Web Analytics Essentials - Gordon Choi

Web Analytics Essentials

Gordon Choi

April 2012

http://www.gordonchoi.com/

www.gordonchoi.com




Gordon Choi – www.gordonchoi.com


2009-Present (Shanghai, China)Web analytics integration & SEO/SEM analytics integration for online travel industry (e.g. Ctrip.com)

2002-2008 (South Africa + Hangzhou, China)Performance-based SEM/SEO for global & Chinese markets

1991-2001 (South Africa)A bit of computer programming & didn’t do much

Before 1990 (Hong Kong)Just a kid





Web Analytics Essentials


1. Web Analytics Principles & Scope

2. Google Analytics Basic Setup

3. Web Analytics Reports & KPI Metrics for Web Analysts focusing on SEO & SEM

4. Google Analytics Tips

5. Google Analytics Advanced Setup




Web Analytics Principles & Scope





What is Web Analytics? Why Web Analytics?


What is WA?

- Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for purpose of understanding and optimizing web usage – Avinash Kaushik & Wikipedia.org

Why WA?

- Web statistics of your site are captured 24 hours a day & can be built into regular web reports.- Connects web statistics to your KPI metrics.- Helps identifying areas on your site that need improvement.




Data Capture Methods & Tools


1. Web Log Files

- Data captured on server side- Smallest data unit = By web element e.g. CSS, ico

2. JavaScript Tags

- Data captured on browser side- Smallest data unit = By web page e.g. HTML




JavaScript-based WA


Benefits:

1. URL based 2. Cookies based3. Easy installation with JavaScript tags4. Allows customized setup to capture more user actions / events5. No / minimal data storage issue




JavaScript-based WA


Shortcomings:

1. May require good URL structure planning2. No bot data e.g. Googlebot, baiduspider3. No page error data4. Doesn’t work on non JavaScript based browsers5. JavaScript heavy web pages




JavaScript-based Web Analytics Tools


WA Examples:

1. Google Analytics2. Yahoo Web Analytics3. 百度统计 (Baidu) - CN4. Adobe Site Catalyst - Paid5. 99Click – CN / Paid6. Piwik – Open Source




Google Analytics Basic Setup


Multiple Sub-domains

Chinese Search Engines

Profile Filters




Google’s Web Data Cycle


1. Web users visit websites in the Internet2. Google crawls the Web & stores web data in the Index3. Google collects web data from sites using GA & stores web data in GA servers4. Google provides website’s organic search data to users through GWT5. Google provides website’s analytics data to users through GA

How does Google Analytics (GA) work?


Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC):<script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1234567-8']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();</script>

GA collects visitors’ web usage data on your site through this basic GATC which is JavaScript based.

Make sure you install GATC on EVERY page of your site.




How does Google Analytics (GA) work?


1. A web user visits a page on your site.2. Your web server returns the page’s content and the GATC to the user’s browser.3. The GATC executes, captures the page view, cookies & other visitor details and sends the data to GA’s servers.4. GA may send cookie data to the user’s browser.




Google Analytics Account Setup


To use GA,1. Create a new Gmail or use your existing Gmail:e.g. [email protected]

OR2. Add your non-Gmail to Google Account:e.g. https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount




Google Analytics Profile Setup


To set up GA, you’ll have to be a GA Administrator with full access to your GA account

Create a GA profile




GATC Setup





GATC Setup - Standard


GATC (standard), if your site is on only one domain & no sub-domain, e.g.http://www.ctrip.com/

<script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1234567-8']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();</script>




http://www.ctrip.com/

GATC Setup – Multiple Sub-domains


GATC (customized), if your site is on multiple sub-domains, e.g.http://www.ctrip.com/http://hotels.ctrip.com/http://flights.ctrip.com/

<script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1234567-8']); _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.ctrip.com']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();</script>

_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.ctrip.com']);





http://hotels.ctrip.com/

http://flights.ctrip.com/

GATC Setup – Multiple Domains


GATC (customized), if your site is on multiple domains & sub-domains, e.g.http://www.ctrip.com/http://www.lvping.com/http://flights.ctrip.com/

<script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1234567-8']); _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.ctrip.com']); _gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();</script>

_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.ctrip.com']); _gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);





http://www.lvping.com/

http://flights.ctrip.com/

GATC Setup – Chinese Search Engines


GATC (customized), if you are to track Soso, Sogou & Youdao as Search Engine Referrals.

