Here are five good SEO reasons to use Google Analytics:

1. Search Engine Traffic
Google Analytics tracks search engine traffic to your site. This captured data tells you how many of your site visitors arrived via engines as well as the how your search traffic ranks compared to your other traffic sources (direct traffic / referring sites). It also identifies the engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo! Bing) and who sent the most traffic. By default, GA tracks more than 20 different search engines. There is also a breakdown available between paid and non-paid keyword driven traffic.

2. Keywords
In addition to automatically tracking search engine sources, Google Analytics tracks keywords that send search traffic to your site. This data tells you which keywords / keyword phrases were used by your site’s visitors and ranks them according to popularity. You can drill down further to determine more details for each keyword including statistics on organic and paid search.

3. Content Performance
Since optimizing content for search is the basics of search engine optimization, tracking page performance is essential. Google Analytics tracks data on which web pages attract site visitors and displays them in order of which are performing the best (listed by URL). You can also view this data by Page Title. The Content Drilldown report provides a list of top pages based on content sections within your website. Top Landing Pages, sent by search engines traffic can also be identified, as well as data on how well they perform.

4. Campaign Tracking
This is a more advanced feature than the above three, as it needs to be set up. Google Analytics can do campaign tracking. This includes Google AdWords by default. However you can also track any search marketing (as well as offline) campaigns. Campaign tracking is implemented by using link tagging (a unique URL to identify each marketing source).

5. Site Search
Likely the most overlooked – yet a real valuable source of SEO data. This is only for those sites that have a search box and allow web visitors to do an internal search to find information. Google Analytics can track these search terms as well a search term refinements at the site level. This requires set up as well.

Accessing the data, of course, is only the first step in the web analytics process. You need to measure, analyze, test and modify – always working towards your desired outcomes.

If you do not have Google Analytics installed on your website or if you are not monitoring your site outcomes, it is time to get started.

Recent Post: Google Analytics Qualified Professional Helen Faber

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Why use Google Analytics for SEO? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

This time I am joined by WebFuel’s Search Strategist, Helen Faber. We’re both quite excited for the amazing lineup of speakers which included analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, online marketing pioneer Gary Vaynerchuk, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, brand strategist Jeffrey Hayzlett and Columbia University Business professor Dr. Sheena Iyengar. Over 1200 eager marketers file into the magnificent Metro Toronto Convention Centre, creating a great atmosphere. You can feel the anticipation for the day’s first speaker – Avinash Kaushik.

Avinash Kaushik

To begin with, I love Avinash. He is the only man alive that can make such a boring topic (Analytics) something entertaining, interesting and even funny. His energy and enthusiasm on stage was very well received by the morning crowd. Just as he did in Montreal, Kaushik shouts and rants on stage about “Garbage” and “Puke”! He points out the mistakes that many make, while giving you realistic solutions and advice. Avinash explains that the reason that most websites “suck” is do to the HPPO’s (pronounced “Hippos”). That stands for Highest Paid Person’s Opinon. He elaborates by stating that at most large companies, the highest paid person makes decisions about things that they know nothing about – websites – and 95% of the time it is ugly, and awful. One of the most well-received acronyms in Avinash’s arsenal was HITS: How Idiots Track Success. But, the quote that hit home hardest for me was that “you can’t improve something by 1000%. But you can improve 1000 things by 1%.” Brilliant.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Next up was Gary Veynerchuk. A true entrepreneur, Vaynerchuk is enthusiatic, outgoing and…well…quite vulgar! But amidst the swearing and rants was a great, inspirational message. Gary became well known for Wine Library TV, a video blog that he created to help sell wine for his family’s business. Vaynerchuk truly understands the consumer and the social web. He expressed his hatred for companies that don’t talk to, or even about, their customers. They are the lifeblood of your business. in order to get your customers to love you, you must love them first. Building loyalty should be first and foremost, because a loyal customer is there for life. He left the crowd with an outstanding stat followed by a piece of advice. First off, the stat: There is more original content being created every 48 hours today than there was from the beginning of man kind until 2003. Wow. And finally, his advice was simple. If someone starts to gloat about how many followers they have on Twitter, punch them in the face. Thanks Gary. Needless to say, I will absolutely be reading Gary’s newest book, The Thank You Economy.

