Common Website Analysis Terms

January 16, 2008

When it comes to analysing traffic on your website there are some common terms used to describe certain actions on your website.

Bounce Rate - This rate has to do with the number of people that visit your website’s entry page and leave without going into your website. You want to keep this rate as low as possible so that people not only view more pages of your website but also return and eventually buy products from you.

Entrance Path - This is the path your customer’s take to reach your website’s content

Exit Path - This is the path that your customer takes to exit your website

When it comes to understanding your customer’s behaviours on your website which is why path analysis is a vital step to long term success running an online business. Check out my article on Path Analysis if you haven’t had a chance to read it.

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Web Analytics, Web Design Resources | Leave a Comment 

Develop Your Existing Website with a Plan

January 16, 2008

Many people who pay for web design services usually go into the process of having a website built without a plan.

Building an online business is no different than building a physical business. Any good business much like any good website needs a plan. Most web designers forget this when it comes to building websites for their customers.

It is my goal at PureWebAnalytics to give website owners the option to have a plan of where they want to go when it comes to developing their web property over time, supporting the testing of new initiatives and furthering development of web based business.

Do you need a plan when it comes to your website?

Luc

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, PureWebAnalytics News, Web Development | 1 Comment 

Problems Replacing your Google Analytics Code?

January 10, 2008

What does the new Google Analytics Tracking Code mean?

Since the recent release of the ga.js tracking code many people have seen problems across the broad. Naturally this leaves people wondering Should I update my Google Analytics Tracking Code? Whether you update your codes today or soon you will be faced with having to remove urchin code because in the next 12 to 18 months it will become obsolete and Google will no longer support urchin tracking.

The Problem is…

If you develop a lot of custom tracking processes on your website will Google’s Analytics program this means you’ll eventually need to replace or fix all the code that is currently on your website or websites. If you don’t you will probably be faced with at least poor tracking results.

The problem is that the new ga.js code is written in an object oriented format and the previous urchin.js isn’t written in the same manner. To see that all you need to do is look at the basic tracking codes

Urchin.js code

<script src=“http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=“text/javascript”>
</script>

<script type=“text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-XXXXXX-X”;
urchinTracker();
</script>


Ga.js code

<script type=“text/javascript”>
var gaJsHost = ((”https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(”<script src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’></script>” );
</script>

<script type=“text/javascript”>
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(”UA-XXXXXX-X”);
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

If you plan on writing custom processes using the new Google Analytics code then there is a bit of a learning curve you may need to pick up.

Luc

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Site Optimization, Web Analytics | 1 Comment 

Should I Update my Google Analytics Tracking Code?

January 7, 2008

With the recent release of the ga.js code many people in the Analytics world or who have it running on their respective websites may be wondering “Should I update my Google Analytics Tracking Code?“ The simple answer is “Yes” because you won’t need to worry about updating it in 12 to 18 months from now when support finishes in the urchin.js code.

Other reasons to update your Google Analytics Tracking Code include…

  • A smaller and faster source file for the Google Analytics Tracking Code
  • Use of Object Oriented structure
  • Automatic detection of HTTPS

How do I make the change to my Google Analytics Tracking Code?

1. Pull up the source files (PHP, ASP/ASP.NET or XHTML/HTML) and find the tracking code that is on the page. It should look something like this…

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>

</script>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

_uacct = “UA-XXXXXXX-X”;

urchinTracker();

</script>

2. Copy and paste this code over the original code shown above with this new code which you can get from your Google Analytics account (see my article on installing a Google Analytics Tracking Code if you have questions or contact me directly today)

3. Upload the file(s) to your site and start enjoying the new and improved ga.js source on your site

Feel free to download a copy of Google’s Official Migration Guide to this new tracking code or get in touch with a professional (like myself) that can help you install it and ensure its working on your website. If you do decide to switch from urchin.js to ga.js now or in the future you’ll need to re-program any Google Analytics custom functions and methods you’ve setup to work with the new ga.js functionality so feel free to contact me if you need help doing this.

Luc

Google Analytics Guy

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Site Optimization, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Web Analytics, Web Intelligence | Leave a Comment 

Googling while you say Yahoo!

January 4, 2008

I am always amazed by the number of blogs and sites out there that have focused on Google but has everyone forgot about Yahoo?

Today I was looking at my Analytics for PureWebAnalytics (Google Analytics that is) and realized that I had literally no traffic coming from Yahoo or any other Search Engines for that matter. This naturally concerned me because I am not a Google Evangelist by any means and there is more than one search engine out there (Yahoo being one of the other big ones). I love Google Analytics in terms of explaining Web Analytics but I realize some of my audience may not be using Google’s Web-based tools for promoting their business online or want to develop a further reach.

Anyways, I decided to check out getting listed with Yahoo. After jumping through a few hoops I was setup in Yahoo’s Site Explorer with a pending crawl of my site.

Sometimes people simply stay with what works and simply don’t venture into uncharted waters to which I have to say “What do you have to lose?” Chances are not too much, come on and give it a shot! You know you wanna!

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, SEO / SEM, Web Development | 1 Comment 

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