<script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1234567-8']); _gaq.push(['_addOrganic', 'soso', 'w']); _gaq.push(['_addOrganic', 'sogou', 'query']); _gaq.push(['_addOrganic', 'youdao', 'q']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();</script>

_gaq.push(['_addOrganic', 'soso', 'w']);_gaq.push(['_addOrganic', 'sogou', 'query']);_gaq.push(['_addOrganic', 'youdao', 'q']);




GA Setup – Profile Filters


Create filters to:

1. Remove traffic from internal IP addresses, e.g. Your own IP2. Remove traffic from internal domain names, e.g. Intranet 3. Show all URLs in lowercase 4. Show all URLs with full paths




Profile Filter: Lowercase URLs


Lowercase URL filter consolidates URLs in different cases into a single URL & makes it easy for you to look at your web pages per URL in GA reports.

Without filter, 2 different entries (URLs) in GA:www.example.com/INDEX.html 20 visitswww.example.com/index.html 100 visits

With filter, 1 entry (URL) in GA:www.example.com/index.html 120 visits




http://www.example.com/INDEX.html

http://www.example.com/index.html


Profile Filter: Lowercase URLs





Profile Filter: URLs in Full Path


For a multiple sub-domain site, 2 different URLs:www.ctrip.com/index.htmlhotels.ctrip.com/index.html

Without full path filter, URLs will show up in GA as: /index.html/index.html

Without full path filter, URLs will show up in GA as: www.ctrip.com/index.htmlhotels.ctrip.com/index.html




http://www.ctrip.com/index.html







Profile Filter: URLs in Full Path


Regular Expression: http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55582




GA Profile: Best Practices


Two types of GA access:1. Administrator = full access to GA account e.g. You, the web analyst, should be the Admin

2. User = view access to all reportse.g. Anyone else can be granted user access

Profile tips:1. You can create multiple profiles for any one site2. Always keep 1 profile without any filter3. User access is profile based




Web Analytics Reports & KPI Metrics


A Web Analyst’s Guide to focus on

SEO & SEM Analytics

through Google Analytics




Web Analytics Reports & KPI Metrics


1. Web Analysts2. Basic Reporting3. Goal Conversions 4. Segmentation 5. SEM Tracking6. SEO Reports7. Site Search




Web Analysts


What is a Web Analyst?

Web analysts are professionals who use digital measurement tools, digitally collected data and analysis skills to improve the Internet for individuals and institutions

Digital (Web) Analytics Association




Web Analysts


A Web Analyst's Typical Work Day

20%

20%

20%

20%

10%

10%Reporting

Analyze AcquisitionStrategies

Understanding On-siteCustomer Experience

Staying Plugged into theContext

Explore New StrategicOptions

Take Breaks

According to Avinash Kaushik…




Basic Reporting


1. Trends on overall site traffic (i.e. visits)2. % Direct vs. % Search vs. % Referring Sites3. % New Visitor vs. % Returning Visitors 4. Visitor Frequency - Counts of visits 5. Visitor Recency - Days since last visit 6. Geography: countries, cities 7. Browsers, languages, mobile devices8. Trends on SEO/SEM traffic 9. Top SEO keywords 10. Top SEM keywords11. Top pages 12. Top landing pages 13. Site search14. In-page analytics i.e. click distribution




Basic Reporting


Decide Reporting Frequency:1. Daily, 2. Weekly, 3. Monthly, 4. Quarterly

Metrics:1. Visitors vs. Visits2. Visits vs. Page Views 3. Page Views vs. Unique Page Views4. New Visitors vs. Returning Visitors5. Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate6. Time on Site vs. Time on Page7. Clicks vs. Visits




