Google Search Updating Process

1. The Idea- Coming up with an idea
2. Improved Performance- When a set of motivating searches are not performing, engineers create a hypothesis of what data could be integrated into the search algorithm to improve engagement
3. Testing- The proposed changes are rigorously tested
4. Human Review- Human readers that are trained to review result pages determine which set or SERPs are of the highest quality
5. Sandbox- Live users are tested by diverting a small portion of Google Search traffic to a “sandbox”
6. Evaluation Team- In 2010 Google conducted over 20,000 experiments. Once experiments run, a Google search analysts (Eval Analysts Team) looks at human and algorithmic data.
7. Launch Decision Meeting- Engineers and the Google Search analysts work together in a launch decision meeting where implementation of proposed changes is decided
8. Unity with Users- Alignment of Google users and the Google Tech team result in ongoing improvements to Google Search
9. Global Change- Users around the world (all languages) see the effects of Google Search quality improvements.

Registering for Twitter is free and takes a few minutes. Setting up your profile is the first step to Twitter social personification. Basically, your profile set up creates the image others will see when you connect with them. Here are a few tips to help you look as dapper as you can in the eyes of other Tweeple.

General Tips for Profile Creation & Tweeting

1. Branded Background- You can get some ideas at free Twitter background websites or have a professional Twitter background designed
2. Upload Icon- In your profile editor you can ad a picture. Upload your logo, symbol, avatar or icon
3. Splash of Humour- In some way, add a splash of humor in your profile bio or background design. Remember Twitter is primarily about people connecting and sharing
4. Say Thank You- Anytime someone follows you, thank them through a direct message. Direct messaging is only available when someone follows you. If you are on Facebook or YouTube invite your new follower by sending them a link in your thank you reply (140 Character limit)
5. Interact- Respond to direct messages that are legit (be aware people abuse DM with spam), mentions and retweets
6. Mindshare- Capture likenesses your connections share in your conversations (tweets). Win the hearts of new connections you make
7. Event Sharing- For meaningful events share with followers by tweeting out loud
8. Useful Links- Share links that are useful to people, whether they are links to your website or links to other resources
9. Completed Profile- The main areas to complete are your background, bio, username and profile icon. Completed profiles tend to be taken more seriously on Twitter
10. Freshness- Keep updating with new information, people are waiting to hear from you

Setting up your profile is worth a bit of extra time because once you start Tweeting it’s what everybody else will see. To give you some ideas here are a few Twitter Profiles I think are well designed.

Twitter Professional Background Examples

@TechWyse Twitter Page

@EricWashburn Twitter Page

@Cheth Twitter Page

@ArtOfFreelance Twitter Page

You can see creating a Twitter background is taken seriously by some people/companies, especially for marketing and branding purposes. The way I see it is; your Twitter profile for business is basically a website design project. The Twitter background you create speaks to what you represent; it's worth investing the time and money in professional imagery.

Now that you’ve got a classy looking Twitter profile with a well branded background you can start connecting with others.

You should have a general idea on how to set up a Twitter profile business now. Hopefully a light bulb has gone on. In the next article I am going to explain an engagement strategy I like to use for Twitter business marketing.

 

In the introduction to Twitter for business you might recall seeing an illustration. It is intended to show an overview of the basics to marketing your business on Twitter. This article will address the question “How do I engage Twitter?”

Twitter Engagement Technique #1- Twitter’s Search Engine

Find Questions you would like to Answer

Once you are logged into your account you have full control of a very simple user interface. The idea is to make connections with people that share common ground with you. e.g. regional, city, municipality, industry sector & product name, problems, known pain points, etc. To find people on Twitter that might be interested in you I like using Twitter search…

 

The minute you login Twitter search is right at the top

Strike up & Reply to Conversations with the People you Meet

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

 

At the top navigation menu you’ll find the messages link. Once clicked, all messaging history is presented and a text box to talk with any follower.

How to Check Replies and Mentions

 

The Power of Twitter Search is like Fine Wine

In my personal Twitter profile above I am enjoying conversation with WolfBlass Wineries (my favorite wine) and a friend I met through Twitter. First let me tell you, this new found Twitter friend is a talented artist that lives in Florida. We met on Twitter, made a great connection; so he flew up to Orillia, CA for the long weekend party with friends and family. I am guilty of introducing my new friend to WolfBlass wines, which I adore and so does he now. Following the conversations on Twitter WolfBlass asked Greg (our new found Twitter friend) and I for our home addresses so they could send us a little treat. I will update this article when I receive the gift.

