Mymotech

In my work I do a lot of implementing of specific tools, mostly WebTrends. I install, configure, train and then walk away and leave the organization to figure out where to go next.
Problems abound with this scenario. Usually there are a couple of things missing in almost all of these organizations where I do this: someone to understand the data and someone to promote the data.
Understanding the data takes analysis. At Emetrics, back in April, one of the most engaging presenters, Avinash Kaushik from Intuit, detailed very clearly what is needed in this area. You can read all about it on his new blog Occam’s Razor. It comes down to a smart person with business acumen. Someone like me. :)

I was thrilled to be able to go to Emetrics Summit in Santa Barbara this year. It was very awesome. Over the next couple of weeks I will try to publish what I have learned from this conference.

Two quick notes about the conference in general:

1. Jim Sterne is a delightful and engaging presenter
2. There is an extreme amount of potential in the field of web analytics for innovation.

More to come soon, I promise.

Emetrics, web analytics, Jim Sterne

I was honored to participate on a web analytics panel recently. And while the panel was mostly targeted at which KPIs count the most and other boring number crap, during the QA time the inevitable question about Google Analytics came up.

To give you some background. I am used to working with WebTrends, Omniture, WebSideStory, ClickTracks, etc… Obviously I have used Google Analytics extensively as well. I am a big fan of Google Analytics and now of Performancing Metrics too. In fact maybe I should rename my subtitle “I am measuring the crap out of this site.”

OK, back to my story. Someone asked the panel what they thought of Google Analytics. I gave the standard answer.

• It is great.
• It is dangerous for privacy reasons.
• It is dangerous for business reasons.

Back when Google Analytics first came out I remember that a lot of people saw doom for the web analytics vendors like WebTrends etc… Personally, I never saw that. In fact I think that it is having the opposite effect. Because everything Google does creates a huge buzz, they have actually heightened the consciousness for web analytics across the internet. This is playing out to make life better for the other vendors because there are still massive amounts of FUD that they can heap onto Google’s tool.

That being said I am going to start running a couple of these tools side by side, because usually there is more to be discovered than it usually appears at first glance.

I have been looking at live.com, which is Microsoft’s new look search engine or something. It has some interesting features like a never ending page of results that you slide through. Hurray, everyone is on page one. And there are some nice feature in the image search.

But then I got a referral from live.com in my web analytics reports. Naturally, I was intrigued. Now, ranking for something in Microsoft SERPs is not particularly hard, but I am always glad for a little search engine love. So naturally I drilled into the referring information to see what search phrase brought this particular visitor. Unfortunately, there was no keyword information for that referral. Suddenly my head was filled with ideas of writing a nice how-to piece on getting keyword reporting for live.com in Google Analytics. I always like to write Google Analytics pieces. But as I was doing a wee bit of research it became disturbingly clear that this was not going to be the case. Microsoft wasn’t passing the search phrase in the referrer field. COME ON! This is search engine 101. By having the search phrase in the query string of the referring URL you allow people to understand what keywords and phrases are driving traffic to their site.

Sheesh, come on people get your act together over there.

I was sitting in a meeting this morning reviewing a statement of work with a client. As we walked through the project plan we were talking about some specifics related to the implementation of a web analytics tool. During our discussion I started talking about some exciting possibilities within the application for applying a whole new level of data analysis, and my eyes must have lit up because everyone in the room just stopped and stared at me for a second.
At first I felt a little bit sheepish, but it became immediately apparent that to the client this was a good thing. By showing a genuine interest in the capabilities of the tool and in the potential impact on their organization, I ended up making the client feel better about hiring us to do the project. Indeed, it was the first time I have ever seen someone sign a statement of work right in front of me.

I guess the moral of this story to me, is enthusiasm can be contagious. And when applied at the right time it can give confidence to the person buying your services.

web analytics, consulting, business thoughts

Performancing has released a beta of their Performancing Metrics tool to allow bloggers to track their blogs. Features include:

1. Multiple blog aggregation. neato.
2. RSS feed of metrics data
3. Adsense tracking built in

What do they need to add?

1. Filter capability to remove certain traffic data
2. comparative date ranges
3. This needs verification but, drilldown capability. For example, which search phrases produced comments, RSS subscription, or other important goal.

All that being said, this is a pretty amazing thing for this group to have put together. I am very impressed. I haven’t seen any stats yet so I will post more when I have some numbers to look at.

Performancing, web analytics, performancing metrics, blog measurement

Seth Godin recently spoke at Google. It was awesome. I have been working on a project from the beginning of the produt lifecycle recently, and there are so many true things about how to market effectively in todays web. This is really long 48min. You need Google Video Player to play this.

Google, Seth Godin, Permission Marketing

When I wrote about Ditech using NOSCRIPT tags to put SEO’d content on their pages I used the word unethical a few times. In retrospect, unethical is probably not the best word for it. What a company decides to put on their webpages is not a matter of ethics unless it is breaking some law or something. Obviously, there is a little more water in that well, but I don’t want to get into it. Now, unwise or dumb may be a suitable moniker for what is happening on Ditech.com.

Well, a fellow named Chris commented on my blog asking the question:

Please explain this comment, “If nothing happens eventually the credibility of the organic results will erode.”

While I’m not for “spam” results in natural search please explain how this result, which is 100% relevant to the search term, in anyway hurts the user experience?

Well, Chris works for iCrossing. For those of you who don’t know, iCrossing is a very reputable and large SEO firm. It is also extremely likely that iCrossing is the SEO firm that put those NOSCRIPT tags on the Ditech.com website. (Since GM is a client of iCrossing, and Ditech is a GMAC subsidiary.)

So, what is my response:
I am not for spam in the natural results either Chris. My point was not one about the user experience. I fully believe that the user should have access to the Ditech.com website on page one for “home equity loan”. However, I do maintain that it is shortsighted to place NOSCRIPT tags with siginificant amounts of content on a website that could suffer a lot if Google changes their algorithm to ban methods like that which are clearly already in violation of the Google webmaster guidelines. I personally am not a Google abuse reporter. I don’t report stuff like that, but it is nice to get the attention of such wonderful people as iCrossing to help me promote my blog.

Ditech, iCrossing, Bad SEO, SEO

This is the first post in February. Suffice it to say that I have been super busy.

• I helped a national brand create measurement for all of their online marketing campaigns.
• I led an effort to create a complete online marketing strategy for a major financial institution.
• I watched many hours of NBC Olympics coverage

Life has been busy. So how have you been?

Here is a link to a funny post over at Wolf-Howl

have you ever pictured Google like this?

wolf howl, too busy to post

When I changed the focus of my blog, I wanted all the things that a starry-eyed blogger wanted:

1. A million bucks from AdSense
2. A thousand feed subscribers
3. and a daily mention on BoingBoing or Slashdot

Surprisingly, none of those things happened. Overall, I am happy with my lot in blogging. I have a small but growing audience and a trickle of AdSense income. But what about those successful bloggers that make all that cash? Are they happy? A new post over at Performancing by Chris Garrett gives some good for thought. More and more, bloggers have to face the challenge of who and what they are blogging for. Is my blog just a pass through for a bunch of ad-clickers? or is it a meaningful content web site where I make a contribution to the field that I am a professional in? and can it be both?

These are good questions. I think that the answers are as individual as the blogs that litter the internet.