Register before midnight December 2nd, 2008 to save your seat for the Google Website Optimizer Seminar for Success!

November 19, 2008

Just a brief reminder that there is still time to register for the FIRST EVER Google Website Optimizer Seminar for Success, where we share our Website Optimizer knowledge with you in person!

Coming to Washington, DC.

When: Thursday, December 4th

Where: Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
5000 Seminary Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22311
1-703-845-1010

Cost: $249

Agenda: The seminar will be a full day from 9am to 5pm with a one hour break at 12pm for lunch. Morning and afternoon refreshment provided.

Topics Covered:

Landing Page Principals
* Testing Basics
* Selecting a Test Page
* Developing Your Value Proposition
* Minimizing Friction and Combating Anxiety
* Design and Layout Principals

A/B and Basic Testing
* Introduction to Google Website Optimizer
* Types of Testing
* A/B Testing Strategies
* Setting up an A/B Test (Live Demo)

Multivariate and Advanced Testing
* Multivariate Experiments
* Setting up a Multivariate Experiment (Live Demo)
* How to Read Results
* Advanced Testing with Google Website Optimizer
* Advanced Tools and Techniques

--Deadline--
Register By Thursday, November 27th, 2008 to qualify for the $50 AdWords Credit. (Only 8 days away!)

Sign up quickly as seats are limited due to space and supplies, so click over to register today for the Google Website Optimizer Seminar for Success!

November 11, 2008

On Wednesday, November 19th at 1pm ET ROI Revolution is hosting a "Website Optimizer Wednesday Webinar" with Tom Leung, Google's Senior Business Product Manager for Google's Website Optimizer.

Special Google Guest: Tom Leung
Don't miss out on this special opportunity to hear Google's Tom Leung live as he demos the Google Website Optimizer tool!

• Event: Website Optimizer Wednesday Webcast
• Date: Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
• Time: 1pm ET (12pm CT / 11am MT / 10am PT)
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/521927750

See Tom Leung Set Up An A/B Split Test LIVE
During this one-time-only webinar, Tom Leung is going to set up an A/B split test LIVE! If you've ever wanted to simply have somebody show you how to get started, now's your chance.

Not Only Will You Get To See An A/B Split Test Set Up LIVE, You'll Also Learn...

• You'll learn the difference between an A/B split test and a multivariate test, and when to use each one


• Learn how to quickly and easily pull highly valuable and practical info from Google Website Optimizer reports


• Tom Leung will go over several case studies to how Google has used Google Website Optimizer to improve their own webpages - one test resulted in a 30% increase in conversions!


• Tom's Top 5 Tips he's learned about Google Website Optimizer and wants to pass along to you!

Register Early - Only 1,000 Seats Available
Be sure to register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/521927750 so you can save your spot for this one-time-only event!

September 10, 2008

ROI Revolution will be hosting a webinar with special Google representative(s) on the call this fall, and we're looking for a great case study to feature.

Do you have a great case study about how you have used BOTH Google Analytics AND Google Website Optimizer to improve your website? If so, submit it for the chance to win fame and glory!

The Best Case Studies Will Include:

Deadline:
Tuesday, September 30th at Midnight

The WINNING Case Study Will Receive:

Are you the Internet Rock Star we're looking for? If so, submit your case study to contact AT roirevolution DOT com today!

August 28, 2008

October 22-23 will be our Google Analytics User and Implementation Training Seminars in Columbus, Ohio, which you can attend for $249 per day (includes $50 AdWords™ credit*). We'll be at the Embassy Suites right by the airport in Columbus (click here for location).

We've held a few previous live trainings over the past few months (Thanks to those who attended Raleigh, Chicago and Orlando!). They've all received great feedback and we're eager to present again! We have so much material to cover that I can't possibly list it all here, but there is a content list on the user and implementation registration pages.

Basically User Training is for you if you generate and interpret the reports all the time and could use some pointers on what reports are really key. And the Implementation Training is for you if you are adding the code to the pages and want new ideas for cracking those sticky setups!

These trainings are extra special because they're Seminars for Success, an educational program designed by Google to help people learn their products in a classroom setting. Google feels so strongly about this program that they've graciously offer $50 AdWords credits* to all attendees. They also made ROI Revolution Seminar Leaders and we're really proud of that! No kidding around here, you can even see our name and the schedule for these events on Google's site!

So all that reading aside, what are the main points of this blog post:

• Live Classroom Google Analytics Training from ROI Revolution (Experienced Google Analytics Experts)
• October 22-23, Columbus, Ohio, $249 each - Register NOW for either User or Implementation or both!
• You'll get a $50 AdWords Credit* for showing up!

Got it? Great, see you in Ohio in October!

*Promotional credit must be applied to an AdWords account within 30 days of attending a seminar and is valid only for Google AdWords customers with self-managed signup. Advertisers will be charged for advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the Google AdWords Program standard terms and conditions. The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Google Inc. One promotional credit per AdWords account. New advertisers with self-managed signup accounts are subject to an $5 activation fee that will be deducted from the promotional credit. Expires 30 days after Advertiser's registered seminar session. Void where restricted or prohibited by law.

August 8, 2008

Due to overwhelming demand for a one-stop documentation on Urchin 6, ROI Revolution is pleased to present our Urchin 6 administration manual, version 1.0. We're learning more about Urchin 6 all the time and Urchin 6 has been updated!

