Now if only we could get key sales and marketing folks to read this book and understand how much data is there for them to use

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity Avinash Kaushik

Web Analytics 2.0 is not a sequel to Kaushik’s first book Web Analytics: An Hour a Day.

The latter  was a hard core offering that covered all aspects of the subject.

2.0 is a more general book that covers a wide range of topics related to and around Web Analytics.

The coverage of Social Media and Mobile analytics is sparse and that’s my only gripe. Considering that both topics are quite hot and that Social Media has gained maturity it would have been helpful to have both these covered in depth. That said the book is pretty robust in its coverage of a wide mix of topics. The list of tools mentioned is also quite exhaustive.

Key Takeaways

· Paid Web Analytics providers are better than the free ones if you need advanced reporting. The other reason is that the paid tools integrate well with other allied offerings/tools. (A project that I’m working on validates both these points)

· Data needs to be actionable. No point collecting old data if the business cannot use it

· Keep an eye on the competition using Google Insights For Search(contains search keyword data on google.com only), Google Trends (contains broad web usage data), Compete, Hitwise. Also check Google Ad Planner and Quantacast since both use self reported data. Most analytics tools now allow you to benchmark against specific verticals.

· Use tools like page level/site level surveys to gather user feedback(kampyle, uservoice, opinionlab). The Voice of the Consumer is necessary to fill in the gaps

Now if only we could get key sales and marketing folks to read this book and understand how much data is there for them to use

Tools

Web Analytics: Omniture, WebTrends, CoreMetrics, Google Analytics

Mobile Analytics: Bango Analytics, mobilytics.net, percentmobile.com

Experimentation and Testing: Google Optmizer, Omniture Test and Target, Optimost, Sitespect

Voice of the Customer: 4Q, iPerceptions, ForeseeResults, Ethnio

Competitive Intelligence: Google Insights For Search, Google Trends, Compete, Hitwise, Technorati, Google Ad Planner, Quantacast

Analytics Tags Audit: SiteAudit(ObservePoint)

SEO gaps, Web Application Performance Management, more : Maxamine,  Coradiant

Page level/site level surveys to gather user feedback: Kampyle, Uservoice, Opinionlab

Usability: Ethnio, Usertesting

Analyze Actual Online Experiences: Tealeaf, Clicktale

Information Architecture: OptimalSort, Websort.net

Visual heat maps: Feng-gui.com, Crazyegg

Keyword Analysis: Google Adwords Tool, Wordtracker, KeywordSpy

Onsite Behavior Targeting Platforms: Audience Science, kefta, Netmining, BTBuckets(free)

Paid Search Tools: Marinsoftware, Kenshoo, ClickEquations

1. Mouseover displays the posting details

On mouseover of the posting on the listing page, you can now see the complete posting detail.

This way, as a user, you do not need to click on and open every posting. You can mousover all the listings on the listings page and look for the details of only the postings that interest you.

2. Arrows for easier navigation

In all classifieds portals, the user needs to click on a posting, click on the back button and then select the next posting.

In Droik, you don’t need to do this. There are arrows that take you to the next posting in ONE click.

Here’s how you do it.

a. Search for something. ‘car’ in this example. Droik returns all postings which have this term. Pic below. Click on the first posting.

b. The posting is displayed. Clicking on the arrow buttons, take you to the next posting and you do not need to return to your search criteria listing page

c. Droik also allows you to get to your first and last posting displayed. The pic below shows all he options.

3. All Postings Viewed During This Session

A lot of times I view some listings, say the job postings, during my visit and at the end want to get back to the ones I viewed, and not worry about the search selection or which sections I visited.

Droik resolves this problem with the ‘Postings Viewed’ link. This shows at two places. Above the search criteria and on the right side of all postings.

Clicking on Postings Viewed shows you the complete list of postings you visited during your session.

More new features? Check this space soon.

The tool is free for the first 100 pages (I think .. or is it 30 ?)

From the site:

SiteScan checks the following on websites with new tracking code (ga.js):

• Every Page Tagged with New Tracking Code
• Every Page Calling the pageTracker._trackPageview(); Method
• Every Page Declaring a Google Analytics Account
• No Old Tracking Code Found
• Query Parameters Check to Determine if a filter is Required
  

Limitations

SiteScan Does Not Scan or Complete the Following: 

1. Directories with more then 1000 files
2. Pages that are protected by a Robot.txt file (meaning that if your pages are not indexed by Google, they will not be scanned).
3. Pages that are password protected
4. Checkout Pages or any area of your website that requires a certain sequence of events or trigger
5. Non-standard GA Tracking Code (requires to be inserted as issued by Google Analytics)

Yes well it happens at times, things break.