Jeffrey Hayzlett

Last up before lunch was Jeffrey Hayzlett, former Kodak CMO. Hayzlett is well known for being a crucial player in Kodak’s legendary branding turnaround in the early 2000′s. As he takes the stage, it is quite evident that Hayzlett is a natural leader and marketer. “A brand is not a logo or a picture. A brand is simply a promise to deliver” he explains. “Kodak doesn’t make a camera or film equipment. They make emotional technology.” He goes on to discuss Social Media and the common desire to create something viral. “Viral is flukey” he claims. “Yes, it may happen, but please don’t waste your time and effort trying to create it. If it happens, it happens. Spend your time building relationships. They are much more valuable.” He is enthusiastic and spontaneous. He likes to take and idea and run with it. Hayzlett’s motto throughout his speech was “Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. No one is going to die.” He explained by telling a story about a marketing campaign that Kodak had launched that encouraged consumers to text a number via their mobile phones to receive coupons. All of the ads were run in movie theatres before the show. Well, the downfall of the campaign is quite evident. What do you do with your phone when you walk into a movie theatre? Turn it off, right? “Well,” Hayzlett says “It was a mistake. My mistake. But don’t worry, no one is going to die. Let’s move on.” It’s this outlook and attitude that makes Hayzlett an amazing marketer. No one is perfect. People make mistakes. It’s how they react and learn from those mistakes that makes a difference.

Dr. Sheena Iyengar

After a much needed lunch, we returned to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to Dr. Sheena Iyengar, expert on consumer behaviour and the psychology of choice. Iyengar was definitely a change of pace. While the other presenters were jumping around from one side of the stage to the next, yelling and screaming passionately, she spoke softly while standing behind her podium for the full hour. But then again, while the others are radical, outgoing marketers, she is a University Professor. Her topic was also quite different. While the others put quite a heavy focus on the online space, Dr. Iyengar discussed the psychological side behind marketing. She examined the art of choice, and how humans make decisions when faced with a variety of different options. The conclusions drawn from her study were quite interesting. She stated that when people are given more choice, often times they take longer to make a decision, they make a worse decision and are ultimately less satisfied with their choice. They second guess themselves and think “Did I make the wrong decision?” She went on the explain that humans are born with the desire to choose, but without the innate skills to actually make a decision. In closing she provided the crowd with an interesting example. She told us that if you give someone the choice between going to an ice cream shop that only offered vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, or a shop that offered over 60 flavours, most people would choose the latter. But, interestingly enough even though they chose the shop with 60 flavours, most people would continue to buy either chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.

Guy Kawasaki
Last, but certainly not least, Guy Kawasaki took the stage to round out the day. He begins by winning over the crowd by praising hockey, Steam Whistle beer and…Justin Bieber. How Canadian, eh? Kawasaki’s message was all about how to be enchanting. A former Apple employee and author of over 10 best selling books, Kawasaki brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the stage. He stressed that trust is key – and that it is a two way street. Earn it, and maintain it. In order to enchant your employees you must give them MAP – Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose. With that they can, and will, succeed. He expressed the need to build relationships, engage, help others and, most of all, to enchant them. Kawasaki advises the crowd to not delay bad news. If something bad happens, tell people right away – don’t let it be a surprise. And always tell them with a solution in mind. Avoiding the inevitable will only make things worse. After a few more comments about how much Guy loves Canada, we move into the final Q&A session of the day. One audience member asks Kawasaki “Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are all undeniably amazing and successful entrepreneurs. Do you think that they are enchanting?” Guy laughs, takes a sip of water and responds “I hate that question. I’ll say this. You don’t need to be enchanting to be successful.”

The crowd erupts in laughter and applause. Kawasaki gives us one last wave, and the event’s host Ron Tite wraps up The Art of Marketing Toronto – a day filled with excitement, enthusiasm, passion, lessons, ideas and strategies. If you ever get the chance to hear any of these presenters speak, I highly suggest it.