In two chapters this manual covers the basics of installing or upgrading to Urchin 6 and the initial configuration. Getting Urchin 6 up and running on your system can be a challenge and we want as many people as possible to be able to try Urchin 6 via the free 30 day trial. This manual is designed to answer basic questions regarding installation and configuration in an in-depth manner.

To get your FREE copy of ROI Revolution's Urchin 6 Administration Manual, click on this link and submit your information. Soon you'll receive instructions via email on where to download the PDF version of the manual.

Have a great weekend!

July 10, 2008

ROI Revolution is happy to announce our new home!

We settled into our brand new digs on June 30th, 2008. The new office will better fit our space needs and allow us to grow (we even have a real kitchen now, instead of a 'snack food closet'!). We are excited to welcome new team members soon to better serve demand. We're thrilled with the arrangement and are working on memorizing our new address and phone number.

If you want to get in touch with us, the new contact information is below:

Thank you for your continued readership over the years and don't hesitate to call with any questions regarding our ever evolving services!

June 5, 2008

Is your current website a couch potato and not exactly pulling its weight? Do you secretly wish there was some way to whip it into shape?

Well, you are in luck!

At the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle, Google announced the Website Workout contest to help businesses pump up their websites.

Any U.S. business can enter to have a webpage optimized for free by Google's team of consultants to boost sales, sign-ups or leads.

Interested businesses can enter the contest by visiting the Website Workout contest site, http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/workout.

In the coming weeks, Google will select four of the businesses that enter. Using Google Website Optimizer, Google's free website-testing tool, the consultants will then work with the winners to test which combination of text, images, graphics and other content drives the most business.

Of course you don't have to enter the contest to get started with Google Website Optimizer - ROI Revolution offers a free 6-Episode Video Course Guide to Google Website Optimizer!

May 15, 2008

How could your 2008 summer be the best summer EVER? Possibly by combining Google® Analytics Training and a family vacation? Yes, it can be done! This June, Tuesday, June 24th and Wednesday, June 25th to be exact, ROI Revolution is presenting Analytics Seminars for Success in Orlando, Florida!

We know how important it is to be able to use and implement Google Analytics, so we tried to think of a great location to work… but then we remembered that we like to have fun too, so we wanted a location to play… voilá, Orlando! I mean, if you can write off the flight to business (tax deduction), but still spend some time on vacation, why not, right?

And there you have it: June 24th is the Introduction and User Training Seminar and June 25th is the Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, pick one or both depending on your needs, so that you can work during the week and then take an extra day or two off plus the weekend to relax on vacation!

--About the Training--
Analytics Seminars for Success will help you better leverage the insights found in your Analytics report by covering topics such as setup tips, best practices, and analysis techniques. Seminar leaders will use in-depth course materials, hands-on exercises and valuable tips from their years of managing Analytics accounts to teach you how to achieve your goals.

We can't wait to share our Google Analytics knowledge with you in person, so register today! Don't miss out on this great event designed to help you get the most out of your website's traffic!

--Location and Cost--
ORLANDO, June 24-25: The seminar will be right by the Renaissance Orlando Hotel Airport is located in Orlando, Florida, minutes away from the Orlando International Airport (MCO). If you will be staying overnight at the Renaissance, please call 1-800-228-9290 and ask for the “ROI Revolution, Inc. rate” for a discount.

Each day costs $249 or $498 if you register for both sessions. Each seminars will be a full day from 8am to 5pm EST. Register at least one week in advance to receive a $50 AdWords™ credit* per session (i.e. attend both days and get two $50 AdWords™ credits) that Google graciously offers to all Seminars for Success attendees!

Sign up quickly as registration will be limited due to space and the supplies that come packaged with the training seminar such as workbooks and tasty snacks during breaks. Space is restricted but we want YOU, so click over to register for the Seminars for Success!

You can register right away, because even if you have to cancel, we can offer you a full refund up to 8 days before the event. After that you can transfer your registration to someone else if necessary.

--Last Chance--
Just in case you hadn't already heard, the Analytics Seminars for Success will be in CHICAGO, June 2-3!

See the original blog post for Chicago here. There's still time to register if you can't wait until late June for your in person training or if you prefer the Chicago location!

*Promotional credit must be applied to an AdWords account within 30 days of attending a seminar and is valid only for Google AdWords customers with self-managed signup. Advertisers will be charged for advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the Google AdWords Program standard terms and conditions. The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Google Inc. One promotional credit per AdWords account. New advertisers with self-managed signup accounts are subject to an $5 activation fee that will be deducted from the promotional credit. Expires 30 days after Advertiser's registered seminar session. Void where restricted or prohibited by law.

May 14, 2008

As many of you know, your landing page is the page that visitors see after clicking on one of your ads, such as a Google AdWords ad.

This page could be part of your website or a special page you created just for this purpose.

Your landing pages are a core ingredient that can make or break the success of your advertising.

Why? Because your advertising doesn't exist in a vacuum. On average visitors spend less than 10 seconds looking at a landing page to decide if they want to read more, or click that 'back' button and leave.

With the rallying cry "Landing Pages Forever!" behind us, we came up with 3 tips for stirring a little magic into your own landing pages.

1.) The Ad And Landing Page Should Match.

This may seem like common sense, but in reality you often don't see this. If your ad holds out the tantalizing promise of 10% Off, make sure that same promise is reflected in the landing page headline and content.

When a visitor is searching for something, they know they have a whole page full of search results just one click away. If your ad-to-landing-page-progression doesn't make sense to them they are just going to move on to the next result.