However, thanks to wonderful Droikers like yourself, we learn about the issue and get our tech guys to fix it.

Please be as detailed as you can while mentioning the problem. Email us at feedback at droik dot com

Thanks,

The Droik Team.

<– Back to the Home Page

Here’s a step by step guide to how you can set a goal using Google Analytics.
Google Analytics allows you to set 4 goals per profile.
If you have more goals to set, set up a different profile and set the additional goals in that profile.

Steps:
1. Log in to your Google Analytics account and click Analytics Settings.
2. Find the profile for which you will be creating goals, and click Edit.

3. Select one of the 4 goal available for that particular profile and click on Edit.

4. Enter the Goal URL. Reaching this page denotes a successful conversion. For example, a registration confirmation page, a checkout complete page, or a thank you page.
In case of Pune360 it is the Registration conversion page.

5. Enter the Goal name as it should appear in your Google Analytics account. Pick a meaningful name since you’ll have many Goals to set up

To define a funnel.
What’s a funnel?
It’s a path that you expect users to optimally take. Users may not always take this path. But based on your traffic you need to figure out which is the optimal path and set it up here.

1. Enter the URL of the first page of your conversion funnel. This page should be a page that is common to all users working their way towards your Goal. We will start with the pune360.com homepage: www.pune360.com
2. Enter a Name for this step.
3. If this step is a Required step in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step. If this checkbox is selected, users reaching your goal page without travelling through this funnel page will not be counted as conversions. I haven’t selected any Required Steps in this example.
4. Continue entering goal steps until your funnel has been completely defined. You may enter up to 10 steps, or stick with one.

Turn the goal On.. This is the step that most folks miss.

Now go to Reports/Goals/FunnelVisualization and you can see all the info.
It takes a few days for this to build since it is dependent on people clicking through. Depending on your website traffic you can estimate how long it will take to get adequate traffic to make this report look meaningful.

Let me know if you have any specific questions on goals.

All books by Subject. Price as on Amazon on Jan 3, 2009.

1. Analytics:

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics By: Brian Clifton $26.39

Web Analytics: An Hour a Day By: Avinash Kaushik (Author) $19.79

2. Landing Page Optimization/Testing/Usability

Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer By: Bryan Eisenberg, $19.79

Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions By: Tim Ash $19.79 (good book, but very technical)

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Appr to Web Usability, 2nd Edition By: Steve Krug $26.40

3. SEO/SEM
Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprintfor effective Internet marketing By: Kristopher B. Jones
$19.79

Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site (2nd Edition) by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt $31.49

4. Social Media

Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day By: Dave Evans, Susan Bratton $19.79

5. Writing for the Web

Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works By: Janice Redish $32.97

6. Adwords/PPC

AdWords For Dummies by Howie Jacobson $16.49

============================================================
DO NOT READ LIST
Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords: How to Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes
By: Perry Marshall, Bryan Todd $16.47

Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook: Low Cost Strategies for Attracting New Customers Using Google, MSN, Yahoo & Other Search Engines By: Boris Mordkovich, Eugene Mordkovich $20.65

All that aside. This is a fantastic book. A deserving 5 starrer.

The flow of this book has been well planned. Clifton starts with what reports can be procured from Google Analytics, giving everyone a quick insight into what kind of information gathering is possible. A really good way to tell you how potent this tool can be. The next section deals with the implementation and how pages can be tracked. Discusses in detail some of the implementation issues like:
Using the same analytics account to monitor diff websites
How to create a local copy of the analytics info

Also includes Advanced Implementation how-to’s for E-Commerce websites, online campaign tacking, event tracking. There’s also a chapter on hacks. These sections are the most relevant and covers the first 211 pages.

The last section of the books starts with KPI’s and discusses the topic in detail with examples related to e-commerce sites, Marketer’s KPI’s webmaster’s KPI’s and more. The last chapter also discusses Google Website Optimizer and is a good introduction for newbies.

This book is extremely comprehensive and does a very good job of introducing Google Analytics to both new users as well as experienced one. Javasript code shows up at various places and is definitely helpful as a reference for making quick changes to your website tags.