Weekly Reports


Run these reports once a week:

1. Your site’s trend by visits i.e. How many visits per day this week vs. last week vs. this week last year?

2. Top 10 countries or top 10 cities by visits?

3. Top 20 pages by page views?

4. Top 100 SEO keywords by visits?

5. Top 100 SEM keywords by visits?




Direct Traffic vs. Search Engines vs. Referring Sites


Monitor fluctuation in traffic source typesReport frequency = Weekly




Direct Traffic vs. Search Engines vs. Referring Sites


Examples on Analysis:

DT=65%, SE=10%, RS=25% Strong brand but low SE traffic - Need to improve SEO & SEM

DT=15%, SE=40%, RS=45%Weak brand - Need to improve brand awareness

DT=20%, SE=70%, RS=12%Too reliant on SE traffic – Need to diversify traffic sources




New Visitors vs. Returning Visitors


Monitor fluctuation in visitor typesReport frequency = Weekly




New Visitors vs. Returning Visitors


Examples on Analysis:

New=85%, Returning=15% 1. A new website, OR website is unable retain users 2. Need a plan to retain new users

New=20%, Returning=80%1. Monetizing through repeat users2. Need to a plan to acquire new users




Reports (Once Every 6 Months)


Run these reports once every 6 months:

1. How often do people visit your site?

2. What were the last time people visited your site?

3. What browsers (e.g. IE7, 8, 9, Firefox, Chrome)?

4. What mobile devices (e.g. IPhone, IPad, etc)?




Daily Reports


Whether you track sign-ups & orders through GA or your internal system, run this report every day:




GA Goals


Track site conversions through GA’s goals.

Set up one of the goal types:1. URL destination2. Visit duration3. Page / visit4. Event




GA Goals





GA Goal Funnels


Typical goal funnel URLs:

1. www.example.com/search-list/2. www.example.com/product-details/3. www.example.com/checkout/4. www.example.com/payment-info/5. www.example.com/delivery-info/6. www.example.com/confirm-info/7. www.example.com/complete/ (GOAL)




http://www.example.com/search-list/


http://www.example.com/product-details/


http://www.example.com/checkout/


http://www.example.com/payment-info/


http://www.example.com/delivery-info/

http://www.example.com/delivery-info/

http://www.example.com/confirm-info/

http://www.example.com/confirm-info/

http://www.example.com/complete/


GA Goal Funnels – Reservation Booked





GA Goal Funnels – Purchase Made





Segmentation – Traffic Sources


Segment by Traffic Sources:

(none) / directgoogle / organic baidu / organicgoogle cpcbaidu cpchao123.com / referralchinatravel.net / referraltwitter / referralfacebook / referral




Segmentation – Traffic Sources


Traffic Metrics by Traffic Sources:

Conversion Metrics by Traffic Sources:




Segmentation - Direct Traffic


Is Direct Traffic Really Direct Traffic?

1. Direct typing in address bar of browser2. Browser bookmarks3. Untagged links through Windows Live (MSN) Messenger, emails, PDF documents, etc4. Lost referral value e.g. Cookies reset

Some direct traffic of your site comes through organic search as brand keywords e.g. Ctrip, Amazon, Taobao




Segmentation - Bounce Rate


Bounce Rate represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site. Wikipedia.org

Bounce Rate = Visits Viewing 1 Page / Total Visits




Segmentation – Types of Visits


Non-bounced & Converted Visits

Non-bounced Visits

All Visits

3 Types of Visits to a Site:




Segmentation - Page Views / Visits


How important is Page Views / Visits?




Segmentation – Advanced Segments


Segment: Traffic Metrics & Conversion Metrics by Traffic Sources of all Non-bounce Visits




Segmentation – Non-bounced Visits


Again, Traffic Metrics by Traffic Sources (but, of all non-bounced visits):




SEM Tracking


Your website may have both SEO & SEM traffic.

