Central Perk

marți, 4 septembrie 2012

Google Analytics Product Update: Real-Time data, Shortcut Reports, & MCF API

	Monthly Product Update
	August 2012

This month's Google Analytics features make it easier to learn about campaigns as they launch, access key reports, and incorporate conversion path data into your applications.

What's New

Segment Real-Time data
to learn about campaigns as they launch
In your Real-Time reports, click on a page element to segment your data by different dimensions, such as country or medium. Segmenting your Real-Time data can help you view the performance of a geo-located PPC campaign, measure which content is most popular in large metro areas, observe how social media is impacting site traffic from an industry conference, and more. Learn more.

Save time finding your favorite reports with Shortcuts
Shortcuts help you get the exact view you want of your Analytics data in record time. Rather than having to go through the "find report, add segment, change sort" process daily, use Shortcuts to do it once, save it, and come back to it in a single click. Learn more

Easily export & analyze Multi-Channel Funnels
data with the API
Use the MCF Reporting API to query for metrics from the Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels reports and incorporate conversion path data into your applications. Key uses for this include combining conversion path data with other data sources--such as cost data--to create new visualizations, as well as using conversion path data to automate processes such as bidding. Learn more.

Case Studies & Education

Watch: "Multi-Channel Funnels" webinar to learn how to improve your marketing campaigns

Neil Hoyne, Google's Global Program Manager for Attribution, presented an in-depth look at Multi-Channel Funnels. Neil discussed the importance of marketing attribution and demonstrated how the Multi-Channel Funnels reports reveal details about the customer journey prior to a sale or conversion. Better understanding customers' interactions across different digital media can improve your campaign performance. Watch and enjoy.

To gain insights about Analytics and learn from industry leaders, check out our popular posts this month:

Using analytics is critical to grow your small business
Measure your site speed and improve performance today
Analytics: Data for the evolving digital world (video)
ABT - Always Be Testing

Case Study: Online food retailer slices shopping cart abandon rates for a 70% increase

LaTienda learned that shipping rates greatly impact shopping cart behavior and abandonment rates. For key regions, they were able to offer a lower flat rate shipping option to users, and with advanced segments, they observed a 70% increase in order completion for those regions. Read the full case study to learn more.

Thank you for reading our monthly update. Don't forget to share your thoughts with us through the feedback link below, and tell us what you'd like to see in future updates.

Happy Analyzing,
The Google Analytics Team

Was this information useful? Share your thoughts with us.

© 2012 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

This email was sent to e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com because you indicated that you want to receive occasional Analytics newsletters. If you do not wish to receive such emails in the future, please unsubscribe here: http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/optout/22exkgZxpTYXzk8HrLBEZGC4EK636mAzV?e=e0nstar1.blog%40gmail.com&hl=en-US You can also change your preferences at your account's Google Analytics Email Communications page by logging into https://www.google.com/analytics/settings/my_account

How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property Graywolf's SEO Blog

How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 10:08 AM PDT

If there is one thing Google is good at, it’s framing themselves and their actions as being “good for the user” and for the benefit of others while playing down how their actions are self-serving. However, those of us who have been around the block a few times know that Google plays fast and loose [...]

This post originally came from How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property

Google Suggest – Broken and Filled with Porn and Children In recent weeks Google has been launching a higher than...

Google Hypocrisy Seems the guys at Googleplex may need to reload if...

I Wish We Had Google Understand Not Google Instant Search Earlier this week Google launched the latest iteration of the SERP’s, Google...

Google Current and Google Zeitgeist So there I was cruising over to Google Zeitgeist hoping...

Google Personalized Search – Don’t Become a Google Traffic Addict Recently I was doing a bit of research on personalized...

Meeting with Victims of Hurricane Isaac

Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Meeting with Victims of Hurricane Isaac

President Obama visited St. John's Parish in Louisiana yesterday to take in the damage from Hurricane Isaac and highlight the "extraordinary work" done by first responders:

Because of the great work of law enforcement, National Guard, Coast Guard, making sure that folks were out in rescue mode rapidly, even in some cases at risk of their own lives, no lives were lost.

President Barack Obama talks with a resident as he tours a neighborhood in LaPlace, La., with local and federal officials to view damage and the ongoing response and recovery efforts to Hurricane Isaac, Sept. 3, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

How To Get More Comments On Your Articles

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 08:01 PM PDT

Posted by Jacob Klein

If you've spent any amount of time reading up on content creation, you've most likely seen a post or two with a similar title to this one. In my experience, these articles are typically littered with buzz-phrases such as "have a call to action" or "write compelling content" and consist of 30+ overlapping ways to do either of those things. While asking your readers to comment and creating comment-worthy content are certainly important concepts to understand, I'm going to assume you're already on-board and looking for something a bit more actionable.

Why are comments important?

The benefits of user generated content are obvious to most. Not only are you generating additional unique, (hopefully) on-topic content for your pages, comments may even contribute to your article's freshness score. While it's debatable whether the number of comments on a page is directly correlated with higher rankings, we all understand the value of having more fresh, relevant content on a page to say nothing of user engagement and community building.

No matter how in-depth your keyword research is, you'll never be able to naturally incorporate every iteration of a key phrase onto your landing page - and you wouldn't want to anyhow. With user generated comments, you're able to get some of those alternate queries (long-tail or otherwise) without having to shoehorn them into your on-page copy. Let me give you an example of this in action:

The highlighted text isn't actual copy from the page itself. It's from one of the comments towards the bottom of the page. Google has determined that this page is relevant to the query in part because of a comment that includes text that the webmaster hadn't even thought to include on the page. Would the page have ranked without the comment? Possibly. But to me, an example like this shows that Google clearly uses comments to help determine page relevance. In a competitive space where most competing pages look startlingly similar, you're going to need any edge you can get.