The next big conference that I will be attending will be Search Marketing Expo in Toronto April 28-29th. Will I see you there?

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The Art of Marketing Toronto is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

• SEO can’t save a sinking ship
• SEO recommendations don’t implement themselves

Jill

Jill Whalen, CEO  of High Rankings and co-founder of SEMNE, has been performing SEO services since 1995. Jill is the host of the HRA SEO newsletter and the High Rankings SEO forum. Original article published on Talent Zoo.

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SEO: You’re Bound to Lose Website Traffic If… is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

The Art of Marketing is a conference that features 6 World renowned best-selling authors – Mitch Joel, Seth Godin, Avinash Kaushik, Max Lenderman, Andy Nulman and Jeffrey Gitomer – who shared a blend of inspirational, forward thinking, real-world marketing stories, tips, ideas and issues. The day on a whole was exhausting – in a good way. Hundreds of eager marketers filled a large conference room at the Palais des Congrès in downtown Montreal. Ron Tite, the host of the day’s event hops up on stage, full of energy and humor. After he welcomes the crowd, he introduces the first of six speakers – Mitch Joel.

Mitch Joel

Author of the best-selling book Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel is a marketing genius and a member of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. Joel addressed several new marketing issues faced by organizations and how digital marketing and Social Media are changing the game. Joel shared numerous mind-blowing stats with the crowd, who “ooh-ed” and “aah-ed”. The one that stood out the most to me was that 20% of searches made daily on Google have never been made before. He went on to discuss the demographics of major Social Networks. Joel says that there are more grandparents than High School students on Facebook, and half of YouTube‘s audience is over 34 years old. He stressed that understanding your audience is key. Know who they are, and target them in the right places. “Stop marketing, start publishing” he preaches. People get hung up on the little things and over-complicate their marketing efforts. He explains how a negative review online more often than not leads to sales. Why? People appreciate transparency and authenticity.  “So, what’s the secret?” Joel asks. “Just word hard and be nice to people.” It’s as simple as that.

Seth Godin

After a short networking break, the day continues with super-marketer Seth Godin. Author of numerous best-sellers including The Dip and Purple Cow, Godin is a truly inspirational marketing genius. Like Joel, Godin has an uncanny ability to make things simple. “Don’t worry about what’s next, worry about what’s now” says Godin. “Go ahead, make mistakes – and learn from them!” Godin goes on to explain that we need to stop shouting our messages at people. Old marketing was all about shout – interrupting people with our message. “Don’t interrupt people who don’t like you, organize people who you’re connected with” he says. And as for these people – your customers – they all just want to fit in. Fitting in is being the most average. Godin uses the iPod as an example. Yes Apple make amazing products – he doesn’t deny that. But the reason that they sell so many iPods is not the technology behind it – it’s the marketing. “Apple doesn’t make an MP3 player. They make jewelery with a function!” People just want to be seen with those white ear buds – to fit in, to be the most average. After a short Q&A with the audience, Godin leaves the crowd satisfied and inspired as we head off to lunch.

Avinash Kaushik

Next up – brand monitoring and web analytics expert Avinash Kaushik. As Avinash takes the stage, the guy beside me sarcastically mutters to himself  “Great, an hour of listening to some guy talk about Web Analytics. This should be fun.” Well, was he ever wrong. Avinash took the stage by storm. His surprising enthusiasm and energy was enjoyed by all. His message was comprised of entertaining quotes, educational information and the occasional yelling of “Suck!” and “Puke!” As crazy as he was, in my opinion Avinash was the best presenter of the day. Referring to his books and his blog Avinash says that “People like to pay for things that are free.” His ability to make analytics the most entertaining topic of the day is beyond me. He explained how most people monitoring their brand are doing it wrong. He presents the crowd with a clever acronym – HITS: How Idiots Track Success. Like Godin, Avinash explains that people make things too hard for themselves by over complicating things. “You can’t improve 1 thing by 1000%” he explains, “But you can improve 1000 things by 1%” Great advice. He finishes by declaring that “revenue is good…but economic value is GOD!” Engaging, educational, and a little bit crazy. I guess that’s the recipe for a great marketer.