How to Market Your Business Effectively on Twitter

There is a good reason why almost 50% of the businesses in the world chose Twitter for marketing in 2010. In 2009, only 3% of global business thought of Twitter as a marketing instrument (thinking it’s only for kids). Twitter has fewer rules than other social networks like Facebook or YouTube. On Twitter it’s easier to interact with others, form relationships, friendships and less of a time vampire than Facebook. You’ll notice people compare Facebook to Twitter frequently. It’s because they are the two favourite social networks in the world as chosen by business marketers. Facebook has a larger population than Twitter. Consequently, some marketers think Facebook is the best network to market your business with. To each their own! My choice is Twitter for business marketing, hands down. It’s faster, great for business, less CPU intense, easier to use, poke free, annoying chat free and just plain old #Kewl (no offence to my friends on Facebook).

Twitter Isn’t Just for Kids, it’s Also for Business

For those business owners that still don’t understand social media I am going to try and help you discover how Twitter can work for your business, organization or group. This guide is not intended to be referenced by individuals that use Twitter for personal reasons. It’s dedicated to all business owners that are still saying “Twitter is for kids.” Please, let your guard down while I give you some ideas that could possibly change the way you do business. It’s going to take me a few articles, but I guarantee you will gain some new found wisdom because it’s taken us 4 years to learn what I am about to share with you.

Guide to Twitter Marketing for Your Business Topics

• Twitter for business marketing index page
• How to use Twitter for your business, organization , municipality, counsel or non-profit group
• What are followers and how do I get them?
• Posting interesting tweets instead of junk nobody cares for
• The art of getting retweeted and what it means
• Regular tweets & cool interactions vs. no conversation
• How and why to say thank you
• Using Twitter's simple search to crack nuts

It’s really up to you whether social media is included in your marketing arsenal. Social networking is no longer a fad, it’s reality and it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon. If you think you are missing out, there’s only one way to find out… jump aboard the Twitter tree and start Tweeting. It’s the number one choice for online business marketing and communication.

Hopefully this guide helps your business entity connect to more people that want to learn more about your message, product, or service.

How to Use Twitter for your Business, Municipality or Organization

I remind you, Twitter is a favourite for global businesses now because it is simple to use with (almost) no restrictions other than the 140 character limit. If something you say on Twitter is distasteful you’ll have the Twitter nation to answer to. Rarely does Twitter management get involved with what people on Twitter talk about. The question that must overshadow the fence sitters is…

“How does it work and how can I use Twitter to connect with customers, prospects or audience?”

In the next few articles I will offer some social media pointers from years of learning what to do and not to do. It will focus on how businesses, municipalities and other organizations can leverage Twitter as a valuable communication tool.

I can remember as I was growing up I had this strange fascination for models (the plastic ones you build). I really like building small scale models of bikes and cars. The first model I got was for Christmas and I will never forget it.  It was a 1956 Chevy. Man was I excited, at that particular moment all I wanted to do was open the model and start building. I could hardly wait!

Well, within a couple hours I opened the box and started to learn how models were put together. After all, this was my first experience with a new toy. But I wasn’t really sure how to get started (6 years old)

"Ummm, mommy can you help me?" asks Robert.

"You asked for a model from Santa, you’ll have to learn how to build it" Mommy replies.

"Please mommy, just help me get started" Pleads Robert.

Mommy decides to help Robert with the basics. She showed me how the instructions worked and to follow the numbers. A quick explanation on the various symbols to pay attention to was also very helpful. That was really all I needed to become a master small scale model builder…A simple guiding hand.

A Common Google Analytics Question

I am often asked questions by friends, clients, and associates that seem very simple to me. This is because I build Google analytics models for websites every day. A new client jumped aboard the TechWyse Internet Marketing train today and wouldn’t you know it, she began with a professional Google Analytics set up. In order for a set up to be performed administrative access is required. I advised our new client and she replied “How do I do that?". It seems the same questions keep coming up so I thought I’d answer one of the most commonly asked questions I get asked when starting a new Google Analytics setup.

How Do I Give Access To Other People in My Google Analytics Account?

There are 2 ways you can give access to people you want to see your Google analytics interface.

