In general, people don't optimize their website for non-USA traffic. It never crosses many people's mind. Why would it? Who else would be looking for your site, anyway?

Surprise, surprise - there is a good chance that your site has a substantial number of foreign visitors!

Just how substantial, though?

Well, I took a look at the Google Analytics account we have set up for the ROI Revolution site, and the Geo Location report said we had a total of 37,823 visitors for a certain time period. Of those 37,823 visitors, 11,045 where from outside of the United States. That is nearly 30% of the traffic coming to the site!

Doubtless you are wondering why this even matters.

The fact is that this is often a great potential market. So many people overlook overseas market that any effort you make to optimize for this audience will probably have a pretty decent impact.

Depending on your situation, it might be a good idea to offer multiple language versions of your website. At the very least offer international shipping options.

What have you tried in an effort to market to a specific geographically-oriented market?

In the blog article "Start at the Beginning: Making Sense of the Google Analytics Toolbox" I outlined 4 steps to go through before trying to nail down exactly what to track in Google Analytics. What I didn't address was WHO to go through those steps with. Having this discussion with people 'in the know' is key.

But who exactly is 'in the know'? And what do we want them to know?

Well, I'm glad you asked!

I'll give you a hint: it's probably not your executives, or department heads. It's not your PR or IT person.

It's the ground troops.

Continue reading "Choosing Who to Bring to the Table" »

A little over a month ago, I pointed out that a new Google Analytics paperback had hit the streets. I had just ordered my copy from Amazon and promised to post my review of it as soon as I finished reading it.

Released in early September, the book makes the following promises on its back cover:

* Get familiar with the concept of analytics, what Google Analytics offers, and how it compares to popular site statistics programs.
* Learn to set up the program, navigate the interface, understand filters, and use goal-setting features.
* Integrate Google Analytics with Google AdWords.
* Make the most of reporting dashboards.
* Find out how to use analytics for marketing and content optimization.
* Understand what each type of report means and how to interpret it.
* Explore how other companies have used analytics to improve site performance.
* Investigate how to use Google Analytics for complete e-commerce analysis.

Here's my opinion on how it delivers:

Continue reading "Book review: "Google Analytics" by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri L. Ledford" »

We've started a regular monthly 'Web Analytics Wednesday' for all web analytics professionals in the North Carolina Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) area who would enjoy getting together for a cold beer, some hot wings, and some great chat/networking.

From the Web Analytics Association site:

Web Analytics Wednesday is the world's only distributed networking event for web analytics professionals. Open to everyone, practitioners and vendors alike, Web Analytics Wednesday is a free event allowing you to meet folks with similar work interests.

We're going to host the first event at 6pm on Wednesday, November 8th at Sammy's Tap & Grill, which is located on Avent Ferry Road.

If you're interested, register here so we can make an accurate reservation.

The first round is on my boss, Timothy Seward! Haha, liked how smoothly I worked that in, didn't you?

This rocks! Just moments ago at the eMetrics Summit in Washington, D.C., Google's Brett Crosby (Senior Manager, Google Analytics) announced the launch of a new tool, the Google Website Optimizer, designed to help Google AdWords advertisers test different website landing pages in order to determine which ones drive the most conversions--whether they are online sales, sign-ups, or downloads.

I've been here in Washington, DC at the eMetrics Summit since Saturday evening, and there is no doubt that Brett's announcement completely stole the show, generating a buzz of excitement over many of those in attendance.

So what's this new tool all about and why does it matter?

Google Analytics, and now Google Website Optimizer, are both designed to help Google AdWords advertisers and website owners make smarter business decisions and to increase the return on their marketing investments. The new Google Website Optimizer gives advertisers the power to improve the content on the pages within their websites in order to generate more conversions with the same or less advertising spend.

Specifically, Google's new multivarient landing page testing and optimization tool, Website Optimizer, enables marketers to test different ideas for variations of headlines, promotional copy, or images and provides easy-to-read graphs showing which variations resonate best with their website visitors. Through the step-by-step interface, you can quickly and easily plug in the different versions of each page section you wish to test.

Google Website Optimizer automatically applies these versions to create every possible different combination of landing pages, and randomly displays each combination to your users as they come in from your Google AdWords campaign. You simply set up the experiment, plug in your variables, and read the comprehensive reports as the experiment progresses with each click.