Max Lenderman

I think most of us in the crowd felt bad for Max. I mean, how do you follow Avinash? That’s a tough gig. But, all in all, he pulled it off. Casually drinking a Molson Export on stage, Lenderman discussed branding and experiential marketing using a variety of real-life examples from around the globe. He explains that people of the world are very brand atheistic and price conscious. That’s how people continue to sell counterfeit products. But piracy and counterfeiting isn’t all that bad. It keeps the big brands on their toes – makes them compete on “the experience”. This is exactly what Apple has done with the Apple Store. They have created an experience for customers that goes up and above the product itself. In closing, Lenderman reminded the crowd to just “Be Authentic”. Simple and effective. After a short networking break we were back for Andy Nulman.

Andy Nulman

Another best selling author and marketing pioneer, Andy Nulman, was next. He shared his theories, ideas and stories about strategy and innovation. With over 35 years of experience in the field, that included a 15 year stint as the CEO of the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, Andy sure had a lot to say. He opened with a favourite quote of his, by Tom Peters: “Value added in today’s economy is created by the weirdo’s and the freaks.” He encouraged everybody in the room to stop trying to be normal. Normal is blah. You want to be Abnormal! As Nulman continued, he preached to the crowd that the Impossible is possible. It might have been a long day, but the crowd became restless during Nulman’s talk. There was an overall feeling in the area in which I was sitting that he was being more self-promotional, and less educational. I over heard a woman in front of me say to a friend “Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!” referring to Nulman’s constant stories about his own successes. Give him credit he stuck it out to the end, full of energy and enthusiasm.

Jeffrey Gitomer

Last, but surely not least, Jeffrey Gitomer. The 60-something, hard nosed, no nonsense – yet hilarious, Gitomer took the stage. He immediately won the Montreal crowd over by showing a photo of the Stanley Cup on his first slide, and saying “If you’re from Toronto, this is what the Stanley Cup looks like.” Then he hopped off the stage, got down to business. A true salesman, Gitomer exclaims “I put people in front of me that will say yes to me, and then I deliver!” Walking through the crowd as he spoke, Gitomer made a real connection with the audience. “Are you still wasting money on print ads?” he asks with a tone of frustration and anger in his voice. “Good for you. Your full page ad in the Gazette is getting pissed on by some puppy the next day!” He went to explain that “the future is Social. It’s free you idiots!”

He continued by discussing marketing and selling yourself. He told the crowd to reach into their pockets and hand their business card to someone near them who they didn’t know. “If it looks like crap, rip it up and throw it back at them” he yells. The crowd didn’t quite know what to do. Surely some people thought the business cards they were handed were worthy of such destruction, but didn’t want to insult others. “Why does your business card suck? It’s your first impression – make it a good one!” He went on the explain the importance of blogging, and getting youname.com or .ca – and a quick poll of the crowd showed that only about 5% of us had done so. He was disgusted. But Gitomer’s on the edge attitude didn’t come across as cocky, or annoying. It acted as an eye opener to the crowd of seemingly clueless sales people and marketers. “Oh my god,” said one guy beside me “I gotta get my .ca tomorrow!” Gitomer’s message was heard loud and clear. He finished by encourage the crowd to use Twitter – but use it right. Don’t worry about how many followers you have. Worry about being Retweeted. That’s what gets you noticed on Twitter. “Twitter isn’t 140 characters,” he says “It’s 120 characters with space left over for a Retweet.” Excellent.

Joel, Godin, Avinash, Lenderman, Nulman and Gitomer. What a star-studded lineup. I felt very fortunate to have gone to Montreal to watch, and listen to this diverse group of marketing geniuses. I would highly encourage you to take the opportunity to listen to any of of these guys speak, or even pick up one of their books. You won’t be disappointed. Until next year Art of Marketing, au revoir!