1. View Only- Basically allows a user full access to viewing and downloading your data
2. Administrative Access- No holes barred, full access to all data, analytics settings such as goals filters and user administration.

A Step By Step Guide on How to Give other People Access to Analytics

A) Login to your Google Analytics account http://www.google.com/analytics/

B) Go to “User Manager” found at the bottom of the page

C) Click “Add User”.

D) Enter the User’s email address.  Note: if the address is not registered as a Google account, the user will have to use his/her address to register for one.

1) Enter the email Address
2) Choose the permissions you want the user to have. View means the user will only be able to see the data; Account administrator gives full access to data and settings. This is the correct setting for any technical help you need, set up or trouble shooting. Do not assign this permission to anyone unless it is required.
3) Any existing profiles you have will show up and you can add them if you want.
4) Anything you “add” from the “Available Websites” profile box will show up here
5) When you are done save your changes

That’s all there is to it. You are done! The above illustrations are screen captures taken from the Google Analytics interface. I used my model building skills to provide the numeric, step-by-step instructions. If you find it confusing I made a very quick video demonstration of the same process. This video is based on giving TechWyse (or any other trusted analytics consultant) administrative access.

Don’t Like All the Reading?

Watch a Quick Video Demo

Robert Said

Hello <Name Removed>

I was just performing my monthly analysis on your site and ran across mirrored content on your site. Here are the duplicate pages.

Client Says

"I often get inquiries from our brokers asking if they can "borrow" content from our website. In the past I've unequivocally said yes.

Should I be putting some sort of caveat on this now? Will Google only realize the text is duplicated if we have a reciprocal link in place? Or will it eventually determine there's a match on sites with no relationship?

Robert's Answer

This is more of a problem with organic ranking. For PPC if the mirrored pages are not on the same domain it should be OK. As a general rule unique, well written content ALWAYS out performs duped content by a long shot.

The content in this instance is found on a page within another domain. Is this really a problem? I understand the idea of using duplicate content in the same domain. Why is there a negative impact if we're borrowing material from another website?"

Generally, Google will (algorithmically) determine who the source of the content is. The other sites found to have duplication will be devalued and/or receive little to no organic ranking benefits. Google's algorithm is not perfect. I have seen them decide that another source (other than the author) is the original writer. Yes, this is often a result of the site with duplication having a high authority status. As long as the content can be spidered (crawled) Google will always find it, analyze it, determine duplication/spam value, and index it accordingly.

As the internet continues to grow at unprecedented rates, so does the filtration and quality scoring in both PPC and organic algos. That is why I say unique content is the best way to get your message out there. If others want to borrow your content I would suggest advising them to reference it with a link.

This will not help your organic or PPC results. Using duplicate or mirrored content is something Google speaks clearly about. I thought I would let you know that because it will make or break your marketing efforts online. Duplicate content is a big 'NO NO' if you want to rank well and gain experts status with your writing!

The Bottom Line

Ultimately it is your call what content you want to use. I am sharing my views with you. My views are based on seeing websites completely de-indexed/devalued or penalized because of it. Don't wait for the 'algo creep' in the Google algorithm; it won't get caught up for long. Eventually duplication is found and a mathematical devaluation occurs.

Analyzing traffic on your website just got a whole lot more effective and exciting. The good folks over at Google continue to blow my mind with a host of major updates. A few days ago, Google unleashed the "New Google Analytics".  I neglected to post about it immediately like some of my fellow GAACs (Google Analytics Authorized Consultant) because, heck, I am an analyst. I really wanted to test these features out and see the cause and effect to the analyst and analyst‘s client-base.

I am really excited about the many excellent features that I am using in this new version. Some of the things I like:

• Your sales conversions can be cross segmented so easily now with many other metrics and dimensions.
• The new, enterprise-class features are almost alive and scream usabily.

I am still studying how I will apply all of this richer data visualization to my clients. 

But before I get too deep into my investigative research, I give you a brief synopsis of the new features found in the recently released Google Analytics update!

My Friends, The New Google Analytics Interface

Bouncing Motion Charts

Hint: To make the keyword dots bounce <<move the slider>>.

How can software be advanced but easy-to-use? Any development firm will tell you there is usually a great deal of work and research that goes into usability development. From a coding standpoint, the easier the user functionality, the more challenging the programming. You can tell usability was on the top of the list with the multi-dimensional website analysis in motion chart analysis. You can select our own metrics to examine based on the goals of your website. The metrics will interact over time, which makes analytic processes easier and more evident when animating data with motion charts. If you compare that to the previous method of graphs and columns, a lot more can be concluded in a shorter time period.

Improve AdSense Earnings with Google Analytics

Now you can use this powerful tracking tool as a full-service web analytics tool. Learn how to serve your website visitors experience on your website. Utilize the clever integration with Google AdSense. Take a close look at reports that focus on visitor interactivity with your AdSense units. Experiment with placement and ad text colors. Pay close attention to performance by referring sites, referring search engine to better optimize your AdSense units.

AdSense and Analytics Video

Help with Tracking Adsense on your WordPress Blog

Newly Skinned User Interface

There's no mistaking this is a lean mean system. When I first logged in it took me no more than 20 seconds to understand what to do. We work with many businesses improving website visitor experience. The foundation of our extensive reporting is Google Analytics. Taking a quick glance above, I can see there’s one of our clients that are slipping, why? When we take a look at the screen capture above we can see the Red website comparing the default timelines of the last 2 months. If you want to, you can show more rows to can see the entire account base then sort from ascending to descending. The red colored website that is showing traffic down 21.24% will be where I start my analysis today. Once I discover why visits are down I report to my team – cause, effect, and corrective action. This is very intuitive and enterprise focused to increase analyst efficiency and deliberative processes. The ease of account management is far greater now, a great job in usability research.

The new interface includes:

• A cleaner reporting screen
• Shiny administrative interface
• New account navigation
• Much easier to rename accounts and profiles

Making Custom Reports

As an analyst I can create my own reports within Google Analytics specific to each client. Additionally, our clients can build their own reports by dragging and dropping the metrics they want to compare them. They are arranged the way you want to see them and saved. You can export the data in PDF, XML,CSV or TSV formats. 

API Tool in Private Beta

The 'API' (application programming interface) is in private beta testing currently. We are part of the testing. This tool allows you to access all of the Google Analytics data and export it. Now we are limited only be imagination for integrating information into other programs with related data sources. These programs can have more elaborate visualizations or interfaces for viewing data. When conducting offline analysis with larger (more complete) data sets, "a bigger" picture analysis process findings are more meaningful. This means action is more profitable through higher probability factors. 

Advanced Segmentation and Dimensions and Metrics

Isolate and analyze subsets of data that you are interested in. In the example above I want to know how the traffic coming to this site compares to the advanced segmentation traffic. The advanced segment includes all traffic from the US and Canada that views 3 or more pages. This is a great way to look at traffic to see which sources are more engaged. Simply choose from predefined custom segments or make your own with a slick, drag n’ drop segment builder.

Segment Builder Video

Upgrade Review Summary

For online, offline and email marketing efforts Google Analytics has just dug its heals in. Track your blogs, websites, pay per click marketing or even phone calls. Google Analytics is a powerful way to become well acquainted with your website visitors. With these new updates we can look at segment performance like never before using advanced segmentation. Apply one or more of those advanced segments to other metrics and dimensions. Comparing Google Analytics with any other form of website tracking is simply apples and oranges. The new uses of analytics have yet to be truly discovered with the latest updates and beta testing currently in progress for future feature releases. In my humble opinion Google Analytics is the most valuable ROI enhancer a website can have. (period) 

Increasing the number of goals scored on your web site just got a lot easier.

The true Analytics evolution is about to begin!

The Analytics Game Plan

What’s the reason you have a website?

This is the first question to ask yourself when you are trying to determine the best metrics to focus on. Written in an earlier article by our very own PPC_Girl, in general terms all business websites break down to 4 different possible types of goals for sites; Brand Lift, Lead Generation, Social Platforms or Ecommerce.

Social sites such as Facebook, YouTube or Orkut have the goal of  “people in a box”.  Analytics can also be used to help improve conversion of social websites. The main point here is determining the purpose of a website. Once that is agreed on, goals and key metrics are much easier to decide on.

What Are the Best Key Metrics?

1) Sites that are Generating Leads

If your site is primarily a lead generation site I look at:

• Per Visit Goal Value
• Number of conversions (highest conversion keywords and landing pages)
• Conversion rate
• Cost Per Conversion (CPA)
• Sales team closing rate

2) Sites Designed for Ecommerce

For e-commerce sites the obvious measurement of success is sales. But how do your visitors make a purchase? What traffic source is the highest converting and why? What are the keywords that lead to more sales? In your goal funnel, where are the most abandoned levels and why?

Specific areas to look at include:

• Revenue
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Per Visit Goal Value
• CPA
• Page views Per Visit
• Time on site
• Bounce Rate
• Visitor Loyalty
• Visits

Look at how much revenue you are generating compared to how much you are spending in AdWords advertising. Combine the reports from AdWords and Analytics to give you all the data needed to constantly improve your bottom line and of course, website conversion!

3) Brand Lift Websites

What are your stickiest content pages? When you find that answer, why are they sticky? What makes them so interesting? What is the source of traffic that is delivering the most engaged visits?

• Length of visit
• Depth of Visit
• Most engaging keywords
• Most engaged traffic source

Look closely at the behaviors of the different traffic sources. The different traffic sources to your website always lead to varying degrees of conversion. Which traffic source is the best converting? For example, if organic traffic converts at 10% and Pay Per Click Traffic converts at 5% under the same keyword -  why? Do you think the behaviors of your organic traffic may have some secrets to share with PPC traffic?

4) Social Platforms

With social media networks the obvious primary goal is to build the community. Without people in a social network there is no reason for being. How do people reach your sign up pages? Who sent them to your social network and how well did that traffic source convert?

• Setting goal paths
• Conversion rate
• Best referrers
• The least path of resistance (lowest abandonment rate in goal funnel)

The other characteristic I also like to look at is how the new users interact with the community. For example, if I was the owner of Twitter and saw plenty of referrals from Facebook, how well do they convert (sign up). Once the referral is signed up how active are they with social interactions and making new contacts.

What's Your Closing Rate?

Analytics will tell you answers to all the metrics above accept your closing rate in lead generation. Out of all the leads you get through your website how many do you close? This is one of the most important aspects in determining the true value of a goal for lead generation. It is also an area to pay close attention to. Just because Google Analytics will give you data on the leads delivered to your business, this can be meaningless if you have no strategy for closing sales.

How Does Google Analytics Work?

The most actionable data derives from 3 simple questions that Google Analytics answers.

1. Who came to your website? (Campaign)
2. Why did they come to your website? (Source)
3. How did they get there? (Medium)

My Favorite Analytic Reporting Methodology

1. Assess- After studying the goals of a site and website type it’s time to decide on what you want to test with Google Analytics.
2. Explore Options- Determine the best set of metrics for each website along with alternative KPI focus.
3. Execute- Get your test underway. Allow ample time for data collection.
4. What Does it all Mean? Make your analysis. Understand the important areas of your data based on the first 3 steps.

3 Blind Mice or Eyes Wide Open?

After completing this '4 step process' it’s time to decide on what changes to make. But that is not all there is to successful actionable reporting; we must also benchmark our changes. To do this I like to create a spreadsheet that contains the key metrics you are tracking. Each month, take the data from the Google Analytics key metrics and stack them side by side in your spreadsheet. Monthly, you can visually see the impact of your changes.

Now that we have focus the final step of creating your actionable report is much easier. If you create your report with the right deliberative process, making changes will be a logical and simple process. I truly believe that any website can be improved with the right analytic approach. Without identifying what KPIs are applicable to each website your deliberative philosophy can be clouded, time consuming and ineffective.

Have you ever sat down with friends or family and played Monopoly? I can recall many times pulling all-nighters playing the never-ending game. My strategy would change from game to game but there was no illusion, the green and blue colored properties were the over-all goal for me. For once you owned these 5 properties with hotels it would almost always result in victory if you have the money to buy buildings. There are only 12 hotels and 32 houses, so domination has to be strategic.

How to Make a Boardwalk Website Using Google Analytics

OK, we have road tested this method of ROI squeezing and can tell you it’s a winner every time. Follow my recipe and dial in your PPC conversion rate. I will make a couple of assumptions in this case before we get started:

• You already have Google Analytics installed on all pages that require tracking.
• All necessary IPs are excluded from your traffic. Although this is not an essential step it makes conversion data more accurate.
• Your website includes tracking 1 domain (does not span multiple domains)
• The purpose of your website is to make money
• Has ecommerce transactions and/or lead generation as your end goal

Step One- Setting up Goals

Configure conversion goals for your website. What is the reason your website exists?

Once you have your goals configured a goal funnel can be visualized after data is collected from site visitors. Your site can have many goals. Typical website goals include product purchases, lead generation, prime content page views or downloads. All of these goals should have an expected path to goal and that is how easily website goals are created in Google Analytics. When we are done we have a beautiful goal funnel from 1 to 10 tiers. It is also important to set a goal value to each goal.

Help with Google Analytics goal configuration

Depending on the volume of traffic and complexity of your goal funnel, the timeline of actionable data will vary. Generally, the more goal conversions with organic and PPC traffic the better your analytic deliberative process. The goal funnel above is a result of one month’s tracking where we had 495 goals conversions with a 5.03% conversion rate. That is plenty to get us into fun predictive analytics. The analytic philosophy we will use is quite simple here.

We want to find the best keywords (most engaging) and associated pages that lead to goal fulfillment.

Step 2- Find the Most Engaged Organic Traffic Sources

On the navigation menu find Keywords > non-paid

What I look for is popular keywords from non-paid traffic sources. In all keywords above the bounce is under 22% with an average time on site of 3:13. People are engaged, especially with the keyword “paper bags”…very cool. Now let’s click over to the goal conversion tab.

I have highlighted the keywords I want to drilldown and find the best landing pages. You can repeat this process for many keywords by changing the “Show rows” pull-down menu (shown above) to 100 or more. For this exercise I will find the best landing pages for the “paper bags” keyword then select the Medium metric just to compare the CPC vs. Paid traffic.

If you think about it organic traffic has more than double the traffic that has naturally moved through this website under the keyword “paper bags”. Remember this is natural traffic that typed a certain keyword and moved through your site at a 6.87% conversion rate (double the conversion rate of CPC traffic).

It would seem to me that our organic traffic stream has something to teach our CPC traffic. Where do people go on this website that is so much more conversion friendly when they query a search engine? Why is our goal conversion rate double with organic traffic?

Stay tuned for the conclusion where we find the landing pages that organic travellers like.

For your online marketing efforts Google Analytics is a magical solution. This is especially applicable to your Adwords PPC spending. It will automatically tag keyword destination URL’s so you can take a focused look at the money you are spending on traffic. Zoom in on Clicks, ads, landing pages, keyword popularity, and conversion.

Google Analytics Will Also Track:

• Email Newsletters
• Organic and Paid Search
• Banner Ads
• Referral Links
• Other PPC Engines
• Radio Campaigns
• Television Campaigns

…to mention a few!

With Google Analytics, you can track the results of any online marketing campaign. But it does not stop there. I am sure your business also has offline marketing such as direct mail, radio, TV or Print. Did you know you can also track your offline marketing efforts with Google Analytics?

Take a look at some of the other website tracking options out there and I am sure you’ll agree Google Analytics is top of the food chain. There are other options such as Omniture or Core Metrics but what makes Google’s amazing analytic tracking solution so attractive is the price…it’s FREE!

So your choices are really quite simple when you opt in on website analytics for your website:

1. Invest time and money into making data driven decisions on your own.
2. Invest in web analytics services that will increase your web site conversions.

There are many excellent features in the urchin analysis software Google offers. (Urchin IS Google Analytics for those that do not know.) My personal favorite is goals and analysis. After all— if your website does not have goal(s), why does it exist? When the goal funnel is sculpted for each unique website design it provides web analysts a simplistic approach to ROI improvements.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Installing Google Analytics

1. What kind of a website do you have? Lead Generation, brand lift or ecommerce site?
2. Does your site allow for java script? There are some management systems that pose a large challenge. The bottom line is if you cannot put JavaScript on your site you cannot use Google analytics.
3. Do you have links, downloads or special page elements you want tracked?
4. Is the architecture easy to navigate, have special html tags or unique characteristics?
5. Are there ‘frames’ being used on your site? This may inflate your statistics
6. If you have an Ecom website what software is used? Some of the more popular ecommerce software comes with an easy Google Analytics integration module such as Xcart.
7. How many domains need to be tracked that are a part of your website?

A Bit About The Google Analytics Tracking Module

How to Track Form Data from Multiple Domains

This method of tracking multiple domains on a website is based on the new version of tracking code Sept 27, 2008.

1. Modifications required to existing code
   
2. So these are the 2 lines you will need to add:
   pageTracker._setDomainName("none");
   pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);

If you want use to pass the form data along to another domain _linkByPost function is also required. Here is an example of a form post and how it would change. I have bolded what you would need to add to the existing form post.

<form action="http://newdomain.com/form.cgi" onSubmit="javascript:pageTracker._linkByPost(this)">

Then if you want the full url to show up in analytics you will need to create a custom, advance filter like this:

The Coding Required:

Filter Type : Custom filter > Advanced
Field A : Hostname Extract A : (.*)
Field B : Request URI
Extract B : (.*)
Output To : Request URI
Constructor : $A1$B1

(Read more from Google on tracking multiple domains)

Want to Track File Downloads?

On your website there are free demo downloads available. You can begin tracking file downloads through Google Analytics by adding a simple ‘on click’ event that will post a virtual page view. We will use the urchin tracker function to do this.

Here is the Thumbnail I want to Track

Original code looks like this:

<a href="/en-US/firefox/images/p/23701/1216621818" title="PDF Download by Nitro PDF Software">

        <img src="/en-US/firefox/images/t/23701/1216621818" alt="">

Modified code will look like this

<a href="/en-US/firefox/images/p/23701/1216621818" onClick=”javascript:urchinTracker(‘/demos/seo_light.htm’);” title="PDF Download by Nitro PDF Software">

        <img src="/en-US/firefox/images/t/23701/1216621818" alt="">

To track PDF files, movies images or any file you offer for free downloading you can easily track how many times it is downloaded. The above method would result in a page view shown in analytics to seo_light.htm, which means a file download in this case.  Just make note of the filename!

How Can You Use This?

This form of tracking could be used for movie views, events, downloads, MS Word even outbound links to other sites. Expand your thoughts!

Tracking Offline Advertising

The simple answer to this is simple redirects. You can purchase vanity or single purpose domains, or create sub domains or directories on your site that perform as redirecting pages.

Redirect Example

www.searchenginewizards.com - Was used in a trade convention promoting search engine optimization

Techwyse.com/am-radio- Used for advertising from AM radio ads

Techwyse.com/free-analysis – Used in a magazine ad.

These webpages will all redirect to specific landing pages or the homepage of your website. Print-direct mail, tv, radio. If manual tags in the redirecting URL are used Google Analytics will know how their visitor arrived at your website.

Read more here http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/02/going-once-going-twice-your-ad-in.html

Suppose I was running an ad in Backbone Magazine to a targeted audience in the January issue. For this offline campaign I will use www.searchenginewizards.com  (created for this campaign) as the destination URL. This is the script you would need to put on the index page

<script language="JavaScript"

type="text/javascript">

  function Redirect(source, campaign, content)

  {

     var url = http://www.yourwebsite.com/;

     if (

          url.indexOf(‘utm_medium’) == -1 &&

          url.indexOf(‘utm_source’) == -1    &&

          url.indexOf(‘utm_campaign’) == -1 &&

          url.indexOf(‘utm_content’)== -1

     )

     {

          top.location.href = url + ‘?’ +

          ‘utm_medium=offline_print’ + ‘&’ +

          ‘utm_source=’ + source + ‘&’ +

          ‘utm_campaign=’ + campaign + ‘&’ +

          ‘utm_content=’ + content;

     }

  }

</script>

Then we change the body tag to

<body onload="Redirect(‘BackBoneMag’, ‘Jan08′,’PageLocation’)">

In this case we will need to make a destination URL that serves as the redirecting link which passes all of the data to Google Analytics. To do this we go a handy URL builder tool Google provides to make this easy as pie.

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

Campaign Details

For this campaign the redirecting URL I will use is going to be to the TechWyse homepage.

-         The campaign name is Ethical SEO

-         The ad is running on page 6.

-         The title of the ad is ‘Search Engine Optimization’.

-         The call to action is free website analysis.

Destination URL

Using Google’s URL builder above I was able to create this URL in less that 30 seconds.

http://www.techwyse.com/?utm_source=BackBoneMag&utm_medium=offline_print&utm_term=search%2Bengine%2Boptimization&utm_content=keyword%2Bresearch&utm_campaign=Ethical_seo

So what is happening here is this page will refer traffic to your target sales page and Google Analytics will take care of the rest. By using the code above Google Analytics will tell you the following information:

Campaign Source = BackBoneMag

Campaign medium- offline_print

Campaign- Feb08

* If it is a catalogue or a multiple page publication where your ad appears more than once you can also track which page triggered a visit. You would do this by making a change to the <body> code above, ‘PageLocation’ would change to ‘page 6’