Ensure all SEM visits are tracked & appear in GA Traffic Sources report as:

google / cpcbaidu / cpc

If SEM visits aren’t correctly tracked, they will mix up in organic (SEO) visits & appear as:

google / organicbaidu / organic




SEM Tracking - Google AdWords


Link all your Google AdWords accounts to your Google Analytics account

Enable auto-tagging in Google AdWords




SEM Tracking – Other Search Engines


Tag your all your Baidu SEM URLs:

utm_source=baiduutm_medium=cpcutm_term=web+analytics+2.0utm_campaign =analytics+books

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=baidu&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=web%2Banalytics%2B2.0&utm_campaign=analytics%2Bbooks

Use Google’s URL Builder to generate the tagged URL (or just use Excel):

http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578











Four Stages of SEO


Four Stages of SEO:

1. Pages Indexed in Search Engines (e.g. Google)

2. Keyword Ranking

3. SEO Visits to Your Site

5. SEO Conversions

SEO Reports


The purpose of SEO reports are for monitoring:

1. Traffic Trends (i.e. Entire Site, Per Sub-domain, Per Site Section)

2. Spider Behavior (e.g. googlebot, baiduspider)

3. Page Errors (i.e. Status Codes 404, 302, etc)

4. Keyword Ranking




SEO Reports – SEO Visits


Daily Traffic Trends with Week-over-week & Year-over-year Comparison e.g. Google Organic Visits




SEO Reports – SEO Visits


Daily Traffic Trends by Sub-Domains & by Site Sections e.g. Google Organic Visits




SEO Reports – Pages Indexed


Pages Indexed by e.g. Google, by Sub-domains, by Site Sections

SEO Reports – Keyword Ranking


Keyword Ranking report:

SEO Reports – GWT, Web Log Files


Spider data & Page Error data can be found from 2 sources:

1. Google Webmaster Tools (GWT)2. Your Site’s Web Log Files

Google Webmaster Tools provide SEO reports with basic & limited data, but is ready for access & easy to use.

Web Log files have full data, but aren’t easy to use & will require your web administrator & software developer to extract the data for you.

SEO Reports – Log Files


1. Pages crawled per googlebot IP2. Kilobytes downloaded per googlebot IP3. Time spent per page per googlebot IP

SEO Reports – Log Files


Page Errors: Pages with Status Codes 404 (not found) or 302 (moved temporarily)

SEO Reports – Landing Pages


How much does a page contribute to conversions?

1. Top Landing Pages by Visits2. Top Landing Pages by Conversions

Site Search


Site search allows visitors find products on your site by entering keywords.




Site Search


Site search data allows you to understand visitors’ intent:

1. What products do people search the most?

2. What is a product’s conversion rate?i.e. No. of items sold / No. of searches

3. What do people search for that you don’t have?




Site Search – Seasonal Trends


The popularity of the top site search keywords may change in different months & in different seasons.

Site Search – Online Travel Sites


e.g. Hotel search on an online travel site:Beijing, 01Apr2012, 03Apr2012, Swissotel Beijing, 2000, Chaoyang, 5

Some websites provide “restricted” site search




Google Analytics Tips


URL Structure, Dashboards,

Multi Channel Funnels,

Real Time Report, Custom Reports

Annotations, Visitors Flow,

Cookies, Data Sampling




URL Structure: Best Practices


Good URL structure allows quick retrieval of data through filtering reports by URLs:

tripadvisor.com/Hotels-tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-tripadvisor.com/VacationRentals-tripadvisor.com/Attractions-






Problematic URLs in Goal Funnel:

1. www.example.com/search-list/ (Search Results)2. www.example.com/product-details/ (Product)3. www.example.com/checkout/ (Checkout)4. www.example.com/payment-info/ (Payment Info)4. www.example.com/payment-info/ (Delivery Info)4. www.example.com/payment-info/ (Confirm Info)5. www.example.com/complete/ (GOAL)




















Make it easy to record granular SEO data: site:tripadvisor.com/Hotels atlantic citysite:tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review atlantic city site:tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalssite:tripadvisor.com/Attractions

49,900 pages (of this type) indexed by Google




GA Dashboards


GA Real-time Report





GA Annotations


GA Custom Reports


GA Visitors Flow


GA Visitors Flow


GA Multi Channel Funnels


Top Conversion Paths – Some traffic sources or paid/advertising channels aren’t the last click before conversions, but did contribute to conversions.