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The Art of Marketing: From a WebFuel Perspective is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Google Analytics, Eh?
This is the first in a series of posts covering what data to analyze in Google Analytics if you are targeting the Canadian marketplace, starting with Map Overlay.

Featured Report: Map Overlay
The Map Overlay report displays location data. It tells you where your website visitors are coming from – or where they are not coming from.

How to find Map Overlay in GA
You can access Map Overlay via your Google Analytics Dashboard (just click on “view report” link) or select “Map Overlay” found under the “Visitors” section in the navigation bar (left hand side).

Country Level: Canada
By default, Google Analytics gives you an overview of the World map. It displays website traffic from a Country/Territory perspective indicated in green. The greater the percentage of visitors that come from that particular country, the darker the shade of green.

Note: Primary source of web traffic is from Canada

City Level: Canadian Cities
When you drill down from the  country level, you can access the city data. Popular Canada cites and territories include: Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Fredericton, Regina, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec City, St. John’s, Halifax, Charlottetown, Yellowknife, Iqaluit and Whitehorse. Traffic from various cities is indicated in orange. Again, the darker the shade of orange, the higher the number of website visitors.

Note: Web Traffic from Canadian Cities

Note: The major cities may not include the entire geographic area. For example, if you are trying to get found in an Ottawa Search (as in Ottawa, Ontario), you will need to take into account Kanata, Nepean, Orleans, Gloucester, Vanier, Manotick, Carleton Place and maybe even Gatineau, Québec.

Province Level: Canadian Provinces
While Map Overlay shows you traffic by country all the way down to the city level, it is missing Canadian province data. If you are targeting getting found in a Canadian Search, province and territory data would be helpful. Especially if you are comparing traffic from Ontario to Québec for example. One option is to create a filter to only include traffic from a selected province. However, this is not ideal when you will need to navigate between profiles to compare each province.

Note: Web traffic from Canadian Provinces

Solution: Custom Report(s)
You can take all the cities in Ontario, and create a custom report. Simply select “country/territory” as dimension, and then “region”. Add the metric “Visits”, save and you’re done! To access this new report, just click on “Canada” and you will have access to Provinces and Territories of Canada. And… yes – if you wish to know all the traffic in the Ottawa area, a report can be created for this as well.

Web analytics is a powerful tool to use in terms of website Search Engine Optimization, especially if your business is targeting specific geographic regions. If you need data based on Canada, Ontario or Ottawa for example, the Map Overlay Report, and customized reports, can be very helpful. It is important to note however that the specific geographic location is based on where the servers are located. So… factor this into the equation when performing your analysis.

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Targeting Canada, Eh? Google Analytics & Map Overlay is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

One of the first pieces of data most website owners look at is their website’s Visitors (how many people come to a website) & then their Bounce Rate. Google describes Bounce rate as:

Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page). Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality and a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages aren’t relevant to your visitors.

This number can be sobering as you have probably spent loads of hard earned cash expecting that everyone will love your website and that the information you have provided will be relevant to what the web searcher is looking for. This is not always the case. And, to be honest, although monitoring a site’s visitors & bounce rate is important, it is not the be all and end all.

I digress. This post is actually about how to take advantage of a feature that is prevalent on most every website these days. The innocuous Search Box.

These days site search is becoming more and more important. Who is to say that once someone lands on your website, they will find what they want right away. You have invested heavily in organic SEO with the hope (prayer?) that once people search for that particular keyword or phrase, your site will be the first to appear in the SERP. This being the case, once the web surfer has clicked through to your site, you will (hopefully) be serving up the dish they ordered. If not, they may hang around a while and dig some more. If not, the will leave (Bounce!). Note: In theory the lower your site’s bounce rate the better.

Work in areas such as your Website’s design, speed and usability, content & it’s navigation system will help keep people on the site. Adding a useful Search Box is a great step forward. I say useful because the engine that powers your site’s search feature needs to serve up some goodies pretty quickly. If not…. Bye Bye….. “next”!

Fast forward! You have an awesome site with a great search appliance. You need to measure not only the fact that people are using that Search box, but also what they are searching for. The data you will mine here will invariably help you tune many aspects of your site. Really, it will!