2.) Focus On Getting Your Visitors To Do 1 Thing

While I'm surfing the internet, I often see landing pages that go to either extreme - they don't tell me to do anything, or they try to get me to do a million things. Both of these tactics are confusing and will water down the power of your landing page.

The key is to decide the one key action you want your visitors to take on this landing page, and then TELL them. Don't make them guess or hunt around!

Your visitors aren't stupid. Few people give 100% of their attention to reading your landing page. They're also busy worrying if they left the coffee pot on this morning or that big report the boss wants them to finish by the end of the week. Your landing page has to make use of the narrow slice of attention you get and be crystal clear about what they should do.

3.) Include A Prominent Subscription Form Or Checkout Option

This ties in to #2. Once you have decided exactly what you want your visitors to do on your landing page, don't make them click around on a massive treasure hunt to do it.

Make sure they can follow your instructions easily right on the landing page itself. Part of making something easy is making it prominent - don't make the form tiny, or bury it all the way at the bottom of a 10-mile-long landing page.

Now that you have these 3 tips under your belt, you may be ready for more advanced strategies for really getting your landing pages to significantly boost your revenue.

If so, you should check out the Google Website Optimizer Training Course ROI Revolution is holding on Thursday, May 22nd at 1:30pm EST.

This Google Website Optimizer Training Course is 100% guaranteed to knock your socks off and teach you how to access the hidden potential of your landing pages and website!

Google Website Optimizer allows you to essentially give your visitors the vote - the vote of what works and what doesn't. When you test your site components in the red-hot fire of visitor approval, only the best survives.

You are left with a website that has literally been stamped with your visitor's seal of approval, and converts better then you had ever dared to dream!

In fact, ROI Revolution used the Google Website Optimizer Tools to set up an experiment for a client's landing page. After intensive research in his field, his competition, and his ideal customer, we designed a Google Website Optimizer experiment where we tested 3 different headlines, 3 different images, and 4 different button text versions.

The best combination of the test variables resulted in an improvement of 221% over his original page.

Now the pay-per-click advertising he is bidding on to drive traffic to that landing page is 221% more effective than it was on the old landing page, and he doesn't have to spend a dime more on his pay-per-click advertising for that sustainable increase.

If you are ready to experience improvement like this on your OWN landing pages, join us for the Google Website Optimizer Training Course on Thursday, May 22nd at 1:30pm EST!

April 16, 2008

It's officially here! Urchin 6 has been released for purchase today, April 16th, 2008!

Timeline: In October, Urchin 6 was released in limited beta and then in February, the Urchin 6 beta became available to the public and TODAY it's finally available for purchase!

Features: The interface is now similar to Google Analytics, and there is a greater focus on the usability aspect. Up to 1,000 profiles (domains), log sources, e-commerce, and campaign tracking are all included with this one time purchase.

Urchin 6 will include individual visitor-level tracking, report cross-segmentation and a full suite of geo-targeting reports! The campaign tracking features in Urchin 6 have also been re-engineered to be easier for somebody who is looking to track their SEO/SEM efforts.

Price: Urchin 6 is available for $2,995, and this price includes the full functionality of the software. That means you no longer need to worry about purchasing all those different types of modules. With Urchin 6, you can run e-commerce and campaign tracking functionality on multiple servers with no extra cost!

Upgrading: For owners of standard Urchin 5 licenses, Urchin Software is available for a discounted price. The amount paid for the Urchin 5 installation will be applied towards the cost of Urchin 6 Software. For example, if you purchased the base module of Urchin 5 for $895, then Urchin 6 Software would cost $2,100 ($2995 - $895).

Benefits: Those who might benefit from Urchin the most would be those who prefer to keep their data on machines they can control, those who would like to process historical data, those who need their data audited by third parties, and those who would like to track on an intranet.

ROI Revolution is an Urchin 6 reseller and so if you are ready for Urchin 6, go to www.roirevolution.com/urchin/urchin-six.htm to purchase or upgrade to Urchin 6 today!

Updates: If you would like to receive up to the minute information only about Urchin, sign up for the Urchin Update List!

February 25, 2008

Finally, the wait is over! Get your Google Analytics Training in person! Make the most out of your data by analyzing YOUR website's traffic with a fully configured Google Analytics account!

When? Where? Keep reading, it's all here :).

Two Days for Two Sessions
On March 25th and 26th ROI Revolution will be presenting Analytics Seminars for Success in Durham, NC. This two day event will offer one session on each day. March 25th will be the Introduction and User Training Analytics session, while March 26th will be the Advanced Technical Implementation session. You have the opportunity to register for one or both depending on your needs. Click here for more information on what each session covers and which is right for you.

Limited Acceptance
Sign up quickly as registration will be limited to the first 40 people to apply for each session. This is a hard limit due to space and the supplies that come packaged with the training seminar such as workbooks and tasty snacks during breaks. Signing up in advance comes with a perk too! Registering by March 18th, 2008 entitles you to a $50 AdWords™ Credit* from Google.

Location and Cost
The seminar will be at the Solution Center located in Durham, North Carolina, minutes away from the International RDU Airport. Street address and directions available here. Each day costs $249 or $498 if you register for both sessions. The seminars will be a full day from 8am to 5pm EST. Lunch will not be provided, but morning and afternoon breaks will be offered.