GA Cookies - Definition


An HTTP cookie is a parcel of text sent back and forth between a web browser and the server it accesses.

Cookies are used to differentiate one user from another and to pass information from page to page during a single user's website session.

A web server uses cookies to collect data about a given browser, along with the information requested and sent by the visitor.

Cookies do not identify people, but rather they are defined themselves by a combination of a computer, a user account, and a browser.

Google




GA Cookies – Types of Cookies


What do these GA cookies do?

__utmaVisitor identifier, expires in 2 years

__utmbSession identifier, expires in 30 minutes

__utmzTraffic source identifier, expires in 6 months

GA Sampled Data


Sampling is that part of statistical practice concerned with the selection of an unbiased or random subset of individual observations within a population of individuals intended to yield some knowledge about the population of concern, especially for the purposes of making predictions based on statistical inference. Sampling is an important aspect of data collection. Wikipedia.org

When does GA provide Sampled Data?

1. Any non pre-computed ad hoc query that reaches 500,000 visits (sessions).2. Any query that exceeds 1,000,000 unique dimension combinations.

Traffic Trends is more important in GA reports!




Google Analytics Advanced Setup


Social Media Tracking



Track the social media performance through GA: 1. Facebook Like button2. Facebook Share button3. Twitter Tweet button4. Google +1 button If you have the buttons installed on your website, you want to track the button clicks.



Add customized GA codes to your buttons

Track Facebook Like button clicks on your site:_gaq.push(['_trackSocial', 'facebook', 'like', 'http://www.your-website.com/social.php']);

Track Facebook Share button clicks on your site:_gaq.push(['_trackSocial', 'facebook', ‘share', 'http://www.your-website.com/social.php']);

Track Twitter Tweet button clicks on your site:_gaq.push(['_trackSocial', ‘twitter', ‘tweet', 'http://www.your-website.com/social.php']);

Click tracking for Google +1 is built-in to GA



Tag your all your Twitter Tweet URLs:

utm_source=twitterutm_medium=socialutm_term=web+analytics+2.0utm_campaign =analytics+books

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=web%2Banalytics%2B2.0&utm_campaign=analytics%2Bbooks

Use Google’s URL Builder to generate the tagged URL (or just use Excel):


Web Analytics References


WA Blogs

WA Books

GA Official Support




WA & SE Blogs


http://analytics.blogspot.comhttp://www.kaushik.nethttp://cutroni.com/blog/http://www.roirevolution.com/blog/http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/http://www.visualrevenue.com/bloghttp://www.webanalyticsworld.nethttp://www.hongkongwebanalytics.comhttp://bluewhale.cc （中文）http://www.seomoz.orghttp://www.gordonchoi.com/cat/google-analytics




http://analytics.blogspot.com/

http://www.kaushik.net/

http://cutroni.com/blog/

http://www.roirevolution.com/blog/

http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/

http://www.visualrevenue.com/blog

http://www.webanalyticsworld.net/

http://www.hongkongwebanalytics.com/

http://bluewhale.cc/

http://bluewhale.cc/

http://www.seomoz.org/

http://www.gordonchoi.com/cat/google-analytics

WA & SE Books


Web analytics & search engine books:

Web Analytics - An hour a dayWeb Analytics 2.0Avinash Kaushik

Advanced Web Metrics with Google AnalyticsBrian Clifton

Search Engine Marketing, Inc.Bill Hunt & Mike Moran




Gordon Choi Online


Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gordonchoi

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Quora: http://www.quora.com/Gordon-Choi

Weibo: http://weibo.com/ppcblog




http://www.twitter.com/gordonchoi

http://www.twitter.com/gordonchoi

https://plus.google.com/108099088932620717110/

Q & A


Thank you!

[email protected]




Date post:	11-Sep-2014
Category:	Technology
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Web Analytics Essentials - Gordon Choi

Technology