Google Analytics serves up a great option that for some (insane?) reason many people ignore when they set up their GA account. And that my friends is the ability to track | measure internal site searches. By measuring and analyzing this information you will find out some nifty things.

Google Analytics - Site Search Statistics

As with any data, you will get more appreciable results by measuring over a prolonged period of time (i.e. 30 days versus 2 days).

It is interesting to draw comparisons of what people search for while on your site versus what they type in while getting there via a search engine. For example, why would someone key in “widgets” on your site when they already used the same keyword to get there from a search engine? In other words, web surfers are actually using their brains when they hit your site and use its search feature. They have taken the first step and found a site that should have something they are looking for to do with widgets. Time to refine that search.

Use of a site search box actually infers user engagement as they have arrived, and are intrigued by what they see. Despite not finding what they are looking for initially, they did not run! A second chance for you. Don’t mess up.

So be sure that the Search appliance you are using works well and that you take the time to enable your Analytics application’s ability to track internal site searches…. And mine that data. Analyze it, parse it, cut it, slice it! Draw conclusions. Assign goals. Then do it all over again.

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Taking Advantage of Your Website's Internal Search Statistics is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

I happen to love exploring data, and leveraging it in order to improve the things that fall under my purvey.

Stake in the ground: IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) you can never have too much information. In fact, the more the merrier! In the web analytics world, this translates through to me saying that one should collect as much data as possible with their web analytics application (Google Analytics, Webtrends, Woopra, etc…). You may not need the data now. But you probably will down the road.

The downside is that all of this data can be overwhelming to some. Akin to drinking water from a fire hose!

Simply installing a web analytics program really gives you nothing; apart from the ability to say that you have one installed. You need to look at your web presence and determine in the most basic of terms why it is there and what you want it to do for you. Simple enough. From there, you then take the data that is spewed (in such copious amounts) from your web analytics application and use it to move you and/or your business forward.

Out of the box Google Analytics (for example) gives you loads of information. But that is really only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The true power only comes to light when you dig into things and set particular targets. I have mentioned this often in the past.

For example, paying for inbound traffic through simple links or perhaps a banner ad is possibly a good idea. But, say you are laying down some serious coin for a banner ad. Surely you would want to know how much traffic your investment was bringing you. Moreover you would want to know what the fine people who were kind enough to click-through to your site did once they got there.

In the case of a banner ad, you are well within your rights to ask the provider to insert a small JavaScript snippet that will segregate the inbound traffic in Google Analytics (or whatever app you are leveraging) so that you can measure how many click-throughs you are getting. This way you can easily determine your cost per click of your banner ad. Also, it is advisable to have them link through to a webpage designed specifically to accept this paid traffic. You don’t want them hitting your main landing page if the goal is to point them to a specific product or service. Plus this is the only surefire way of not only counting how much traffic you are getting for your investment, but also where they go once they get there. You can easily determine the ROI of a banner ad is very low if the bounce rate of the dedicated landing page is 100%! Or very high, if a large percentage of  potential clients go from the particular landing page to your “Contact Us” page and request more information (Conversion!).

The scenario I outlined above is just a small slice of a bigger pie.

You need to look at each and every aspect of your website and determine what is measurable, how to measure it, and how to leverage the data you pull.

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Website Analytics – To Collect or Not to Collect… Data is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Once you have chosen the tool you are going to use, you will need to set it up. The process is relatively the same with each product:

• Sign up
• Grab your Tracking Code
• Insert Tracking Code into your website
• Verify that Tracking Code is installed correctly!
• Wait for Results to roll in
• Scratch head – What does this all mean?

Sign up

The signup process are all pretty simple and straightforward (Duh, who would make a hard sign up process?).

Google Analytics Signup Screen

Grab Your Tracking Code & Insert it into Your Website

This is easier then you would first assume. Don’t let all the “code” scare you. In most cases you are simply taking a code snippet and inserting it in a predetermined location in your website. These days, the bulk of  Website analytics vendors are using JavaScript (for better or for worse) to connect your site to their analytics platform.

