Central Perk

joi, 14 octombrie 2010

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

So You Call Yourself an Analyst? Part 3: Less Talk, More Do

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 02:02 PM PDT

Alright fellow data crunchers, you ready for the final post in our three-post series, "So You Call Yourself an Analyst?" I was really hoping to get this post up last week but instead I was putting the final touches on our new affiliate program (more on that very soon)! For those of you that missed Part 1 or Part 2 of this series, I suggest checking those out before reading this one.

In Part 2, we outlined ways to analyze the data for valuable insights. We walked through GA features, as well as strategies to help you prioritize your analysis efforts. We should all be sitting here with tons of great data just waiting to be used.

Assigning Value to the Data

So what do we do now? Buy ourselves a pumpkin spice latte, and call it a day? No, no, no. It's our job to take all of this data and figure out how much we are making (or not making) from our efforts. We can begin to create options based on data to help steer our companies down a more profitable path. By assigning value to the data you are now speaking a language everyone understands--money.

You need to explain the current situation in dollars. Too often analysts show up to meetings with great data but they explain it in weekly increases or decreases. This can be hard for people to conceptualize. Instead translate the data into actual dollars. I find the value per visit (VPV) metric to be one of the most overlooked calculations an analyst can use. Let's roll through an example;

Let's say we wanted to know if we should allocate more resources to the Learn SEO section. We would want to know how much each visit, on average, makes us. How do we calculate the value per visit? We pull how many people visited the section last month, and see how many conversions took place. We then multiply the # of conversions by $99 (you can also use your lifetime value if you want) and we get a monetary value the section brough in last month. We take that value and divide by number of visits to the Learn SEO section, and we have a practical data point to report. Looks like this;

Value per visit calculation

Reporting good data with an attached value to your boss or client is only half the battle. The other part is making those numbers compelling. For example, let's say your marketing team needs to know what section of the site they should focus CRO efforts on. You may be inclined to throw that data in excel, but why not throw it in a pie chart? The data really pops, right?

When reporting the value of data you should lean on things like bar graphs, pie charts, and ranges of success. Go dramatic folks! You just spent days throwing back caffeinated drinks so you could find data they want to see. Help them see it better.

Last but not least...Take Action!

Now that we have the value nailed down, we can move onto my favorite part--taking action. Yup you read that right...it is your responsibility to hand the rest of the company with suggested "next steps" {mind explodes!}

Now I want you guys to be honest, how many of you have said something like this, "If we can increase traffic to this page by 10% we will increase signups by 2% and add X number of dollars to the bottomline?" Ugh, come on people! You have the data. You know how the traffic is getting to that page right now. You know what referrals are increasing, and which are dropping. You know what sections of the site are funneling to that page and which have no way for a visitor to access that page. Make actual suggestions when presenting the data!

You should be saying, "Here are my suggestions for increasing traffic to this page..." and list a number of referring sources for PR to work on, or give a handful of keywords for your SEO to target, etc. These are things you can suggest based on the numbers. You can have confidence that you are suggesting smart moves for your company.

That is what this was all for friends. As analysts we aren't just tasked with making sure everything looks okay, we are also expected to find ways to improve. If you aren't walking away from the data with action items you can get started on, you shouldn't be walking away from the data.

Well that about wraps it up for this series folks. I hope I have helped some of you reevaluate your current analytical process. I know it all seems like quite a bit of work, but trust me when I say time invested in analytics is well spent. Hopefully this series has given you a roadmap to follow, and at the very least motivated you to log in, check it all out, and start analyzing.

Want to start from the beginning and check out Parts 1 & 2? Here they are:

Part 1: Asking the Right Questions
Part 2: Analysis Redefined

Do you like this post? Yes No

Seth's Blog : The book of the year

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

The book of the year

Kevin Kelly publishes books rarely. Each one is a keeper, and a new one is a special event.

His new one is out today. If there's justice, it will win the Pulitzer Prize.

Kevin's book could be sketchily summarized in fifteen or twenty blog posts, and I'm tempted to do so, but I think you should do the more direct thing and just read it. That way, as I steal from it again and again going forward, you'll nod your head in recognition of the power of what he's writing about.

Hint: it's as good as Guns, Germs and Steel, which I consider one of the most important big-thought books ever.

Bonus! Steve Pressfield's The War of Art is coming to ebook format for $1.99...

• Email to a friend •

•

Michael Gray - Graywolf's SEO Blog

Review Box.net – Online File Storage

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 07:32 AM PDT

Box.net is an online file storage system that allows you to keep files/folders synchronized in the cloud or across different computers.

Box.net is one of those services I REALLY want to like. Unfortunately, it just never seems to work out for me. Box.net allows you to share and synchronize files with other people across the internet/cloud. For customers who upgrade to the business or enterprise level, desktop synchronization is a key feature you pick up. The thing that most excited me about the Box.net service was integration with Google Apps for domains. However what I learned after trying was that you need to have a minimum three person license, which puts you at $45 per month for the Box.net service. To be honest, the feature that most appealed to me was the seamless synchronization that occurs when you use an iPad and Google Documents as shown in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

However, a full year of Box.net is going to cost $540. It’s not going to help me make $540 in extra revenue, and it’s not going to save me time that’s worth $540, so it’s not an expense I can justify. The product is great and the service works perfectly, but the minimum 3 person license just doesn’t make sense for me, so I’ve stopped using the product. If you have three or more users, however, this is absolutely something I can recommend, especially if they are iPad users. If not, I’d recommend the competing service of Dropbox (see my Dropbox.com review). There is an extra step when working with Google Documents, but IMHO it’s not a step that’s worth $540.
photo credit: eschipul

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis WordPress Theme review.

Review Box.net – Online File Storage

Review Dropbox.com – Online File Storage Dropbox.com is an online file storage system that allows you...
Review of Box.net I was asked to take a look at Box.net a...
Building Linkbait Outside of the Box While everyone concentrates on content linkbait one thing many people...
ShoeMoney Net Income Podcast I can’t imagine if you read this blog and haven’t...
Sponsored Review Younanimous.com The following post is a sponsored review for Younanimous.com When...

Advertisers:

Text Link Ads - New customers can get $100 in free text links.
BOTW.org - Get a premier listing in the internet's oldest directory.
Ezilon.com Regional Directory - Check to see if your website is listed!
Page1Hosting - Class C IP Hosting starting at $2.99.
Directory Journal - List your website in our growing web directory today.
Content Customs - Unique and high quality SEO writing services, providing webmasters with hundreds of SEO articles per week
Majestic SEO - Competitive back link intellegence for SEO Analysis
Glass Whiteboards - For a professional durable white board with no ghosting, streaking or marker stains, see my Glass Whiteboard Review
Need an SEO Audit for your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services
KnowEm - Protect your brand, product or company name with a continually growing list of social media sites.
Scribe SEO Review find out how to better optimize your wordpress posts.
TigerTech - Great Web Hosting service at a great price.

Daily Snapshot: Tweet Your Question to the President

Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, October 14, 2010

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama talks in the Oval Office with students and their parents about the impact of the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) and how it has made college more affordable for more Americans, Oct. 13, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Today's Schedule

Today, The President will participate in a live, commercial free youth Town Hall on Viacom’s BET, CMT and MTV networks. He will appear before an audience of approximately 250 young people representing a broad cross-section of backgrounds, interests and political views. The President will answer questions from the studio audience as well as from viewers submitting questions via Twitter. Learn more about submitting your question to the President via Twitter.

All times are Eastern Daylight Time

10:15 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing

11:15 AM: The President meets with senior advisors

12:15 PM: The President and the Vice President have lunch

1:30 PM: Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

1:30 PM: The Vice President attends an event for Representative Brad Ellsworth

3:00 PM: The President meets with Secretary of the Treasury Geithner

4:00 PM: The President participates in a youth Town Hall live on Viacom’s BET, CMT and MTV networks

6:00 PM: The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden host a reception in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

Indicates Events that will be livestreamed on WhiteHouse.gov/live.

SEOptimise

40 Social Media Tools & WordPress Plugins – a4uexpo Presentation

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 05:53 AM PDT

Today I presented at a4uexpo London on 40 Social Media Tools and WordPress Plugins. This was split equally between the two sections and I’ve shared the slides and individual links, plus provided a very quick summary for each below.

a4uexpo – 40 Social Media Tools & WordPress Plugins

Top 20 Social Media Tools

Hootsuite – manage your social media accounts online and link up with your traffic stats in Google Analytics.
Untweeps – tidy-up your Twitter account by finding the accounts you’re following which have gone stale.
Klout – find influencers based upon Klout score and find ways to improve the influence of your own account.
Topsy – find the top influencers to connect with and help retweet your messages, based on a keyword query.
Wikipedia Traffic Statistics – view how much traffic an individual Wikipedia webpage has generated.
Flowtown – customer insight tool to find which social media sites your customers and contacts are using.
Social Mention – online reputation management tool to show brand mentions and overview of topics.
Scout Labs – view recent stats on brand mentions, plus all information from blogs, news, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.
KnowEm – protect your brand by claiming the social media profile handles to stop other people from registering them.
Pitchengine – promote your press releases to social media channels.
Journalisted – find top UK journalists based on a search query – recommend searching for industry name.
SWix – comprensive tracking and reporting to pull together a range of social media profile stats into a single dashboard.
Domain Superstar – find new domain name opportunties based on a keyword query.
StumbleUpon advertising – give social media campaigns a boost with some extra paid visits.
Skimlinks – quickly and easily convert external links to affiliate links, when there is a merchant available.
ad.ly – advertise via Twitter and MySpace to promote your content by paying per tweet/message.
oDesk – find freelancers online to hire for a wide-range of web-based tasks.
Fiverr – build Facebook fan pages and Twitter followings, amongst many other small tasks.
Omgili – search just for forums and find new discussions based on a keyword query.
TubeMogul – distribute your videos to all of the top video sharing websites via a single upload.

Top 20 WordPress Plugins

Sharebar – useful WordPress plugin to display all popular social media bookmarking buttons alongside blog posts.
Blackbird Pie – easily share your favourite tweets by embedding them directly into blogs posts.
su.pr – encourage StumbleUpon votes when using URL shorteners to send links out on Twitter.
Backtype – pull together the latest discussion around a blog post from social media websites.
Subscribe to comments – encourage the continuation of blog discussions, with email alert messages to commenters.
All in One SEO – automatically optimise title tags, description and noindex/follow meta tags.
Yet Another Related Posts – automatically build internal links to related content from each blog post.
Google XML Sitemaps Generator – great way of automatically generating an XML sitemap to keep your blog up-to-date.
Redirection – easily manage the redirection of a blog from one URL to a new version.
SEO Smart Links – automatically create internal/external links when keywords are mentioned within content.
Feedburner FeedSmith – automatically forwards any RSS URL’s to use a single Feedburner version.
RSS Footer – add copyright, external links and promotions for subscribers and scraper sites using RSS feeds.
WordPress Database Backup – make sure you have a backup of your site incase the worst happens.
WP Super Cache – make sure your blog is running as quickly as possible, looking to keep users and search engines happy!
A/B Theme Testing Plugin - split test two different WordPress designs or layouts alongside each other simultaneously.
Zemanta – get inspiration to brighten up posts, with images and external links recommended to bloggers.
WP Robot – automated plugin for important Amazon and eBay products into a blog automatically. Be careful with this one!
WP125 – ad management tool to rotate ads and manage the expiry date for direct advertisers.
Geolocation targeting – try targeting your ads specifically for your most popular audience locations.
WP-e-commerce – convert your WordPress site into an e-commerce store so that you manage the buying process.