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Happy Thanksgiving 2006
November 22, 2006
The entire team at ROI Revolution would like to extend to you a special greeting at Thanksgiving time to express to you our sincere wishes for a healthy and happy holiday!
Google Analytics "Success Stories" Holiday Contest
November 21, 2006
Well, the holidays are fast approaching, and as the flurry of shoppers gradually intensifies, we here at ROI Revolution are getting into the season's spirit.
So after you've finished carving your turkey and before you start your holiday shopping (for those of us that like to wait), we'd like to invite you to pick up a pen or a.... well, a keyboard and send us an article. If you have a first-hand success story or a personal account of how you or your business used Google Analytics to improve your web marketing or your website's performance, we'd love to share it.
And that's not all! In addition to having your guest article appear in our blog, you will be eligible to win a $400 gift certificate to purchase a beautifully handcrafted jewelry chest (among other things) for someone you love. A full selection of merchandise can be found at www.jewelry-chests.com. Here's a look at a few things a $400 gift certificate can get you:
So here are the details:
Posted by Shawn Purtell, Analytics and Optimization Specialist at 1:45 PM
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Filed under: Analytics
Tagged as: Fun, Google Analytics
Tracking Individual Clients on Database-Driven Pages Using Google Analytics
November 20, 2006
Here's a question we have been asked recently:
We run a centralized application that manages different websites. It's a database driven set of pages that, depending on a URL variable, displays a specific client's content.
(ex. clients-domain-A.com/index.asp?ID=93874X6E830T displays client A's content
clients-domain-B.com/index.asp?ID=76UHHEI8769 displays client B's content)
A critical note is that each client's domain name is not configured as a website in IIS; we simply direct all domain names to the same IP and use a script to associate the domain name with a client's ID. Currently, we have about 100 clients, but the implementation must be scalable to as many as 400.
So the questions we have are...
1. Is there a way for us to use Google Analytics to track statistics independently for each client?
2. Would I have to install all Google Analytics tracking codes in the same page?
3. Can Google Analytics track a profile based on the domain name only?
Well, there a couple of solutions to this particular problem that you could try (they haven't been tested). Both of them involve creating separate profiles for each client.
Creating a new field (in MS Access)
Posted by Shawn Purtell, Analytics and Optimization Specialist at 3:28 PM
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Filed under: Analytics
Tagged as: Analytics Technology
William Cline Receives Google Authorized Analytics Training by ROI Revolution
November 14, 2006
William Cline from the Cline Group came out with a press release today that we were extremely proud to be mentioned in. Here is a quote from the press release, "William Cline, Scuba Diving Industry Consultant, Receives Google Authorized Analytics Training by ROI Revolution":
William Cline receives cutting edge training from a noted Google Authorized Training company, ROI Revolution, for website analytics applications. William says "Being trained by ROI has given me a market advantage in that very few scuba diving companies or tourism boards actually employ sophisticated website and email marketing analytics. I now have those skills to guide my clients better, but more importantly, help them deploy cutting-edge Google analytics technologies."We're blushing over here, William!
It's incredibly satisfying be able to help companies like the Cline Group utilize Google Analytics in order to leverage the potential in their market. Thanks for the kind words, William. We're glad we could help.
Posted by Meredith Smith at 5:22 PM
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Filed under: Analytics
Tagged as: Web Marketing
Google Optimizer Test
November 2, 2006
Ok, so we've used our analytics software to pinpoint problem pages of our business website. But where do we go from there?
- Do we patiently perform hundreds of separate A/B landing page tests?
- Do we hire a third party to conduct expensive multivariate testing?
- How can we be sure that the ugly red button in the middle of our page isn't scaring away our customers?
Well, as it turns out, I just finished implementing a tool on our website which answers all of these questions and more. Quite simply, our visitors should be the ones that determine the content of our website using multivariate testing, and Google's new Website Optimizer seems primed to tackle any website testing problem.
Posted by Shawn Purtell, Analytics and Optimization Specialist at 1:05 PM
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Filed under: Website Optimization
Tagged as: Analytics Technology, Google Website Optimizer
Understanding Google Analytics' Data Over Time Report
November 1, 2006
While the Google Analytics Help Center is, for the most part, well-written and comprehensive, I've gotten a lot of questions in the past about the Analysis Options feature. In case you're unfamiliar (and if you are, you're really missing out... this little 
button is one of the most powerful features of Google Analytics), I'll quote from the official source:
The Analysis Options icon provides access to:
- Data Over Time shows the values for the selected page over a selected date range.
- Overlay Page loads the Site Overlay report for the selected page.
- To-date Lifetime Value calculates that page's values since Analytics tracking began.
- Cross Segment Performance breaks the page's data down by the specified variable.
That's actually the entirety of the article that deals with Analysis Options. That's it. There's nothing more. Which is unfortunate, because it's such a downright effective tool. I get a lot of questions about each Analysis Option, so I'm going to spend some time over the next couple weeks detailing each individual report.
To start with, we'll go over Data Over Time. Contrary to the explanation given by Google, Data Over Time does more than display values "for the selected page" over time. You can also use it to measure visitor segments, campaign conversion rates, average revenue, and product performance, all over a customized period of time. This is very useful for trending, and for a quick at-a-glance view of your site's performance over the days and months.
Posted by Michael Harrison, Analytics and Optimization Specialist at 1:10 PM
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Filed under: Analytics
Tagged as: Analytics Basics
The Dangers of the Dreaded Cookie Cutting!
Once you jump onto the analytics-bandwagon, its tempting to begin to worry about accuracy. What if visitors delete their cookies? What if they don't have javascript turned on in the first place? Oh NO!!
Ok, ok... let's calm down and take a look at the situation. Is it really worth all that worry and nail biting?
A lot of people think so, especially after Jupiter Research announced last month that 58 percent of users delete their cookies regularly, with 40 percent deleting them every month. That news definitely got people a little concerned, but it may not be as important as you think it is.
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