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April 24, 2008
I’ve been doing some work for a restaurant consultant in Boston lately (DCS Associates), and had been trying every which-way to corner the keyword “boston restaurant consultants”.
I’ve heard how effective having the keyword in the domain could be, so I went ahead and registered “bostonrestaurantconsultants.com”. The results were immediate and drastic. Before I had any content on the page other than “Coming Soon, BostonRestaurantConsultants.com”, I was ranking #3 in Google organic results for my target keyword of “boston restaurant consultants“. I had zero backlinks, had not submitted the site (had only visited it with my Google toolbar).
I’d heard how effective this practice was for years, but had no idea it could be so powerful.
Filed under: Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) |
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March 27, 2008
As I’ve said before, my feelings towards Google Analytics (GA) is mixed. On the one hand, I find it to be a fairly weak solution that is becoming so widely used that people are unable or unwilling to see the benefits when presented with stronger commercial solutions. On the other hand, GA has pushed Web analytics in general to the forefront for part-time online marketers, if only at an entry level.
However, the newest GA offering is, at first glance, pretty strong. GA has announced that they will now share benchmarking data at a vertical industry level. This means that if you use GA and are willing to allow your data to be lumped into the pot, GA will allow you to monitor overall traffic trends within your industry.
This is an awfully interesting feature. If, like me, you use a commercial Web analytics solution, I advise you to (like me) launch a simple site related to your industry. Put GA on it, and agree the share the data. You’ll then have access to the industry trends, without sharing the data from your primary site.
Filed under: Online Marketing, Web Analytics |
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March 3, 2008
I got news today that Compete.com has been acquired by British Market Research company called TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres). I don’t know much about TNS, but Compete.com is the Web analytics market research tool of choice, especially over the past few years. Older tools like Alexa.com have long tried to provide information on the traffic levels for different Web sites, but the accuracy of these tools has long been in doubt. Compete.com offers a better — though of course not perfect — solution, largely free of charge.
In my opinion, there is a large gap in the analytics space for shared data. Of course Web traffic data is proprietary, and under the control of the company who owns the site, but I know most online marketers would love to have a resource that would aggregate basic traffic metrics for all sites and publish them. In fact, I’ll bet most online marketers would pay well for an accurate solution.
Filed under: Online Marketing, Web Analytics |
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February 13, 2008
I’ve often linked to material from the Web Analytics Association in this blog, and I was on their site today reading up on a few things. On a whim, I took a peek at the source code for their site to see if I could tell which analytics package they are using. And, the tool of choice for this market-shaping, partial, web site is…
(wait for it)
Nothing. At least nothing that I could see in the source code. Maybe they are tracking log files, or maybe I missed a simple pixel tag, but from what I could see, they aren’t running any analytics package for their site.
Filed under: Web Analytics |
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January 18, 2008
The Web Analytics Association released survey results showing that their respondents planned to increase Web analytics spending by 70% in the coming year.
While this is great news for the industry, don’t start spending your future earnings yet. The respondents to this survey are already affiliated with (or at least aware of) the Web Analytics Association. In other words, these are the people and companies that “get it” — they understand the value of Web analytics. For those of you who are employed at companies less dedicated to a solid Web analytics focus, trying to make Web analytics more central to your organizations will remain a challenge.
I wish the Web Analytics Association would publish more case studies, showcasing the value of Web analytics, and how it truly is a revenue source for companies that employ it effectively. This would give analytics professionals more ammunition to illustrate the importance of their positions to their employers.
Filed under: Web Analytics |
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November 19, 2007
I just discovered that the Web Analytics Association has launched their own blog. It only went up a week ago and there isn’t much content yet, but if this blog is used by WAA members, look for lots of insight. This could be a great resource. I’ll be reading it regularly and summarizing any interesting points here.
You can visit the blog yourself here.
Filed under: Web Analytics |
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November 2, 2007
It was reported about a week ago that Omniture has begun the process of acquiring web analytics provider Visual Sciences (formerly WebSideStory). For those new to the marketplace, WebSideStory is one of the older players in this market. They pioneered a lot of the page-tagging technology that is standard today. Visual Sciences launched about 4 years ago with a dynamic new spin on reporting and visualizing website traffic and made immediate waves. WebSideStory acquired Visual Sciences a couple of years ago, and strengthened the Visual Sciences brand.
So what does it all mean? Well, it’s one less vendor in an overcrowded marketplace. It can be difficult for Web Analysts to move from one organization to another when the odds of their new position using the same analytics tool they are accustomed to is slim.
It also means that Omniture is not relenting in their quest to become the unquestioned market leader.
Filed under: Web Analytics |
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October 21, 2007
Now that we’re well into Q4 for 2007, it is a busy time for many online marketers. Many will want to grab a piece of the holiday retail pie, some are blowing out their 2007 budgets, still others will want to have a productive end to the year in preparation of submitting budgets for 2008.
Every year around this time, the Seattle-based SEM agency Logic361 releases their “10 Tips for Super-Charging Pay-Per-Click Advertising”. I like this particular report, because it gives good analytics practices equal time with good SEM practices. It is also a fairly basic set of recommendations that any SEM practitioner can understand and put into practice.
So, if you’re wondering when you should bid on your branded terms, why you should only have 2 ads per ad group, or why you should never let Google “optimize” the delivery of your ads, check it out.
Filed under: Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Web Analytics |
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October 5, 2007
I’ve been helping some friends out with their new site, designed as an index of Newport, RI restaurants. Called Tablehound.com, it is actually a terrific site — an index of Newport-area restaurants, displayed in a Google Maps mashup. Soon you’ll be able to use this site to book reservations and check wait-times for these restaurants.
Problem is — there’s virtually no SEO content on the site. There’s tons of information on it — information, in fact, for every restaurant in and around Newport, RI (every fine dining, chain, fast food, bar, cafe or coffee shop establishment). None of it, however, is actually served in standard HTML that is viewable by search engine robots.
So, I’m a bit hamstrung when it comes to optimizing this site for search engines… and I’m looking for advice. The owners of the site do not want to clutter the GUI with text, and while I know it is possible to use a CSS visible tag to create a sort-of “hidden” text that is viewable by roll-over of a link, I haven’t yet put this to use. I suppose I will have to, but if there are other tricks out there, I’d love to hear them.
I’ve built up the backlinks with an emphasis on anchor text, and I expect a decent PageRank if Google ever updates their rankings, but otherwise this has been a challenging project (it’s always the ones that don’t pay that give you the headaches).
So, if you have any advice, I’d love to hear it.
Filed under: Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing |
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September 20, 2007
Twice a year, Forrester Research releases a detailed and exhaustively researched review of the market-leading Web analytics platforms. The entire report can be purchased from Forrester, and is generally available from the vendors that scored well in the report, if you are willing to fill out an online form (this is how I got my copy).
Forrester is notoriously tough and litigious on Web sites that quote their reports, so in case that one guy who reads this blog is from Forrester, allow me to summarize in generalities:
- Coremetrics probably had the best overall review in the report, followed closely by Omniture and (surprisingly to me) WebTrends.
- Unica NetInsight ranked well for the strength of their offering and their market share, but suffered a bit for the complexity of their install.
- Visual Site by Visual Sciences (who acquired WebSideStory / HitBox) had the strongest showing for their current offering.
- Google Analytics was reviewed, but ranked far below the commercial solutions — further back than Urchin (whom Google acquired and re-branded as Google Analytics) ever ranked behind its competitors. This could be evidence that Google will not devote the resources to keep up with the commercial solutions on the market. If this trend continues, look for a larger discrepancy between the “free” Google Analytics, and the commercial, professional tools on the market.
If you are in the market for a Web analytics platform, I strongly urge you to acquire the full report, as it contains much more insight than a simple scoreboard.
Filed under: Web Analytics, Uncategorized |
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