What's in it for YOU
Analytics Seminars for Success will help you better leverage the insights found in your Analytics report by covering topics such as setup tips, best practices, and analysis techniques. Seminar leaders will use in-depth course materials, hands-on exercises and valuable tips from their years of managing Analytics accounts to teach you how to achieve your goals.

We can't wait to share our Google Analytics knowledge with you in person, so register today! Don't miss out on this great event designed to help you get the most out of your website's traffic!

*Promotional credit must be applied to an AdWords account within 30 days of attending a seminar and is valid only for Google AdWords customers with self-managed signup. Advertisers will be charged for advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the Google AdWords Program standard terms and conditions. The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Google Inc. One promotional credit per AdWords account. New advertisers with self-managed signup accounts are subject to an $5 activation fee that will be deducted from the promotional credit. Expires 30 days after Advertiser's registered seminar session. Void where restricted or prohibited by law.

February 18, 2008

ROI Revolution is thrilled to present a totally free Google Analytics 2-Day Classroom Training Course for the non-profit community on March 19-20, 2008!

We've taken our 6 week Google Analytics training course and created a totally free two day classroom workshop for the benefit of full-time employees of 501(c)(3) organizations!

What the Training Seminar Covers
This seminar will cover an introduction to Google Analytics plus tips on how to use Google Analytics for practical improvement on the first day. The second day of the seminar will progress to advanced implementation of Google Analytics, including how to setup goals, funnels, custom filters, and more. For a more detailed agenda, please see our Google Analytics training series online version here, as we will cover 100% of what we cover in our online version.

Limited to the First 20 People to be Accepted
Sign up fast because this special 2-Day Training Seminar for the non-profit community is a ONE-time event and will be limited to the first 20 people to be accepted. This is a hard limit due to limited meeting space. Up to a maximum of two full-time employees per non-profit organization will be eligible.

The seminar will be held on March 19-20, 2008 in the Research Triangle Park area of Durham, North Carolina (details delivered upon acceptance) and will last the full two days from 8am to 5pm EST. Lunch will be on your own, but breakfast, refreshments and afternoon breaks will be provided.

We are able to offer this event to you with the help of our co-sponsors, the good people at iContact and Preation.

Don't miss the in person Google Analytics 2-Day Classroom Training Course for the non-profit community! Contact Kathy to register TODAY! Simply include your name and position at your organization and your contact information. We'll take it from there and contact you about saving your seat.

We look forward to seeing you there!

February 1, 2008

Happy days! The Urchin 6 beta is now open to everybody who wants to participate!

Starting back on October 16th, we shared the news that Urchin 6 was available in a pretty limited release. If you wanted a beta version of Urchin 6, you had to apply for it and hope you made it in time. Now all you have to do is click the "download" button.

Happily the Urchin 6 beta is still a 90-day trial, so you'll have plenty of time to give it a test-drive. The interface is now similar to Google Analytics, and there is a greater focus on the usability aspect.

Urchin 6 even includes such beloved Google Analytics-like features as funnel analysis, site overlay, and geo-targeting! The navigation of Urchin 6 has also been re-engineered to be easier for somebody who is looking to optimize their marketing.

Urchin 6 will be $2,995, and this price includes the full functionality of the software. That means you no longer need to worry about the headache of purchasing all those different modules. With Urchin 6, you can run e-commerce and campaign tracking functionality on a bunch of servers with no extra cost!

For owners of standard Urchin 5 licenses, Urchin Software is available for a discounted price. The amount paid for the Urchin 5 installation will be applied towards the cost of Urchin 6 Software. For example, if you purchased the base module of Urchin 5 for $895, then Urchin 6 Software would cost $2,100 ($2995 - $895).

Urchin has recently made both the Campaign Tracking Module and the Profit Suite $2,995, so if you are purchasing Urchin 5 now with an eye to upgrade to Urchin 6 once the full version is out you'll be all set, and can seamlessly transition to the new version.

The date the full version of Urchin 6 will be released hasn't been announced yet, but if you want to be one of the very first to know, then you can sign up for our Urchin Update List.

October 16, 2007

Today at the eMetrics Summit in Washington, D.C. new Google Analytics features were announced, plus an updated version of Urchin software.

The super-cool new Google Analytics features that were announced all deal with allowing people to be better able to act on their Google Analytics report information, which is fantastic. I mean, that's the core reason why anybody has an analytics in the first place - to help them make improvements.

Site Search
Users can enable the new site search feature to identify keywords, categories, products, and trends across time and user segments.

The reason this is so cool is that is gives very down-to-earth, practical insight into your website visitors. What are they looking for, and did they find it? Why can't most people find this particular product?

The new site search feature aggregates data about how searches affect site usage, e-commerce activity, and conversion rates by tracking internal search patterns. The potential of this new tool is almost scary! Search patterns tell you what people are looking for, what they are interested in, and what they need right now.

In fact, Avinash Kaushik wrote a blog article titled "Kick Butt With Internal Site Search Analytics" (what a great title!) that talks about how cool site search data is and all the wonderful things that can be learned from it.

The word is that this feature will soon be available worldwide, and it works with Google Custom Search, GSA (Google Search Appliance), Google Mini and a ton of other non-Google site search products.

Event Tracking

Event tracking, which launches in a limited beta at the eMetrics Summit, enables Google Analytics users to measure visitor engagement with a site's interactive elements, such as Ajax, Javascript, Flash movies, page gadgets, downloads and other multimedia Web 2.0 experiences.