Back to Google Analytics….. Here is an example of a standard tracking code snippet used by Google.

Sample GA Tracking Code

Oh dear! What is all that about? Well, if you really want to know, check out the Google Analytics Code information page. Otherwise, have faith that the developers of the Analytics program you are about to use know what they are doing!

This tracking code snippet should be included in your site’s pages so that it appears at the bottom of the page’s HTML (or generated-HTML) structure, before the closing <body> tag.

Verify that Tracking Code is installed correctly!

So you have installed your JavaScript code snippet. How do you know it’s working? Well, you can be sure that it is working if you start getting data. But, how do you know that your Web Analytics program is tracking all of the pages you want to have tracked? Duh! Good question. Imagine if you have implemented the code, but it is only tracking part of the activity on your website? You are dead in the water before you get started.

Things get a bit more complicated as no 2 websites are identical (in form or platform). For example, we use WordPress for all of our sites (exclusively). Adding tracking snippets is very easy as there is no coding to do at all. Just implement a nifty WordPress Plugin and paste your tracking code in. Presto!

Where and how to implement your code is heavily dependent on what platform you use. Don’t mess with this if you don’t know what you are doing. As soon as you get into Content Management Systems and complex URL structures, you better be very sure as to what you are doing. This is probably a good juncture to ask  your Webmaster to handle the implementation for you.

Wait for Results to roll in

Some vendors provide instantaneous data. Others do not. For example, Woopra collects and processes data instantaneously. This can be very useful if you need to make split second decisions and cannot wait overnight for the site statistics to roll up (IE Google Analytics). Example: an eCommerce site with lots of products and/or promotions.

Scratch head – What does this all mean?

If your website has been around for a while, I will assume that you already have traffic. This being the case, you will have reams of data looking at you straight in the face. What does it all mean? My advice is to to not get overwhelmed. Website Analytics software vendors are in a heated battle to outdo one another. This translates to what I mentioned previously (reams of data). Sadly not everything you see will be useful to you or your business. The trick is understanding what is important and what is not. There is no use falling in love with a set of data that is meaningless. Not to worry, I will address data analysis (cutting through the BS) in future posts.

Sidenote: This may be obvious… But make sure that you filter out traffic from yourself (your company?) (and perhaps your competitors….) as it is really meaningless in terms of getting an accurate view of who is coming to your website and the associated interactions. This actually reminds me of a funny story about a friend of mine who was so very excited about all the traffic his website was getting. I had to reveal the truth about what a narcissist he was as 70% of his traffic came from…. himself. What a blow to his self-esteem!

NB: Always keep in mind that the data that is captured by most vendors is on their servers.

Is your anaytics code installed property – and do you know what to measure?

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Website Analytics Tracking – Setting Up Your Analytics Tool Properly is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

For those of you just getting started, here is a list of the seven most critical things to manage.

1. Track your inbound links
This is where you must start. Using a Word document, or Excel spreadsheet, record all your incoming links. Additional data should include the name of the site, Google PageRank, linking URL, link type (organic or non-organic), anchored text, link status (i.e. active), date reviewed and comments.

2. Recheck your backlinks
Tracking the links to your site is just the beginning. Not all links are permanent (for a wide variety of reasons). Periodically, you should check your list to ensure that your incoming links still exist. If not, you should determine if they were simply moved to another page (during site redesign) – or were removed all together. And… if it is a paid link, it should be at the top of your to be addressed list!

3. Test search results
You should also think past just getting a link. Ideally it should be crawled and indexed by the search engines – and show up in an organic search engine results page (SERP). This is when you get the real value. Test and record the results in the comments section of your Link Building Report.

4. Identify the web page(s)
We often find when reviewing the external links for our clients, that they generally all point to the home page. Is there another web page that would be better suited? Remember we want to improve ranking of more than just this one page. Spread the Google juice!

