Feeling bummed that you missed the Early Bird rate for the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) in Santa Clara next month? Cheer up, we have some good news. Using the ID Code GOOG@SMX you can receive $100 off the current rate of $1,395 for an all access pass . Please note that this code is case sensitive and will expire on 2/25/08. Our own Brett Crosby will be a panelist at the Web Analytics Roundtable on February 28th, and all three days (February 26-28) have packed agendas. For those not familiar with the event, SMX is an educational conference series for search marketing professionals put on by Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman.Posted by Laura Melahn, Google Analytics Team
I'm excited to announce that we've just launched an updated version of ConversionUniversity.com , now available in all 25 Google Analytics supported languages. From help on optimizing your AdWords ROI to Google Website Optimizer testing strategies , Conversion University's mission is to offer tips and best practices designed to help you improve your online results. The latest article by Avinash Kaushik, Five Questions to Ask of Your Site Search Data , is an excellent primer on one of the best ways to understand visitor intent. Conversion University also has pointers to our latest video content on the YouTube Google Conversion University playlist , including full presentations from our Conversion University events . So, go ahead and click a link. It's like talking to an industry guru, one on one!Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team
Google Analytics is hoping to grab a spot on your list of New Year's resolutions. If you've been intending to use analytics to add clarity to your online marketing and web design decisions, now is a great time to start because there is a live online training course starting this Thursday, January 10 about all things Google Analytics offered by one of our Google Analytics Authorized Consultants , ROI Revolution . The course takes place every Thursday for 6 weeks, starting at 1:30pm ET and lasting less than 2 hours. It covers everything from basic implementation to tracking e-commerce data to general quantitative marketing techniques and is intended for beginning to intermediate users of Google Analytics. The course will include sections on:configuring goals and conversion events tracking PPC campaigns tracking email and banner campaigns measuring visitor trends on your site According to ROI Revolution: "We focus on guiding our students with clear, specific instructions using the setup process we use with clients every day so that you’ll know when your Google Analytics account is configured properly for accurate measurement. We'll introduce you to the reports in Google Analytics, then show you how to use the special analysis options (including the report dashboards) and finally focus on how to use Google Analytics to increase the traffic to your website, improve your conversion rate and find out what parts of your pay per click advertising are making you the most money." Each training session lasts from 60-75 minutes and is followed by a 30 minute live, interactive question and answer session. As an added bonus, while the presentation is in progress, instructors are standing by to answer your questions in real-time via interactive chat. Visit the course site for more details.Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team
One of the most exciting things about having such an extensive ecosystem of Google Analytics users is the variety of ways people are using the product. Each website has a unique personality and appearance and if you're a website owner, you're often thinking about how to combine navigation, design, and language to most clearly communicate your message to users. And then repeating that process. We love to hear stories from Google Analytics users so we can share the flexibility of the product and understand unique success metrics. We recently heard one such story from the folks at Databazaar.com , who switched to Google Analytics and let us know that they are now not only saving $5,600 dollars every month but are also more satisfied with their web analytics reporting. CEO Oney Seal reports, "I paid money and I wasn't getting any value. I can look at the data now and I understand it." Here's their story: As a large internet retailer selling ink cartridges, toners, and printer supplies, price competition is a significant challenge for DataBazaar. The same products can be bought from many different vendors and customers can easily take their business elsewhere. Having a seamless site from landing page to checkout is vital to their business - both in getting first time customers as well as keeping repeat shoppers. Before switching to Google Analytics, DataBazaar felt they weren't getting the content optimization insights they needed, despite spending a hefty sum on reporting. Frustrated, they decided to transition their site — all seventeen thousand pages — to Google Analytics. In doing so, DataBazaar discovered a collection of stumbling blocks on their site in their navigation reports. They used Google Analytics in conjunction with Google Website Optimizer to make changes that increased the conversion rate on some pages by over 43%. Also, they learned what not to change on their site, noticing that many of the conversion funnels that were already in place were working surprisingly well. They are continuing to use Google Analytics to raise conversion rates even higher. Thanks for sharing and congratulations DataBazaar! Update: January 31: thanks to Robbin Steif at Lunametrics for help with this post.Posted by Laura Melahn, Google Analytics Team
These posts weren't intended to be related, but since our partners are always some of the first to identify issues in our beta code, they actually relate quite nicely. First, if you have already updated your urchin.js code to the new ga.js code AND are running Google Analytics on either Blogger or on a website using ASP running on IIS, we suggest you follow the updated code which we've posted in the Google Analytics Google Group forum. Second, we are now accepting new applications for the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant program. This program is open to established professional services firms with deep expertise doing Google Analytics-based consulting services. If you are interested in submitting client references, case studies, and an application, please email gaac-requests@google.com for more info. We have a particular need for GAACs who can support the following languages: Russian, Turkish, Danish, Italian, French, Dutch and Swedish.Posted by Brett Crosby, Sr. Manager, Google Analytics
If you haven't been able to attend one of EpikOne's previous e-business training camps , you now have the chance to participate via an online seminar. Industry gurus Justin Cutroni and Danielle Giandomenico will discuss Powering Your Business with Google Analytics in a series of online seminars on December 18th (that's tomorrow!) and 19th. Sessions on both days run from 1:00 to 3:30 PM EST (10 AM to 12:30PM Pacific). Justin and Danielle will talk about how to use Google Analytics to improve your online marketing analysis and website usability. Critical tracking techniques, conversion-lifting site enhancements, and other best practices will be covered. You can learn more here .Posted by Christian Yee, Google Analytics Team
Today, we're adding several updates to Google Analytics including the ability to graph multiple data points at once, ga.js tracking, and six new languages. All accounts have access to a new beta feature that allows you to graph two metrics against each other and see how they correlate. For example, you might want to see how your AdWords traffic compares with your site average or how one conversion goal compares to another over time. Here are the instructions on how to access this new graphing feature. We are also rolling out the new ga.js page tag which we recommend you use for all new accounts and new profiles for new domains. Although your existing urchin.js page tags will continue to work, you may wish to update them to ga.js anyway. This will allow you to take advantage of the most up-to-date tracking functionality as it is added to Google Analytics. An immediate benefit you'll notice is that the ga.js tags allow you to track ecommerce transactions in a more readable way. And, we've created a special resource on the ga.js javascript for power users who want more control over Google Analytics tracking. If you do choose to update your site to ga.js, please note that the old tracking code (which uses urchin.js) and the new tracking code (which uses ga.js) will not work if placed on the same page together. Finally, we begin supporting six additional languages: Thai, Filipino, Indonesian, Czech, Hungarian, and Portuguese (Portugal). You can select any one of the 25 Google Analytics supported languages from the Language pulldown menu on the Analytics Settings-->My Account page.Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team