Brett covered that the beta launch of Google Website Optimizer is a limited release that is offered to Google AdWords advertisers on a sign-up and acceptance basis (i.e. your application for the beta must be approved in order to qualify for the use of this tool during beta)...but once you are accepted into the beta, the use of it is free.

We were able to take a sneak-peek into the vast wealth of information you will have at your fingertips with Google Website Optimizer.

Here's what we learned:

Continue reading "Google's Brett Crosby announces Google Website Optimizer Beta!" »

Pay Per Click advertisers rejoice!

YSM's (Yahoo! Search Marketing) "Project Panama" has begun it's long awaited roll-out! I received an e-mail this morning with the headline: "The New Sponsored Search is Now Live!" I went running through the office with the news. I logged into my account awaiting the new interface, and was disappointed to find out it was not there! They are sending invitations in stages to U.S advertisers.

We received a helpful hint at a Yahoo! Advertisers Workshop that I attended a few weeks ago and blogged about. If you do not have your keywords separated into categories, do this now! If you have any unassigned keywords then Yahoo will automatically put then in categories for you once the new interface is launched. It will be much better for you to do this yourself since you have a better understanding of your business model & the categories that they need to be separated into.

The upgrade center is available for all advertisers to help make the transition smooth. There are flash tutorials & PDF guides to get you up to par with the new interface.

Andy Beal over at Marketing Pilgrim is running a Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest.

I decided to give it a whirl, and came up with the following article: The (Alleged) Miracle of Pay-Per-Click Marketing.

This article discusses the tendency to lean on pay-per-click advertising just a little too heavily. Sure, it can work wonders, but there are a lot of other aspects to online advertising that all work together to create a truly great campaign.

Here's a short excerpt:

Thomas Jefferson said "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." With a little "luck" maybe you can turn that PPC campaign into a magic wand, after all.

Good luck to all the contestants! I've certainly enjoyed reading everybody's articles, and I've learned a thing or two in the process.

Some really great news over at the Official Google Analytics Blog. Merchants using Google Checkout can now track purchases made on their site with Google Analytics. The procedure is outlined here.

Guess this is just another example of "features, not products".

Over here at ROI Revolution, Michael Harrison and I have been brainstorming ways to make the Google Analytics Training Webinar we offer even better and more beneficial to those who attend. The Training Webinar focuses on interpreting the reports within Google Analytics and explaining what information you can get out of those reports.

Currently we have the webinar organized by the sections in Google Analytics: Marketing Optimization, Content Optimization, and E-Commerce Analysis.

But we began to think "Maybe It would be better to organize this webinar based on the things people are really going to use Google Analytics for!" and the more we thought about it the more we liked that idea.

Example:
Online Marketing
With this example, we would list the major reports in Google Analytics that would help somebody trying to do effective online marketing, like the All CPC Analysis report.

So now we would like to ask YOU, our readers: what activities would you like to see addressed in a Google Analytics Training Webinar?

Nice article in a recent issue of Direct Magazine about online direct marketers anticipating the holidays.

They hope to pull in 20% of their 2006 revenue during the holidays, according to a survey conducted by Forrester Research and Shop.org for WebTrends.

And it isn't a small amount: The e-commerce total for the year is expected to top $200 billion.

Not that they're doing much to ensure a green Christmas.

The article then goes on to point out the percentage of web retailers who are reducing perks like free shipping, repeat-buyer discounts, and free gift with order...but the really amazing stat to me was the slim percentage doing measurement (36% using 'activity' or order metrics, 28% using click stats from referring media, and 10% plan to 'focus on unique visits' (does this mean they're looking at the little green page view counter at the bottom of their home page?) or deferred sales conversions (what the heck is a deferred sales conversion?--"Houston, we had a conversion--but it we won't see it in our stats package for another month or two").

The remainder won't do any 'demand measurement'. Ouch. Keep dreaming.

The ROI team recently attended a Yahoo Search Marketing(YSM!) workshop in Alexandria, VA. The conference was extremely helpful in gaining new insight on creative ways to manage and optimize campaigns. The presenter, Heather Lutze, did a fantastic job balancing Yahoo's affiliation with the workshop and relating the knowledge to all PPC campaigns.

We were ecstatic when Heather announced that after the lunch break we would get a glimpse of the new Yahoo advertising interface known as "Project Panama." As all of us know this project has taken longer than foreseen, but after the brief slide show outlining the interface I believe it is safe to say that it will be worth the wait.

Continue reading "Yahoo's Panama Project Revealed!" »