This new event tracking feature is going to be so handy, in so many different ways! I can't wait to hear some of the inventive ways people come up with to use this.

Google Analytics users who are attending the eMetrics Summit can sign up for event tracking at the Google Analytics booth (those lucky dogs!).

New Languages
Google Analytics has added six new languages, bringing the total number of supported languages to 25. The new languages are Czech, Hungarian, Portuguese (Portugal), Thai, Filipino, and Indonesian.

The much-anticipated new version of Urchin software is in limited beta worldwide. Rejoice!

This Urchin version is an update to Urchin 5 software, and you can request a free 90-day trial of the beta version of Urchin Software by contacting us.

Even before Urchin 6 was announced, people have been speculating about what the pricing would be.

Well, it has been announced that Urchin Software will be available for a discounted price to users of Urchin 5, and will include many improvements including tools to assist in migrating configurations and data from previous versions of Urchin.

Once the new software is out of beta, it will be available for purchase on the ROI Revolution website.

We can't wait to jump in to the Urchin 6 beta ourselves, and once we have had a chance to really dig in and experience all the wonderful improvements and progress we'll post an update.

Request your free 90-day trial of the Urchin 6 Software beta today.

August 31, 2007

Learn how Google Website Optimizer tests can take your site to the Next Level in this New Webinar Being Hosted LIVE!

Featuring special Google guest Tom Leung!

Tom Leung is Google's Business Product Manager for Google's Website Optimizer. Previously, Tom was a Product Planner at Microsoft and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

On Tuesday, September 11th at 2pm ET (1 pm PT) ROI Revolution is hosting a *no charge* live Webinar presentation on how to use Google Website Optimizer.

This free Google software service allows you to test various components of your website to determine what will best increase your conversion rate. Learn from Tom, the Google Website Optimizer genius, which tests can best help you gain the edge over your competition.

This 60 Minute Free Webinar on Google Website Optimizer Will Cover:

• How to overcome the odds -- continual website improvements you can do to slingshot past your competition.


• How to set up a test with Google Website Optimizer in 3 simple steps.


• 6 tests to run on your site with easy to follow example layouts.


• Key questions to ask yourself in order to use Google Website Optimizer for valuable improvements.

June 13, 2007

Since the new Google Analytics interface has become widely available, the people we talk to generally share a few worries and misconceptions about the new interface and what it means for them. Here are the top three misconceptions about the new interface that we hear:

Misconception #1: Oh NO - there is no conversion data!

First of all, take a nice, deep breath. When people start cruising around the new interface, they don't see any conversion data in their reports and have a mini panic-attack. In the old interface you have a handful of set metrics that show up in the right-hand columns on each report, some of which include conversion metrics.

Because the 'Site Usage' tab is the first tab you see and it doesn't include conversion data, some people assume there just isn't any conversion data there, period.

The new format actually gives you a much wider variety of choices on available data, including (but not limited to) conversion data. Surprise! You just have to know where to look.

Keep Reading »

May 23, 2007

The new Google Analytics interface has so many great new features that using it is almost like a treasure hunt - you never know what you'll discover next!

Personally, my favorite new feature so far is the email functionality. I don't know about you, but I don't look into Google Analytics nearly as often as I'd really like to (let's keep that between us, though, ok?).

Apparently I'm not alone. According to a Jupiter report, "Key Performance Indicators - Using Analytics to Drive Action", a stunningly large percentage of companies don't bother to distribute analytic reports to the people within the company who can use them!

Less then 20% of the companies surveyed distribute analytics data to merchandising departments for review on a regular basis, and only 53% of marketing teams review analytics data. But surely the executives pay attention to the analytics data?

Actually, only 41% of executives review web analytics data.

And that is why the new email function is my favorite. You can use the little 'email' button found under the title of the report, and there you will find 3 tabs: Send Now, Schedule, or Add to Existing.

Keep Reading »

April 4, 2007

Google just launched a wildly-super-awesome-incredibly-cool FREE application, the Google Website Optimizer. Can you tell I'm in love?

The stand-up comedian Mitch Hedberg once said, "I have a cheese shredder at home. That's a positive name for a cheese shredder. They don't call it by its negative name, because nobody would buy it: 'sponge-ruiner.'"

Ok, in the same vein, the positive name for the Google Website Optimizer is 'free money', because if you use it that is what you are going to get. See why I'm in love?

Keep Reading »

April 2, 2007

We offer a free webinar and a free mini-course on Google Analytics, and we provide a space in the sign-up form for both where people can type in their most burning questions about Google Analytics.

This helps us to make sure we are providing information in the webinar and the mini-course that people want, but over time it also has ended up providing a sort of 'Google Analytics Frequently Asked Questions' compilation.

Here are three of the most frequently asked questions:

Keep Reading »

March 14, 2007

So you've gotten your Google Analytics account, it is all set up, and you're tracking your paid search advertising. Your results are good, but you want them to be GREAT! What's the next step?

Getting your landing pages in top form, of course! Here are 7 tips to help start you on the path of better landing pages.

1. Make sure your ad and your landing page are closely correlated. The guys over at grokdotcom.com call it a 'scent trail'. These are the same brilliant people who brought us such books as Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? and Call to Action. People need to be able to follow the scent trail and find what they are looking for.

"If we interrupt our scent trail, we leave our customer stranded. The path she was following becomes a dead end. Where's she supposed to go? Do you really want to trust that she's motivated enough to continue on her own? When it comes to scent trails, dropping the ball is one of the leading causes of site abandonment!"

2. Set a measurable goal: What do you want people to do on your landing page? Having a measurable goal will help you to quickly and easily determine how well your landing page is working. Your goal could be to have people buy something directly from the landing page, download a report, sign up for a mailing list, etc.

This way, you can track the performance of your landing page with your Google Analytics account.

Keep Reading »

March 9, 2007

We're getting together for a casual 'Web Analytics Wednesday' on March 14th for all those 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. We know you're out there!

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.

It's gonna be at 6pm on Wednesday, March 14th 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.

We're a friendly bunch - come on down and join us for some analytics chit-chat!

February 6, 2007

It is easy to take certain words and phrases for granted until something happens to make you question it, kinda like this old joke back from 4th grade:

"(sniff) My nose is running."
"Oh, yeah? Where's it running TO? Haha!"

Ok, that was much funnier in the 4th grade, trust me. Anyways, another word that I have been taking for granted is 'bounce'. This was brought to my attention when several people who are enrolled in our Google Analytics Quick-Start Course asked us about 'bounce' and 'bounce rate'.

Wikipedia defines a bounce as occurring "when a website visitor immediately leaves a website after viewing only a single page...The Bounce Rate for a website is the number of web site visitors who visit only a single page of a website per session divided by the total number of website visitors."

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January 30, 2007

One of my favorite quotes that sums up online marketing is from the book Call to Action by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg:

"Trying to increase sales simply by driving more traffic to a website with a poor customer conversion rate is like trying to keep a leaky bucket full by adding more water instead of plugging the holes."

I love that! It summarizes the reality of marketing in such a great, visual way. When you put it like that, everybody can see it's such a commonsense approach. Focus on your ROI (return on investment) and conversion rate, and the rest will fall into place easily.

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January 18, 2007

I'm addicted to organization. It's so satisfying to take a tangled-up mess of a situation (whether it's a shoe closet or a business process) and straighten it out into a neat and tidy condition. Another area of potential organization nirvana has recently come to my attention: Google Analytics.

Oh, I hear you laughing out there!

But it's true, and it can have a huge payoff. Comparing all of your online marketing campaigns will be MUCH easier if you remember to organize your marketing efforts from the campaign, medium, and source level.

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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!

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."

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.

November 1, 2006

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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October 30, 2006

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?

October 27, 2006

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.

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October 22, 2006

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?

October 16, 2006

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.

October 13, 2006

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?

September 21, 2006

I have a confession to make. I'm not really 'Mrs. Fix-it', if you must know. Oh, I can use a hammer and a screw driver to do basic stuff like hang a picture, but hand me a toolbox crammed with exotic and complex tools and I'll just stand there with a perplexed look on my face (You should have seen the time I tried to set up a lofted bed back in college...).

I've noticed that something similar happens to people when they get Google Analytics set up. There are so many gleaming reports, so many options, so many numbers running around on the screen that you're left standing there wondering, "Ok...Now what?"

The best way to prevent this is to sit down with the appropriate people in your company and figure out what you really want to get out of Google Analytics.

See, that sounds so simple, doesn't it? Well, I hate to break this to you, but it's a little harder than that (although I wish it wasn't).

The first thought most people have is to say they want more traffic coming to their website. However, I'd like to argue that what they REALLY mean is that they want more BUSINESS.

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September 12, 2006

Peanut butter and jelly, a picnic and ants, a dinner and a movie... some things just go better together. Google Analytics and pay-per-click advertising are definitely on the list of things that naturally pair well!

A famous quote by John Wanamaker helps to illustrate just why they go together so well: "I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half."

Well, Google Analytics helps you to break down just how well your pay-per-click advertising is working and literally tells you where you are wasting money, and making money! Here's a run-down of some of the reports to keep handy as you optimize your pay-per-click campaigns:

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August 28, 2006

What a good point! Avinash Kaushik recently posted in his blog, Occam's Razor, about the importance and the possible impact of abandonment rates.

Think about this: have you ever seen somebody load up their cart with groceries at the supermarket, wheel up to the checkout lane, wait in line, make it up to the cashier... and just walk away? Just leave their cart full of groceries sitting there in the checkout lane and walk out the door?

I sure haven't! But that is almost exactly what happens with online shopping cart abandonment. In the online world it is a little more complicated, but putting an item in a shopping cart still indicates a serious interest in purchasing that item.

Kaushik points out that "depending on the cost of items you sell on your website each percent point of abandonment could represent tens of thousands to millions of dollars per month in revenue."

And it's true!

When people abandon their shopping cart that is money left on the table. That makes optimizing your checkout procedure (or lead capture process, download process, or any other online process) for reduced abandonment an immensely rewarding practice!

The Free Google Analytics Webinar we host has an entire section dedicated to tips on how to reduce shopping cart abandonment (We call it the 'Pure Profit' section, because that's what you'll earn more of when you reduce your abandonment rates). If you are interested in receiving some tips in addition to those Kaushik outlines in his article, stop on by and sign up for our free webinar today!

August 15, 2006

We're thrilled to spread the exciting news - Google Analytics is now open to everyone! No more waiting around for invitation codes! (I can hear the huge sigh of relief that is sweeping the nation from my computer chair!)

The awesome Google team has been diligently working toward this since Google Analytics was offered for free (surprise, surprise!) this past November. Some great new features and a lot of additional capacity later, and they did it!

