Analytics & Data

November 14, 2012 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engine optimization may be a mix of art and science, but it’s as measurable and accountable as other online marketing channels. Knowing what key performance indicators to measure for SEO is the first step. Establishing a regular routine for monitoring and measuring performance wi...

October 24, 2012 • Tim Wilson

In "Understanding Segmentation in Google Analytics," my previous article, I explained the concept of analyzing traffic to a website in separate groups. This process is called "segmentation." Google Analytics offers several default segments, to automatically track common groups of vi...

October 19, 2012 • Tim Wilson

Gary Angel, one of the sharpest digital analytics practitioners, regularly cites the benefits of segmenting traffic in Google Analytics. He says, “In every case, as you think about [specific metrics for your site], segmentation is an excellent first step for choosing the right explanat...

August 28, 2012 • Tim Wilson

Consumers are increasingly impatient when it comes to waiting for their web browsers to load content. Measuring and monitoring how long it takes pages on your site to load — from desktop computers, laptops, tablets, or smartphones — enable you to take corrective action when any one of d...

July 13, 2012 • Tim Wilson

There’s a reason that an ecommerce site’s checkout process is one of the most popular analytics topics. Once a person initiates a checkout, she has self-identified herself as a visitor with a high intent to purchase. Chances are, you’ve already spent money acquiring that potential custo...

July 11, 2012 • Jaime Brugueras

Google Analytics is finally jumping into mobile data metrics. Google recently launched "Mobile App Analytics" as a part of its Analytics web app suite. Analytics is already used by almost a fourth of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 online retailers and more than half of its “Second 500.” Wi...

May 21, 2012 • Tim Wilson

There are two broad types of data you can collect about visits to your site. "Behavioral" data is about what visitors actually do on the site, while "attitudinal" data is about what visitors want to do. Both are valuable sources of information, and they complement each other in many way...

September 26, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Web analytics tools seek to monitor and report on the interaction between Internet users and specific websites or marketing initiatives for the purpose of improving those interactions. This definition is a ...

July 25, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Google Analytics has added social-media-related data to its reports. Google +1 button data is available by default. Facebook "Like" and Twitter "Tweet" sharing statistics can be added with some setup and additional tracking code. The new Google Analytics "Social" report tracks what Goo...

July 18, 2011 • Armando Roggio

The Google Analytics "Traffic Sources" section can help ecommerce marketers understand how well campaigns are working and how better to invest in site content, advertising, or other forms of engagement. Google Analytics is a free service that uses cookies — which we explain in "Cookies...

June 27, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Understanding your customers — including their preferences and opinions — is an important part of ecommerce marketing. One helpful indicator of customer behavior is location, because where one lives can ...

June 8, 2011 • Sig Ueland

Tracking your business's online performance is a necessity. But doing so chained to your desktop computer is not. Whether you’re out on a meeting or away on a summer vacation, with mobile apps you have the ability to check online statistics on the go. Here is a list of mobile apps for ...

June 8, 2011 • Michael Stearns

In May 2011, Google launched a new version of Analytics. This new version 5 is good news for power users, as it makes many of the advanced features Google has been developing over the past few years more accessible. If you still feel a bit overwhelmed with the range of options that Goog...

October 18, 2010 • Armando Roggio

A successful ecommerce business is an dynamic blend of products, pricing, operations management, customer service, marketing, and web technology. And an ecommerce entrepreneur or manager must monitor each and every ...

September 20, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Social marketing has emerged as one of the best ways to connect with consumers online. And tracking how well your business's social media marketing is performing has become a vital measurement of ecommerce marketing measurement. Yet with so many metrics and statistics to follow, it can...

September 10, 2010 • Armando Roggio

September 8, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Performance metrics can help ecommerce businesses measure progress and assess financial and marketing health. But with so much data available from tools like Google Analytics, it can be hard to know what to measure or even what those measurements mean. With this in mind, I put together...

June 14, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Search engine optimization (SEO) is changing. As search engines like Google, Bing, and Ask seek to provide better, more relevant, personalized, and, perhaps, even real-time results to search queries, so-called traditional SEO tactics may not work as expected. What's more, since search ...

March 9, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Many online stores have begun to include product videos aimed at boosting sales conversions, reducing shopping cart abandonment, and lowering product return rates. But not all product-related videos are the same, and merchants will need some metrics for measuring which videos are, in fa...

October 9, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce marketers want to generate the greatest possible revenue from every promotional dollar invested. But tracking or measuring exactly how each ad, each promotion, or each press release affects shoppers can be allusive. ClearSaleing provides a platform that helps companies accura...

October 2, 2009 • Armando Roggio

As ecommerce marketers strive to get the best return for every dollar they invest, there is a danger that they will fall prey to the last click effect, attributing all of a campaign's success to just the last interaction a customer has before arriving on site or making a purchase. The ...

August 12, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Web analytics newcomer Clicky offers real-time site data, Twitter activity, and custom data tracking for a nominal monthly fee, making it an attractive choice for some ecommerce businesses. Web analytics have become the definitive means of measuring marketing campaigns and search engin...

July 21, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown

Measuring the increased traffic and sales from a search-engine-optimization initiative is among the most challenging issues site owners face. Frequently, when I’m starting a new SEO program with a client, the seemingly simple question of “What’s your goal?” is met with a pause. It’s not...

May 7, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Woopra is an innovative web analytics suite that promises to vastly improve the information that website owners can collect and monitor. As customers return to your store, Woopra begins to track behavioral profiles, allowing online merchants to monitor individual customer behavior o...

April 28, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Print advertising is a waning media vehicle. It has become less effective in the post-interruption era. However, in spite of this decline, printed display advertising and classifieds can still provide a solid return on investment (ROI) for some ecommerce merchants willing and able to me...

April 8, 2009 • Armando Roggio

To really get the most from web measurements, online business owners need a clear understanding of exactly what they want to accomplish and how they will measure those accomplishments. No matter how objective the reporting of analytics software, the meaning divined from its numbers and...

January 8, 2008 • John Henson

If you're paying for any kind of advertising — for example, Google AdWords, banner ads, or e-mail marketing — it's important to know what's working and what's not. Fortunately, analytics programs have built in ad tracking capabilities. I'll describe how you can track your ads with Google Analytics.

August 1, 2006 • Pamela Hazelton

I get thousands of emails each day. A good majority are spam, and I use Cloudmark (the best system I’ve found) for filtering them. Being in business, however, I still have to take the time to scan them all, making sure I’m not missing an initial request for work from someone who may hav...

January 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

In the beginning, there were “hit counters”. Occasionally you will still see one at the bottom of a website, prominently displaying the number of hits over a given time frame. There was a time when the success of a website was gauged solely on this number, with a site that received many...

January 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

On November 14, 2005, Google announced its free, hosted web analytics service. Based on the Urchin analytics platform, which Google acquired earlier in the year, the service boasts website analysis tools aimed at executives, marketers, and webmasters. According to a Google press release,...