I'm sure you've all had the experience of landing on an article after searching for something only to "ctrl + F" your way to the comments section to find your answer. Content from users can provide real value, and this article will arm you with tips to help increase your user comments.

Actionables

Okay, so maybe you didn't need much convincing as to the importance of user generated content. You're here because you want to read something you haven't read before about getting users to comment on your posts. Over the last 10 years, I've founded several fan community pages covering such nerd-tastic staples as Magic the Gathering, Nintendo, and Game of Thrones (yes, ladies, I am that cool). While building these communities, I've picked up a few tricks for attracting article comments that I thought I'd share with the Moz community.

1. Make it as easy as possible to leave a comment

Does "website" really need to be a required field? Are your CAPTCHA images harder to solve than a Rubik's cube? Sometimes the effort it would take to comment on your blog outweighs the potential user benefits. Take a look at each field and ask yourself "is this a hoop I'd be willing to jump through to leave a comment on a blog I've never visited before?" Most users are wary about giving out an email address, so assure them that their data won't be used for anything other than unique identification or just let them login using Twitter of Facebook (more on that below). In the end, you should be mostly concerned with their username, email address (to distinguish their comments from others, gravatars etc), and the comment itself. Anything else is a barrier to entry that should be scrutinized and broken down wherever possible.

2. Comment placement

So many widgets, so little real estate. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that the end of a blog post is the hottest piece of property on the net these days. After you've pumped your full author bio, social buttons, "other articles you might like," opinion disclaimer, and multiple ad units, the comment section often ends up an entire page screen below the actual content. I know, I know, it's tough to demote any of these widgets because of course ad placement is important; of course, "related content" and extra pageviews are important, but if you're truly serious about getting the conversation going on your article, then you should consider giving the comment section a more prominent position on the page.

At the very least, give users an anchor jump at the end of the article that reads "Leave a Comment" or "Join the Conversation" and bumps them down to the appropriate level.

3. Social logins

If for whatever reason you simply must require users register for commenting (a rather large barrier to entry) consider allowing them to log in using the social media accounts they're already using. If you're running Wordpress, this can be done by installing one or two plugins of your choice. Simple Facebook Connect will get the job done and the Twitter version will do the same. If you're looking for a more comprehensive solution (all social networks), try Social Login. Social logins on custom CMS' obviously vary and can be achieved using OAuth and following the developer instructions from Facebook and Twitter. There's also the all inclusive Disqus comment system that you've probably already seen in use on many blogs.

Not only does this offer users a 1-click login option for commenting and other community activities around your site; this option also gives your users an automatic avatar and social identity. Comments coming from a person with a traceable identity are almost surely of higher quality than those coming from completely anonymous users. And hey, once they're logged in with Twitter or Facebook, it stands to reason that the chances of someone sharing your page on one of those networks increases considerably.

4. Profiles, Awards, and Rankings

You've probably used (or been used by) a piece of ego bait in a link building campaign and the same principles of human nature apply to community building. In-depth profiles, award systems, and commenter rankings are great ways to encourage your contributors to keep coming back for more. A simple database comment count for each individual is all that is required for deployment. Attach fun titles such as "Youngling," "Aspirant," or "Padawan" to these values and you'll not only please current commenters, but you'll also give readers a way to gauge that person's standing within the community.

Grab the Top Contributors plugin for Wordpress and show your top commenters some love. You could also display "X-Year Club" awards on user profiles or a "She's Over 9000aaaand!" badge for your most ambitious contributors. Anything you can do to give your loyal commenters a feeling of community and importance will encourage more comments.

5. Join the conversation

This one's a no-brainer. Respond to comments on your articles. You took the time to write the piece, so get in there and stand by it! Keep the conversation rolling with questions of your own and address things you may have glossed over in your initial publishing.

Try highlighting author comments so that they stand out a bit. This immediately communicates to readers that the author is paying attention and will most likely respond to their comment if they take the time to write one. The reality is that articles with comments get more comments. Articles without comments have trouble getting initial comments. The difference between 0 comments and a handful can mean everything. Who wants to be the first person to comment on a post? Each new user post offers an entry point for new lines of discussion. Help get the chain reaction going by helping the initial conversation to get started.

6. Email notification on reply

With great power comes great responsibility. If a loyal reader has given you their email address and contributes to your site on a regular basis, the last thing you want to do is lose their trust. You've got their email address but no one wants a "quarterly site update" or "Jan 1st Happy Birthday" email from every website they've ever commented on, right? But what most people would probably be okay with is a notification that their thoughtful comment has just received an equally thoughtful reply thus giving them the chance to respond.

Try Comment Reply Notification for Wordpress if you're looking to add this feature to your blog. You can choose to alert everyone on the thread whenever anyone replies or limit it to personal replies. You could also allow users to choose for themselves with a simple checkbox as they reply. Disqus also offers this feature.

7. Tracking your progress

For many blogs it will be obvious when the influx of new commenters come in, but on larger sites it might be more difficult to track your progress. One simple and universal way to track your progress is to set up a Google Analytics goal associated with a new comment. Here are some instructions on how to do this. You can also easily set up GA event tracking any number of ways using the Raven GA config tool.

Have you found other effective methods of attracting commenters? Try some of the above and leave a comment below!

Oh, and don't forget to have "create compelling content" and "a call to action."

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!