When you look at your site wide conversion rate, what does it tell you? What action does it inspire? What would you do differently if your site had a 1% conversion rate versus your site having a 3% conversion rate? The answer to all of those questions is that there is no action to take. […]
Two Sides To Using Web Analtyics
Marketing Optimization relates to measuring success by marketing channel – paid search, display, retargeting, affiliate, email, social and then using that information to alter the marketing investment and the marketing tactics. When you see a low conversion rate for certain marketing channels you might decide to decrease your spending in those areas or change the […]
Every Site Section Has A Purpose
There are certain actions that need to happen before a visitor can purchase—visit a product detail page, add to cart, checkout, make it through checkout and then purchase. To decide on how to optimize an ecommerce website, it’s helpful to narrow down the options of what to work on first by focusing on these required […]
Data Is Only Part Of The Solution
Expectations for web analytics is often misplaced. With so much data available, the answer to the question, “what is causing the site to make/lose money†must be in there somewhere. The truth is that the answer is not in the data to begin with. That’s not the point of the tool. It doesn’t give you […]
The Website Research Quadrant
Learning from your customers to improve your website can be gathered in multiple ways. Each of the four quadrants in the diagram below provides different kinds of information, each important in it’s own way. In the Attitudinal half, you receive information about what people say they would do or what they say they want. A […]
How Much More Could You Make If You Got Rid Of Your PPC Agency?
Paid Search agencies typically charge a percent of spend for their services. So if you’re spending $50K to $100K a month, your fee could be anywhere from 6% – 8%. What if instead of paying the fee, you managed your paid search account yourself, took the money you were paying to the agency and rolled […]
Diminishing Marginal Benefit Of Web Analytics Reporting
Heretofore is my Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility Of Web Analytics Reporting: The larger the distribution list of your web analytics report, the less valuable that report is to any individual. Wherever there is web analytics there are big, watered-down reports being generated and sent to lots of people every monday – it doesn’t have […]
Right Now Most Of That Data In Your Web Analytics Interface Can Be Ignored
Web analytics tools suffer from a lack of constraint. With so many things that can be tracked, all of it is and served up all at once to the unsuspecting user who opens up the reporting interface. The amount of data creates a nagging feeling that will start to follow you around, telling you that […]
Paying For SEO Is Like Paying For An Oil Change
There are those who say that say SEO is a con and those that defend it saying it helps many, many people. I think the debate is summed up well with the following analogy. Just replace ‘oil change’ with ‘SEO’ and ‘your car’ with ‘your website’: I pay to have the oil changed on my […]
Web Analtytics Increases Uncertainty As Much As It Does Confidence
With so much data available with web analytics tools, one would think that businesses would become more confident in their understanding of themselves and their customers. But more data leads to just as much uncertainty which is described with a perfect analogy in this New York Times article. Here’s the analogy: “The larger the island […]