5. Analyze anchor text
Along the same lines, in analyzing the data, you may also discover that all (or most) of the anchored text is your “business name”. In addition, you may also find a number of meaningless terms such as “website” or “click here”. Or even worse, there may be no text just your company’s URL embedded into the link (Google is all about words). The company name, of course is good for building brand – but take this one step further and think “keywords”. You will need to request this modification from the linking site.

6. Use link value (as a gauge)
Yes, believe it or not, there are situations when managing a link is not worth the trouble. If the link value is low (PageRank 0 – 3), you may decide to pass it up. Keep it in your report for review at a later date.

7. Review your web analytics
Last but not least, you should be tracking and analyzing your traffic sources including both referring sites as well as the search engines. This will also help you determine – which aspects of your Link Building Campaign is working as well as what is not.

This, of course, is not a complete list. But these are some of the major and common oversights that we see when we audit or consult on in-house link building efforts. Before you embark on link submissions and link development, we recommend improving the links that you have already acquired. It holds true regardless of whether they are paid or natural links.

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Are you managing your inbounds links? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Here WebFuel’s 2010 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklist:

1. Domain Name Ownership
Review your domain name registration and ensure that it does not expire. This is likely the most important item on the checklist. No rights to use your domain name equals no live website. Just imagine what that would do to your search engine visibility. While you are checking your domain status, register the other extensions (.ca, .com, .org, .net) if available. This is known as Google insurance.

2. Reliable Hosting
It likely goes without saying, but a site that is down due to hosting issues does not help your Internet visibility. Ensure that you have engaged a reliable company to provide you with hosting services. There is software (some free) that can track uptime as well as alert you if your site goes down. Being live 24/7 is a must.

3. Crawl & Index Friendly
Making certain that your site stays live is the foundation of the SEO process. The next step is to ensure that your website design, including the navigation system, is “spiderable” so that search engines can crawl and index your web pages. Do a check. Test using Google and the other major search engines.

4. Robots.txt
Review and update your robots.txt file. This is usually the most overlooked item on the checklist. The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers what content you do / don’t want crawled. Not everything on your site should be found in a Search.

5. Search Engine Submissions
If you haven’t already done so, submit your XML sitemap to Google, Bing & Yahoo. You can do this via your various Webmaster Tools accounts. While there is no need to submit to the major search engines (they find you), you should take this opportunity to review what industry-related engines exist (always new ones). And… of course, submit your URL.

6. Content Review
Yes – content is still King. After all, this is what generates the possibility of appearing in search results. Content review should include checking for content starved pages, outdated information, as well as building new content pages – if required. Copywriting revisions should also include adding keywords and addressing internal lingo (not what people search for).

7. Social Media
Now think beyond just your website and explore Social Media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube – and of course Twitter. Even if they are currently not a good fit for your particular business, create a company profile (just in case). Once again, this is also known as Google insurance.

8. Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Don’t just pay attention to your company brand based on your site and/or social media profiles. Manage your reputation on the Internet as well. To get started, simply Google your company name, products  and/or services, key people in your organization etc… and review the search results. Again, there is lots of software available to track what is being said on the web about your brand – some are fee-based and others are free (Google Alerts). And… of course you can hire a company that specializes in monitoring your brand and keeping your online reputation clean.

9. Web Analytics and Measurement
Review your filters, goals and conversions to ensure that they are in place as well as a system to analyze the data. Make sure that you are tracking everything on your website that should be measured. If you don’t have a application installed to track your web visitors, put this on the top of your “to do” list. Google Analytics is a powerful tool – and it is free!

10. Search Engine Ranking Reports
If you haven’t already done so, invest in ongoing website search engine ranking monitoring and reporting. In a nutshell, this type of report lets you know which web pages from your site are showing up in a SERP (search engine results page), your keyword positions – and in which search engines. This data will help you understand which SEO strategies are working – and which ones are not. It also documents and tracks keywords and search engine performance over time (good to have if you hired a Search Engine Optimizer). This is likely the best investment you can make when it comes to search.

Our SEO prediction for 2010 is that search will continue to remain strong – with another year of enormous growth expected in Social Media. Ensure that this year you manage and improve your online visibility.

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SEO Checklist: Top Ten for 2010 is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel