Web Analytics India Blog

After i wrote about the Searchmasters event in bangalore this month end, many readers reached out to me for the invites and passes. I reached out to Google to see if i could get more passes and i was pleased to see a mail from google announcing “Open invitation for searchmasters event”.

Here’s the excerpt so go ahead and register now and hopefully you should get an invite soon!

As you know, the event has limited seats and we have almost reached full capacity.
You can register through, or point your referrals to, the registration link mentioned in our latest blogpost: Opening invitations for Search Masters 09
We cannot guarantee a slot, but will send a registration confirmation mail only if you are slotted for the event.

Do drop me a note in case you get a invite so we could catchup and for those who cant make it. I’ll make sure i cover all the sessions via this blog.

Searchmasters09 -Bangalore Registration Link

P.S: In case you have any specific question you would like to ask on the sessions covered. Please mail me or leave a comment here. I’ll be glad to get that answered for you

I stumbled upon this great event which is a must attend if your part of the internet industry. Now everybody knows how google dominates the search market and also it’s extensive tool list to enhance your website from setting it up to reaching millions of people online.

This event is one of it’s kind with some valuable sessions, The event named as “Searchmasters 09” is a must attend. Here’s what it’s all about.The session 3 (Google Custom Search Engine) and (Google Analytics and Website Optimizer) are of great importance if your a web analyst.

1.) Webmasters Central and Best Practices

• Understand why accessibility is important, how it improves the presence of your site in Google.
• Discover the webmaster resources that Google offers and how it can help you.
• Learn about webmaster guidelines and best practices to build websites.

2.) Webmaster Help forum

• Learn about the thriving webmaster community and how it will help you find answers to search related questions.
• Get to know more about the new platform we’ve recently launched for the help forum and its new features.
• Get introduced to our community builders or ‘Bionic Posters’ as we call them.

3.) Google Custom Search Engine

• Provide a better user retention via targeted search.
• Achieve better click-through rates and conversions on your site
• Monetize with relevant ads via Custom Search keywords.
• Use Advanced APIs, customization, branding and support options.

4.) Building Mobile Friendly Websites

• Find out why there is a need for mobile friendly websites.
• What to consider while designing mobile websites.
• Tools that will help in designing such websites.
• Learn a few design tips and tricks.

5.) Google Analytics and Website Optimizer

Google Analytics is the next generation Web Analytics tool from Google that shows you how people find your site and how they navigate through it. It brings new accessibility to enterprise class web analytics, making it possible for all advertisers, publishers and web site owners to improve their online results. Learn the best way to make use of the product.

The Google Website Optimizer  helps in improving the effectiveness of your website in getting a return on your investment. Determine how you can best attract users and lead them to your site.

Registration: It’s by invite only and limited seats, so hurry up to ensure you get in touch with someone who can get you invite to this great event.

Look out for the coverage of the event and if you are attending the event, reach out to me or leave a comment below so we can catch up .

It was a while ago i wrote a post about 7 habits of effective omniture user, so here goes the 7 series again and this time for Google Analytics. These indeed are the best features of google analytics and probably must use in case you deal with google analytics day in and day out.

1.) Do Not Use Google Analytics Alone!

2.) Use Filters and Profiles Extensively

3.) Track Marketing Campaigns by GA

4.) Regular Expressions

5.) Custom Segmentation

6.) Track Outbound Link and Downloads

7.) Create Analytics Plan and Change Log Documents

1.) Do Not Use Google Analytics Alone!

Ok that certainly does not mean you dont use it , But use it with other amazing google tools like  Google Adwords and Google Web Optimizer.

2.) Use Filters and Profiles

Profiles and Filters are the most robust features in Google analytics and a must use, here’s few tips to get started with filters and profiles.

Google Analytics Profiles:

• Create a Master
• Test
• Campaign/Source/Medium

Content Profiles

• Buyers
• Browsers
• Shoppers

Google Analytics Filters

• Acquisition Filters
• Internal traffic vs. External traffic

3.) Track Marketing Campaigns by GA

• Use manual tagging for query parameters and not use “auto tagging”. (or use both)
• Use Google URL tool builder to create URLs.

4.) Trouble Shoot your data

• Check your reports for a line item named “(other).“
• Check goal no. vs. No. of pv for goal page.
• Use Charles to debug
• Ecommerce : Orders in GA Vs. Accounts dept.

5.) Custom Segmentation

• Use of _utmv via _utmSetVar
• Only One custom segment can be build.
• Use Concatenation strategy.
• Tracking of Repeat Buyers.

6.) Link Tracking and Downloads

• Use Onclick functions : urchinTracker() – (pageTracker for ga.js)
  • <img src=”/image.jpg” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/image.jpg’);” />
  • <a href=”/schedule.pdf” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/files/pdf/schedule.pdf’);” />PDF</a>
• Caution : These are Pageviews use filter to exclude the traffic.

7.) Analytics Plan

• Analyze the website.– Check for diff Domains,subdomains,dynamic content
• Create and Configure profiles.
• Create filters.
• Create goals and funnels.
• Create recommended profiles.
• Edit the tracking code.
• Modify the web site (if necessary; determined in step 2).
• Add the tracking code to web site pages.
• Tag marketing campaigns.
• Enable e-commerce transaction tracking (optional).
• Implement custom segmentation (optional).
• Configure other administrative features.
• User accounts and report access &Automated email delivery

References

• Google Analytics help section
• Justin Cutroni’s blog
• Robbin Steif’s blog

I should humbly accept month of December and January has been slow on web analytics India. But here’s what’s coming up in the month of February/March. Thanks to all the feedback and inputs by readers here are the Category & posts you will see in the coming months. Again this is a draft and feedback are welcome

Web Analytics Career in India

• Web analytics-good with numbers and good with people
• Web analytics as career in india
  - Tool implementation/QA
  -Reporting analytics
  -optimization Expert

Web Analytics Tool Tips, Tricks and Best Practices

• Google analytics: 7 habits of effective GA user
• Integration with Google Adwords
• Integration with Google Web Optimizer

Web Optimization (A/B Testing & Multivariate Tests)

• Getting started with google Web optimizer

Internet and Web Analytics Status in India

• E-commerce status in India and web analytics overview
• Mobile Internet and Advertising status

To Start with here’s wishing the readers of the blog an excellent New year ahead ( although iam late) and of course an exciting and challenge web analytics 2009 in India. I have no doubt in my mind that 2009 is going to be a great year for internet marketing and web analytics in India.

Apologies to all our readers for not posting much in last 30 days, but Web analytics india team will be back with more information/articles and resources of course. As always we look for your feedback and inputs. You can leave them via comment or reach out using this form

As we look forward for a great year ahead here’s few things we plan to do in year 2009.

• More resources and help section: We’ve got loads of feedback and many asking for resources and help with web analytics and that’s exactly what we’ll try to achieve going forward
• More Events: WAW is well known event in web analytics industry, Web analytics India team will look forward to host and help host these WAW in a city near you. If you think you can help us host or want our help to host a event reach out to us to it forward
• Internet Industry Status: We look forward to bring various internet industry vertical status (how are they doing and what’s their current status) to all our readers, so look forward as we cover ecommerce, lead generation and media verticals in our future posts.
• Web Analytics as career option in India: We’ve been asked this question quite often, the how, the scope and the future and we’ll cover that for our readers for sure so stay tuned.

Ok that’s on our plate, but your welcome to add on to our to do list.

I also want to take this oppurtunity to thank folks who have reached out to offer help and contribute. Here’s wishing everybody a great year ahead! and indeed a eventful web analytics year ahead.