looked at 20 pages. They are really being engaged on SuchAndSuch.com.” But let’s break that down. 20 pages in 10 minutes. That is an average of 30 seconds on each page. That is a decent amount of time on a page, but it’s a lot of pages. Did they find what they were looking for? Are they being engaged?

If this an e-commerce site, did it result in a sale? If they didn’t buy, they didn’t find what they were looking for. Were they engaged?

Successful Visitor Engagement

Now let’s look at another scenario. The average visit to a site lasts 10 minutes, and has 2 page views. That is 5 minutes on a page. They are obviously either reading, or watching video.

Who is more engaged? 20 seconds on a page, or 5 minutes on a page.

Now for the big question. If a visitor to your site is unhappy, and leaves unhappy, were they engaged?

I believe that engagement is something more than page views and time on site. It is deeper than that. It comes down to whether or not a customer on your site is successful , and found what they came for.

If a visitor is successful, they have been engaged.

If they are happy when they leave, they have been engaged.

If they found information they needed, they were engaged.

If they bought something, they most likely were engaged.

Measuring Visitor Success

Now you’re asking “Well, how do I measure engagement now?” That’s a good question. There are many companies out there offering to tell you if visitors are happy and engaged. Usually by using annoying pop-up surveys which defeat the purpose of wanting people to be happy.

You need to figure out what the purpose of your site is, then find out how you can make people happy. After that, you can start to find out whether or not people are engaged.

Are you still measuring engagement as time on site and page views? Or are you doing something new, exciting and different?

The ROI of Search Engine Optimization, Usability, and Analytics.
I’ll tell you why I love what I do. I love helping other people be successful in their business. And this industry provides the tools for making an impact. Right now.

SEO, Usability, and Analytics are the best investment that you can make for your online business. If you have never looked at optimization, usability, or ‘real’ analytics research for your website, then you have missed a wide-open opportunity to get the most out of your website.

These three factors have always resulted in success on many websites, and when combined, they are even more powerful in their results. Even websites that experience at least one of the three: search engine optimization, usability, or analytics; will experience a drastic change for the better, as each one provides significant direction to improve your website.

Regardless of the purpose of your website, selling stuff, getting leads, or page views, utilizing these three methods of website improvement will pay off far beyond your investment in a specialist, in-house training, attending a seminar, or however you choose to get it done.

Analytics = 900% to 1200% ROI
Forrester research showed that a company that brings in a dedicated analyst can result in a 900% – 1200% ROI. That’s something to get excited about. In my experience, that return can usually be experienced within the first few months of implementing the changes that the analyst recommends. The biggest problems will be identified first.

Usability = 80% to 200% increase in desired metrics.
According to Jacob Nielson, usability improvements six years ago averaged 135%, now it has fallen to 83%, (it’s higher when you look at specific metrics). The main reason is that designs are getting better than what we were accustomed to viewing in the 1990’s. However, from personal experience in usability, website sales in ecommerce sites can improve dramatically simply with a usability review. I have worked on some projects were the ROI of the usability changes was over 4000%. It’s amazing some of the obstacles that are placed in front of users, but never tested or reviewed with live subjects.

SEO = (the wildcard) 40% to 4000+%
Search Engine Optimization is the real wildcard. Some sites respond very quickly to simple on-page optimization techniques an there is an immediate change to improved rankings and increased visitors. Other sites require more attention and additional off-site or on-site optimization help, or even a full marketing campaign in order to see results. It really is determined on a case-by-case basis. However, you can’t get around the fact that a simple optimization project on a website can result in increased rankings.

The full impact of SEO cannot be fully measured, as factors such as “the long tail,” ranking positions, and tracking systems make it very hard to calculate the true return from an SEO campaign. Not the least of which is that SEO campaigns have grown far beyond what they were in the past. Simply placing keywords in the title tags is not the primary concern of the Professional SEO. Search Engine Optimization has become more more integrated into the entire marketing process, which makes ROI in this area very hard to nail down as a general rule-of-thumb for all types of websites.

Combined Campaign = Exponential Results
Amazingly, when any of these disciplines are coupled together, the ROI factor increases. SEO combined with Usability provides amazing results and will usually result in a change of website navigation and architecture. Usability combined with Analytics will usually produce SEO-type recommendations and improvements, along with significant awareness of the visitor and their tendencies on the website. You may not like what you learn about people’s opinion of the site after that type of review. However, implementing those changes will provide a dramatic return on the investment.

After attending last week’s Search Engine Strategies, I saw first-hand that the (possible?) recession, while on some people’s minds, is not going to stop business, and it won’t stop online marketing. Savvy marketers will take this opportunity to improve the customer experience and get the most out of their websites.

This is why I love what I do, and why I focus on these three areas first when marketing websites. Most companies want to run headlong into the social media game, when they have not even taken the first steps to get the most out of their own websites.

Improve the experience at home first, and then invite others over.

Related Articles:
Marketing without Metrics?
Destructive User Testing with Rayco
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization