Why analytics? Why me?

Why analytics? Why me?

You want to be a professional.  You want to be at the top of you game, you want your company to be huge.  You have the people skills, the money skills, you can advertise and strategize.  So why analytics, what does analytics do for you and for your business? 

FREAKISHLY SMART ADVERTISING!

If you know who your customer is, where your customer is, and what they do and who they like, you can target them with specific advertisements.  Advertisements can be targeted through social networks, and be so specific that you need not worry about wasting your effort.  Targeted advertising can be done specifically to your “followers” in Twitter.  Or based on geographical location, age, gender, interests, anything you can think of to target.  The sorting of demographic data is done through analytics and it is going to change the face of advertising.  This is a good thing for both consumer and producer.  No more will men be subjected to feminine hygiene products, or the like.  Ads will targeted, and more successful.  Also with the power of customers to react to product you are forced by your public to make ads and products even better.

AWESOME WEBSITE!

Humans are deep down lazy these days.  No one wants to find small golden nuggets in your website of doom.  They bounce!  If customers can’t find what they are looking for in a few quick clicks they are done and someone else gets their eyeballs.  How can you tell if your website is successful? Analytics!  You can track your bounce rate, your click-through rate, who goes where and from what country.  You can make small tweaks based on the information gathered and make a constantly improving experience.  How often does Facebook upload code?  Twice a day!  A website is like a rough stone rolling along the bottom of a riverbed, constantly being shaped and changed to smooth perfection.

CA-CHING $$$!

What is business about?  Making money, and with analytics you can make more.  Target smarter, sell more, improve your brand image, it’s that easy.  It does not matter which analytics software you use.  Information is power.  As a business you want to know everything about your customer (no privacy) so you can make more money off of him/her.  Get more people interested in your products, create demand, raise your prices, expand, outsource, and make more money.  If you don’t like analytics, hire someone who does.  You will have more success with it than without it.

http://dauofu.blogspot.com/2013/01/twitter-ads-analytics.html

http://dauofu.blogspot.com/2013/01/mobile-analytics-future-of-business.html

http://dauofu.blogspot.com/2013/02/social-media-and-youtube-ad-vehicles.html

http://dauofu.blogspot.com/2013/01/advertisingon-twitter-information-more.html

http://dauofu.blogspot.com/2013/02/bounce-rate-thats-one-sexy-metric.html

http://dauofu.blogspot.com/2013/01/designing-clicks-and-conversions.html

Google Analytics for Beginners: Top 4 Metrics to Start With

If you are like a lot of people, you've probably heard about web analytics and you know that it is important. Web analytics is especially important if there are certain goals you want to accomplish with that website. So where does one start when it comes to web analytics? Perhaps you've opened up a Google Analytics account and are a bit overwhelmed by the number of available tools and reports available to you and don’t know where to start. I've compiled a list of some of the basic tools that experts from the industry recommend starting with to a beginner of Google Analytics.  If you are wondering on where to begin, start by using these 4 tools.

Bounce Rate

In the article, “3 Basic Google Analytics Metrics You Need to Watch” Clancy Clarke suggests looking at the Bounce rate for visitors. He states that the “Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who looked at only a single page on your site before leaving”. He goes on to say that “visitors will stay if they find what they are looking for and enjoy the experience. If not they will immediately ‘bounce’ from the site. A high bounce rate can indicate that the content on your site is not relevant to the search term the visitor used or the visitor is not enjoying the experience on your website”.

Time on Page/Site

Time on Page and Time on Site measures the amount of time a visitor spends on a specific page or site. Clancy Clarke also recommends using this metric. He writes, “The ‘average time on page’ data is also helpful for determining whether your site is providing value to visitors. As the name suggests, this data provides information on how long, on average, visitors stayed on the site and how long they remained on each page. If visitors feel happy with your site and believe they are receiving valuable information, they will no doubt stay longer.

Visits & Visitors

Carrie Hill mentions in her article, “3 Metrics Google Analytics Beginners Should Watch”, that knowing how you site is being used and how to make it better begin with the sites visitors. She states, “Knowing who is coming to your site, how long they spend on the site and each page, and how many pages they look at before leaving or buying can give valuable insight into improving your subscription or checkout process”. By looking at this metric, you’ll be able to determine how many people visited your site, the number of unique visitors, and how many pages per visit each person looked at.

Sources

There is great value in knowing how visitors are locating and being directed to your site. Carrie Hill suggests using this metric and using the Traffic Source report. She writes, “If you drill down a bit into your Traffic Source report, you can see which sources sent the most traffic. You might use this to determine whether a directory listing is worth the cost, or if your paid advertising is lucrative”.

Please realize that every person’s goals in doing analytics is different and you may find that some tools may not be relevant for your own situation. After gaining some experience in using Google Analytics, you’ll know what information is most useful and what tools are best for you and your site.


3 Metrics Google Analytics Beginners Should Watch - http://searchengineland.com/3-metrics-google-analytics-beginners-should-watch-98663

3 Basic Google Analytics Metrics You Need to Watch - http://www.netregistry.com.au/blog/seo/3-basic-google-analytics-metrics-you-need-to-watch/

Tips To Improve Your Website and Improve User Experience

At work we have been toying with updating our current website and that got me wondering if there were any good rules of thumb we should employ to make a great website. 

I see many posts on using web analytics tools and thought that exploring suggestions on how to take the ‘broken’ or less-successful website and improve the user experience as a natural extension to what we are discussing. I know that these principles are often pushed to web designers but as users of the usage feedback it is vital to know how to improve. Below I have compiled a few suggestions on easier navigation and website color schemes principles.
 

Easier navigation:

Popular Blogger and founder of Studio Press, Brian Gardner has provided 5 tips to improve your website in his blog which I thought were useful[1]. I have summarized them here along with a few DESB examples.

1. “About” Page
This is possibly one of the top 2 pages of most websites. Don’t skimp on the content and if in doubt, include the information. Use this page to form a personal connection so they feel they ‘know’ you or your company at a much more individual level.


2. Testimonials
These should be prominently displayed so you can demonstrate that you have successfully assisted customers and can help them with their needs. If this component of the site is neglected Brian indicates that you will slow the pace of gaining even more business.


3. Contact Information
This seems like a common sense type of inclusion in your site but Brain claims that it is too often missing from websites. He said if someone has to hunt to find how to engage you then they will go elsewhere. He also suggests to not just list an email address, but do add multiple channels viewers can use to contact you. Many people prefer emails but there are others that prefer to call.
 


4. Search Feature
Customers that have to look around to find what they are looking for will ultimately  go to competitors if you don’t make it easy for them.

He also indicates that it is easy to add such tools to your site and it could make an enormous difference.


5. Subscription Options
Although more applicable to websites with frequent content updates it is important to allow users to opt-in to keep up with changes/updates to your content. It will also provide a list of opted-in people that agreed to be emailed, RSS fed or otherwise connected to your content. This opens another avenue to communicate with your customers.


Of the above 5 items our site at work currently has 1-3 but does not have a search feature nor a way to subscribe to the site. I think that we should include those into the new rollout of our site.
  

Color Schemes:

I found another website that listed a topic to help improve user experience I had never really considered - color schemes. [2] Below I summarize the 4 basic color schemes that could be used for your website (which should be tested with A/B testing).

Most of the scheme techniques are based on the color wheel:

 
Monochromatic
This scheme uses colors of the same hue. Many have varying tints or shades depending upon how much it is darkened or lighted (white or black is added).


Monochromatic color schemes are often the easiest on the eyes of all the color schemes. The subtle differences in tint and shade make the colors flow, or bleed, into one another better. This color scheme is best used to make your site appear more fluid and collected.

Analogous

Utilizes colors that are close to one another on the color wheel.

Analogous colors can often work very well together, but sometimes they can clash badly. This is a color scheme that should be fully tested. When the colors in this scheme work they create a site that is more colorful than the monochromatic scheme, with almost the same level of fluidity.

Complementary
This color scheme is often seen as "opposite" because the two colors in a complementary color scheme are opposite one another on the color wheel.

Complementary color schemes are characterized by normally having just 2 colors – a base and its opposite.  This color scheme provides a much more striking feel than other color schemes, so use them with care. But, such shocking feel can be exactly what you were looking for.


Triadic
Characterized by using colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.

Triadic color schemes typically use 3 colors more or less equally spaced around the color wheel. This scheme often produces very vibrant Web pages. Be sure to test as with complementary color schemes, they can affect people differently.

I hope this post provided a few items to look at to improve your website as it was helpful in evaluating what we could do to my website at work.

Here are a few other websites not used above but I found were interesting on the topics above:

Easy website navigation:
http://readwrite.com/2010/09/17/6-tips-for-building-coherent-s
    Give some good tips on better navigation.
http://www.e2solutions.net/articles/tips-increase-navigation-web-design.html
    Quick list of suggestions.
http://www.webmasterview.com/2012/09/web-design-tips-site-navigation/
    Good additional items I did not consider.
http://www.icebomb.co.uk/blog/2011/03/5-simple-website-navigation-tips/
    5 simple suggestions to improve navigation.

 Color Schemes:
Tools:
http://designshack.net/articles/inspiration/25-awesome-tools-for-choosing-a-website-color-scheme/
    Lists 25 different tools to assist in finding the ‘right’ color scheme for your site.
http://speckyboy.com/2008/01/13/top-10-resources-to-the-perfect-color-scheme-for-web-designers/
    Lists their top 10 resources for Perfect Color Scheme for Web Designers
Examples:
http://tympanus.net/codrops/2011/12/08/25-examples-of-perfect-color-combinations-in-web-design/
    Shows a number of mockups with different color schemes. Some are very cool!
http://inspiredm.com/colour-schemes/
    This sites lists 50 ‘beautiful’ website color schemes.
http://spyrestudios.com/29-website-designs-using-bold-color-schemes/
    Lists 29 sites that are using “bold” color schemes.
Guide:
http://wpmu.org/choose-color-scheme-your-website/
    help you choose what colors to consider for your site.
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/
    add your base colors maybe your corporate colors and it will provide ‘nice’ complements.   

 [1]      http://www.briangardner.com/website-elements/ viewed 1-19-13
Good quick tips on website improvement.
[2]     http://webdesign.about.com/od/colortheory/ss/aa040907.htm  viewed 1-19-13
Interesting discussion on how to use color to enhance your website.

#betterwebstie