Google Website Optimizer is great. It's a powerful tool for determining what kinds of changes to make to your site. Statistics-based recommendations are an analyst's dream.
The only drawback with GWO is that it's a binary measurement: did the visitor convert or not? Granted, you have some flexibility in defining what that "conversion" is, but it's still not a holistic view of what's really happening. You also have to predefine any measurements that an experiment may impact, and that's simply not possible in every scenario.
The solution to this is to use Google Analytics in conjunction with GWO.
Analyzing the keywords reports in Google Analytics can tell us a lot about the site and the visitors. We can see which sections of the site are most visible to search engines, and we can get a feel for what visitors are expecting when they come to the site.
The problem with keywords reports, though, is that they are so exhaustive. They include every single keyword that brought at least one visit. Every variation of misspelling of a phrase shows up as a separate keyword, even though it returns the same results. When you get into keywords that only brought one visit, it's difficult to discern what is meaningful and what is a statistical anomaly. The bounce rates, time on site and other statistics aren't very helpful at a micro level, because we can't usually extrapolate what to do at a macro level based on a single visit.
One of the most valuable things in Google Analytics is the ability to tie an actual transaction value to campaigns and other activities. Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn't take into account refunds, returns or cancellations. If there are enough of these, you may find that your ecommerce reports don't line up with reality.
The good news is there is a clean way of editing transactions after they have been reported in Google Analytics. It requires some custom coding, but it will bring your reports closer to reality.
Multiple custom variables are a new feature in Google Analytics. Used wisely, they can answer a plethora (yes, a plethora!) of questions that you could never get at before.
We've made a short list of use cases for custom variables. Some of them only apply to certain kinds of websites. The idea, though, is to give you ideas and spur your imagination. Your site already interacts with your visitors in intelligent ways. Use custom variables to bring some of that intelligence into your reporting.
Analytics Intelligence for Google Analytics represents a step away from passive reports toward meaningful analysis.
Spotting undercurrents and long-tail trends has never been very easy with Google Analytics. You usually had to know what you were looking for. And if a negative trend was developing, it could sometimes take days or weeks before you spotted it.
Google recently announced a new feature that goes a long way toward solving this and should change the way you use Google Analytics. Analytics Intelligence automatically scans your reports and alerts you to any unusual trends in your traffic patterns.
Annotations eliminate the need to write notes on your screen with markers.
The ability to create notes in Google Analytics reports has been a long-standing request from GA users. Google recently delivered by introducing Annotations to all GA accounts. This gives users the ability to make and share a record of any events that may impact the reports.
Know which emails are working and which links are most effective.
Whether you send out marketing emails or occasional newsletters, you can use Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of your emails. You can also use it to determine how to format your emails and what types of information to include.
Amid all the other information you can gather about a visitor and his visit, the ability to add dimensions unique to your site makes the reports more actionable.
Having a single user-defined variable in Google Analytics has long been a sore point for users. Google recently announced the rollout of multiple custom variables to every account. This addition can dramatically change the kind of analysis users can do with Google Analytics.
Multiple custom variables can be scoped to a visitor (as has always been the case) or just to a visit or even a page. They are very flexible and can be adapted to almost any scenario.
Google Analytics is now so common for sites of all sizes to use that it is included in some classroom curriculum. Students are being taught how to set it up and how to use it. We've provided some resources and structure for teaching Google Analytics.
Today v1.5 of Mobile GA was released. It includes more robust reporting features for Android phones and compatibility with the most recent Android updates.
Mobile GA continues to use the Google Analytics export API to securely access user's reports. It is a fast platform for checking the most important reports on the go.
Today's release adds several important features, including:
Google Website Optimizer is great. It's a powerful tool for determining what kinds of changes to make to your site. Statistics-based recommendations are an analyst's dream.
Analyzing the keywords reports in Google Analytics can tell us a lot about the site and the visitors. We can see which sections of the site are most visible to search engines, and we can get a feel for what visitors are expecting when they come to the site.
One of the most valuable things in Google Analytics is the ability to tie an actual transaction value to campaigns and other activities. Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn't take into account refunds, returns or cancellations. If there are enough of these, you may find that your ecommerce reports don't line up with reality.