If you have a website that uses Google Analytics, just go ahead and buy the book. If you’re using other analytic tools, this book is a good introduction to what Google Analytics has to offer.

A few standout features of Google Analytics:
Two click integration with Google Adwords. (Two reports : Adwords Campaign, Keyword Positions)
Can be used to track paid search, organic search, links from pdf’s, videos, email campaigns etc
Site overlay report (something like a heat map. WebTrends calls this the click density report)
Map overlay report (shows which geographies people are coming in from)
Cross referencing (eg how many visitors from california, which keywords folks from california use)
Site search reporting (From which pages do visitors initiate a search. And which page do they go to. This needs some setting up.)
Event tracking of video files and load times, interactions in the file etc ..

(About Google Urchin: Urchin is a down loadable tool. Its a hybrid tool since it tags as well as processes log files. It can provide bandwidth reports, error page/status code reports, visitor history reports.
Benefits:
Can run behind firewall. Useful for intranets.
Data stored in house, so can be used beyond 25 months.
Google Analytics can analyze a max 5 million pageviews a month. Urchin doesn’t have this restriction.

The Disadvantages pertain to the hardware and manpower needed to set up a server, maintain and backup.)

Other References
Companion site for the book: http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/
Scripts are at: http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/ga-scripts/
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34674820494
Support: http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/
Advanced topics and methodologies: http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/
Blog: http://analytics.blogspot.com/

Pics of some of the Google Analytics Reports for Pune360.com:
A. All Traffic Sources Report

Google Analytics Traffic Source Report

B. Top Content Report

Google Analytics Top Content Report

C. Navigation Summary Report

Google Analytics Navigation Summary Report

D. Map Overlay Report 1

Google Analytics Map Overlay Report

E. Map Overlay Report 2

Google Analytics Map Overlay Report 2

You can buy the book from Amazon: Book Review: Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics

Bryan Eisenberg details every aspect of the webpage that can be tested. There is a chapter by chapter .. blow by blow account of what can be tested. All the chapters mention additional online resources, you can get more detail from.
Testingtoolbox.com is the companion site for this book.This site should have listed all online resources mentioned in the book. It’s pretty painful to type in something like http://www.grokdotcom/11/03/2008/the_concerned_chapter

Here’s a list of some of the tools mentioned:
A. Test how your page looks on different browsers at http://www.browsercam.com/
BrowserCam’s Screen Capture Service lets you submit single or multiple URL’s, choose the browsers and operating systems you want to see, and screen captures of your webpage are loaded in the different browsers and operating systems you selected.

This is how pune360.com looks in different browsers.

B. Lynx Viewer http://delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
This service allows web authors to see what their pages will look like (sort of) when viewed with Lynx, a text-mode web browser.
This is how pune360.com showed on lynx

C. http://websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
Here’s what website optimization has to say about Pune360.com.

D. http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/imageoptimizer/
Image Optimizer lets you easily optimize your gifs, animated gifs, jpgs, and pngs, so they load as fast as possible on your site. Furthermore, you can easily convert from one image type to another. Upload Size limit: 300 kB

Recommended books:
Speed up your Site: Website Optimization Andrew King
High Performance Websites: Essential Knowledge for Front End Engineers Steve Sounders

E. Search tools: http://www.searchtools.com/tools/tools.html

An excellent example of a site search requirements, analysis, selection and installation process is available at the University of Pennsylvania’s web team area.
http://www.upenn.edu/computing/web/webteam/rnd/search.html

F. http://readability.info/
Curious about how complex your documents or Web pages are to read? You don’t have to get a team of experts to generate your readability score: you can just use readability.info to analyze the characteristics of your writing and ascertain a multitude of readability scores. By comparing the readability score of different documents (or Web pages) you can better hone your writing and make sure that you aren’t creating overly complex sentences and paragraphs for your audience.
Details on scores: http://readability.info/info.shtml

G. http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php
Vischeck is a way of showing you what things look like to someone who is color blind

H. Customer Review solutions http://www.powerreviews.com/

I. Google Analytics http://blog.dogster.com/2008/09/25/get-more-out-of-google-analytics

J. http://uitest.com/en/specials/ (list of online tools)

Even though the book says that it is the complete guide to Google Website Optimizer, there are only 3 chapters in book of 46 chapters that talks about Google Optimizer. The other chapters are related to testing per se.
Either ways a very well written book. A must read, for anyone wanting to test their website.