Personally, I can't wait to see how the online world progresses 6 months from now, a year from now, five years from now, and beyond. With such a powerful analytics tool available to everyone, from a business owner with a website all the way to a kid with a personal blog, interesting and thrilling things are on the horizon!

Buckle your seatbelts, and let's see where this goes...

July 21, 2006

In past articles, such as Profitable Content network bidding in Google AdWords using the new AdWords Analysis report, we discuss how to use Google Analytics to conduct A/B split tests.

Google Analytics defines A/B split testing as "Testing the relative effectiveness of multiple versions of the same advertisement, or other content, in referring visitors to a site."

An excellent article was recently written by Matthew Roche in Conversion Chronicles, "Do Your Home Page Tests Flop? We Know Why...", which outlines the four major obstacles to getting your A/B split tests on your homepage to work correctly.

The fact is that most companies make their first foray into live testing by showing two versions of a home page (often one for a week, then another). And sadly, many of these folks find that both versions perform equally well (or equally poorly).

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July 17, 2006

Our last newsletter included a survey which asked people what kind of site they have, and as of the date of this writing a whooping 75% of those who answered have an e-commerce site! Taking that into account, let's discuss the Product Merchandising section of Google Analytics, which shows up under the E-Commerce Analysis tab.

The Product Keyword Correlation report is especially exciting: this shows you directly inside the thought process of your customers! This report correlates product purchases on the site back to the original keywords used in a search. So this answers the question when customers search for your products, did they search under the product's brand name, a description, an attribute? What were they looking for? Once you understand this, you can directly address the customer's needs in their own language. This report can also be used as an idea-generator for PPC keyword discovery.

The Product Performance report offers a wealth of information, including the number of items sold, the total revenue, the average price, and the average order quantity for each product you sell online. This makes it possible to do very interesting things, such as testing site elements or promotions to see how they impact specific products. If you owned a candle store, assume in June you sold 1.2 candles per average transaction. Then in July you launched a promotion where you could get 3 candles for $29.95, when individual candles sell for $12 apiece. During this promotion you sell an average of 1.9 candles per average transaction, which you tracked with the Product Performance report.

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July 13, 2006

Previously, Yahoo! Store owners couldn't use Google Analytics in conjunction with their stores to capture e-commerce data such as which keyword phrases are profitable, but that has all changed! The team at Monitus LLC has developed a tool that makes it possible to use Google Analytics with a Yahoo! Store.

This is incredibly exciting since this is the ONLY tool that will allow you to successfully use Google Analytics in conjunction with your Yahoo! Store. This will finally allow all the Yahoo! Store owners out there to track which keyword phrases are profitable so that you can really target your search phrases using both organic and paid search.

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July 10, 2006

The Site Overlay report in Google Analytics is great for showing the value of the links within your site. Great - I know the percentage of visitors that click on the 'Contact Us' link... but which 'Contact Us' link did they really use? The Site Overlay report doesn't count each link going to a certain destination separately.

All of the links going to one place get added to the overall count since the report cannot differentiate between links on different spots on the same page. For example, on the homepage of ROIrevolution.com we have four links going to the page where people can sign up to attend a free Google Analytics training webinar. Each of these four links used to have the same stats when we studied it in the Site Overlay report. That is until we made a slight change...

So wouldn't it be nice to know which link most people actually click to sign up for that webinar? Knowing this information can provide a valuable glance into a visitor's mind, especially when the links you are inspecting are those links visitors use to convert to one of your site's goals!

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May 23, 2006

Google Analytics is so customizable it can sometimes be challenging to decide exactly what the best route to take for your situation would be. When you set up Google Analytics, the call on whether or not to monetize your goals can be one that is particularly baffling, but it doesn't have to be.

I'll spell it out: if you don't have a straight-up e-commerce site, monetize your goals. You'll be glad you did!

If you DO have e-commerce enabled, then there are a total of 81 reports available in Google Analytics, and 43 of those reports contain financial information. So 53% of the total number of reports offered use financial data to convey complete sets of data. Plus, this is data you really want - - what the return on investment is on a certain campaign or your revenue from that transaction, etc.

Ok, so far everybody out there is nodding their heads saying, "Yeah, that's common sense for an e-commerce site! Tell me something I don't know".

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April 28, 2006

In the previous article, 'Continual Conversion Rate Improvement Part I', I talked about how optimizing a website's conversion rate can have a huge impact on the bottom line. Improving your conversion rate is an on-going process, not a quick fix. Every little thing matters, and so it pays to pay attention to the details. Discount Tire found out just how true this is.

This quote is from the case study "How Discount Tire boost sales with Google Analytics" on Internet Retailer:

Discount Tire used Google Analytics to determine, for example, the most effective language to use in its checkout process. By replacing the note on its checkout button from "Purchase and make a reservation" to "Check out and make a reservation," it led to a 14% increase in sales in a single week, says e-business supervisor Mike Bolland.

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April 26, 2006

As you may know, conversion rate is the percentage of people who complete a certain action on your site like making a purchase or submitting a form. The conversion rate is one of the ways to accurately measure just how well your site is performing its job.

Improving conversion rate has a huge impact: raising the conversion rate from 1% to 2% would represent a 100% increase in goal completion. For an e-commerce site, that would mean double the revenue! When you increase your conversion rate, you get more sales from your existing traffic which saves on marketing expenses, customer acquisition cost goes down, and the customer retention rate goes up.

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March 30, 2006

The definition of what an online 'scenario' is depends on whether you ask a techie or a marketer. Bryan Eisenberg recently wrote an outstanding article on this subject, "What Exactly is a Scenario?" that outlines the different views on what a scenario is and the key components of the persuasion scenario.

In his article, the 'techie' definition of a scenario "is a series of steps a visitor must take to complete a funnel process", and the marketer thinks "in terms of narrating how a visitor could participate in a conversion action".

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March 24, 2006

Update 7/12/2006: With the introduction of the Google Analytics "AdWords Analysis" report, the methodology described below is no longer necessary to track AdWords Ad Creatives using A/B Split tests. Instead, please refer to our post about using the new AdWords Analysis report (be sure to scroll closer to the bottom of the article to learn about tracking AdWords ad creatives using A/B split tests).

No matter the goal of your Google Adwords campaign one thing is always necessary; constant optimization! While Google's "Auto Tagging" option is an easy way to get basic tracking data, with just a little more effort it is possible to take your tracking to a higher level!

By adding additional tracking codes to your referral URL link and turning off auto tagging, you are able to drill down even further in Google Analytics, allowing you to make the most out of every advertising dollar.

UTM, which stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor, are tags which are added to the end of your destination URL in order to add specific data to your paid tracking within Google Analytics. These tags identify such variables as campaign, source, medium, content, and search term.

Currently with the Google AdWords "Auto Tagging" feature the utm_content variable identifies each ad by the first line of text. This can cause problems if you are trying to implement A/B split testing because Auto-Tagging simply passes the ad text headline to the utm_content variable. This makes it impossible to differentiate tracking data from two different ads that share the same headline.

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March 20, 2006

Why is conversion rate (or the percentage of your traffic that completes a purchase) being bandied about like it is the new panacea for web analytics? Is it really all that great? The first thing to look at is there are three main ways to increase the revenue coming from your website: increase the traffic, increase spending level, or increase the conversion rate.

The main reason to increase traffic is the assumption that the percentage of people who make purchases will remain stable and so more traffic means more people making purchases, which isn't always the case. Most ways for increasing traffic cost money: pay-per-click campaigns, banner ads, promotions, public relation campaigns, etc.

Increasing the level of spending entails getting your current customers to spend more. Sounds great, doesn't it? This can be done in a variety of ways like packaging services or products or cross-selling.

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February 27, 2006

Getting to the top of the organic or even the pay-per-click search list isn't the end of the battle - it's only the beginning. Think about the way you search online; you type in a phrase in the query box, and you click on the most promising result on the first page. Once you hit that first page, if it isn't immediately apparent that you have found what you're looking for, then you hit the back button and try the next result. So how do you get people to stop at your site, and not hit that back button for the next result?

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February 24, 2006

According to a Jupiter report, Key Performance Indicators - Using Analytics to Drive Action, a stunningly large percentage of companies don't bother to distribute analytic reports to the people within the company who can use them!

Less then 20% of the companies surveyed distribute analytics data to merchandising departments for review on a regular basis, and only 53% of marketing teams review analytics data. But surely the executives pay attention to the analytics data?

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January 23, 2006

If you have set up your goals in Google Analytics, then one report that can provide some incredibly useful information is the 'Defined Funnel Abandonment' report. If you need some help setting up your goals, take a look at an earlier article, "How To Set Up Goals In Google Analytics". This report tells you what percentage of visitors that begin a defined funnel process abandon it.

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January 17, 2006

The retail industry average conversion rate is a measly 1.8%, according to Shop.org Research. Many people are pleased with a 2% conversion rate from their website because of the average 2% conversion rate that direct mail usually nets, which Robbin Steif points out in the article that appeared on the Web Analytics Association website, "Why your 2% conversion rate is so lousy".

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January 11, 2006

Google Analytics is a phenomenally powerful tool, and every tool must be used towards some end goal. It is tempting to assume that the end goal is to get as many visitors to your site as possible, assuming that more people mean more conversions. More is not necessarily better, though!

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January 9, 2006

It wasn't that long ago that pageviews were the hottest metric to hit town, and everybody was talking about how 'sticky' their site was. Today, we realize that getting somebody to your site is still a long way from accomplishing a goal. Conversion rate is quickly becoming the new hot metric, but is this metric any better than pageviews were?

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January 5, 2006

Based on what is important to you, create a list of the goals for your site. Keep in mind there are only 4 slots for separate goals and that goals are intended to help you watch key areas of interest, not your whole site. It is much better to concentrate on the few really important variables then many trivial variables.

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January 2, 2006

In the previous article "What Should Be Tracked?" we discussed how to figure out what to track on your company's 'dash-board' and single out the reports within Google Analytics that apply to your website. So now that you know what to watch, now you need to know how often to check on it. The man who looks at his gas gauge once a month soon finds himself on the side of the road, wishing he had glanced down a little more often!

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December 30, 2005

What you track and the reports you pay attention to within Google Analytics depends on the goals of your site. Google Analytics has over 80 reports, and only a small percentage of those reports provide truly relevant information and give value for your site. Every site has a unique set of goals based on the main function of the site, and these goals will help you to pick the reports that really matter for your specific website. If your site is a retail site, then one of your main goals might be to increase your conversion rate of visitors to customers from 1% to 2%. That might not sound like a big difference, but that would be a 100% increase in revenue!

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