Analyzing the Analyzer

If we were all the same nobody would be different. That is what makes living on planet earth the greatest wonder in the world. How can we all be different yet so very connected? We are not perfect—none of us. Some are more gifted than others… shy, energetic, enthusiastic, helpful and exuberant all are characteristic traits that distinguish us as individuals. Where some people see problems others see solutions and vice-versa. It’s a pretty amazing concept when you think about it, billions of people all experiencing minor glitches in their daily routines every minute of the day. Day after day in this information infested world humans are challenging themselves to go places and do things they have never been done before. The way we find our limits are to reach them.

About Me

Like many people, I spend plenty of time online reading, learning, enjoying, conversing, and interacting with others. In my case I probably spend more time then most people because it is part of my livelihood. In my daily routine I work with other businesses to help them formulate, deploy and measure online marketing campaigns. I have many tools I like to use but one primary tool for measurement is Google Analytics. Despite the fact I am a GAIQ and have worked for a GAAC as web analytics manager, I hit limits from time to time. Getting the answers needed will probably come from a smart people. When you get “stuck” on a technical or client related issues I say stop! Wait a minute “I am here, then I am not. I got lost on the last corner”. There is no dumb question; the only one is the one you never asked. For a some of our work, it’s not what we know, it’s who you know that knows.

Daily Routine

Here I am Tuesday June 9, 09, its lunch time. Usually I have a bowl of soup / sandwich and surf the net at the same time. Like I said earlier I spend a lot of time online, just soaking up what I find interesting. Today I want to read stories from Google Analytics users, I feel like helping out if I can. I am on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Yahoo! Answers where I enjoy helping people out if I can. I found a story from Carrie Hill, Search Engine Watch an interesting read because it echoed many of the challenges that I advise clients on. Let me also say my response is from my perspective, working with this software, fitting clients into it. Google may or may not agree with my comments below. The reason I have responded is to hopefully, help empower Carrie and her small business friends with knowledge to solve these problems without having to pay for it.

A Google Analytics Cry For Help?

Let Me Explain More

We’re getting a little frustrated with the product, and the so-called “help” within the platform.

–Carrie Hill

I can feel it! One of the issues is most people think it’s a free program, support is also free. If any Google Analytics user experiences installation, reporting or troubleshooting problems there are a list of Paid support companies . They are all professional (authorized) companies as blessed by Google. This page has just been updated (June 18, 09) to make it even easier to find support with Google Analytics, Urchin or Website Optimizer.

Avinash writes about the 90/10 rule which simply suggests that for every $10 you spend on analytics software $90 should be spent on resources to interpret actions. Although this applies mainly to enterprise level analytics, there’s something for us to take away from that. Our currency is the learning curve which translates to time, patience and human bandwidth capabilities.

Setting up some features in Google Analytics is where we have issues, and where the help section definitely falls down.

–Carrie Hill

My experience working with the majority of clients that are paying for support is many seem overwhelmed with the tools and reports already. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more like “this is great, but what do I do with it??”. Once I explain how the interface works, set em up, tell em what to look at and where the gold is they do their own effective analysis. Occasionally they call on me for technical tweaks to settings, filters, and profiles but knowledge is power here, really. This overview map of the Google Analytics Interface may help you learn more about the power you really have. It’s nothing fancy but still it is a complete mindmap of the entire interface currently. If your website has any of the following characteristics you may want to look at some loven from a trained professional for set up help.

About Your Website

1) Does your site span multiple domains?

2) Are any pages created in a frame set?

3) Do you require event tracking?

4) Do you require flash goal funnel pages?

5) Do you want to track Image based pages or non html files, e.g. PDF downloads?

6) Does your site use Ecommerce software? If so, what type? E.g. Analytics Supported Custom

7) Does your site process ecommerce transactions on the same domain? If “no” list URL

Custom Tracking

Are you using Google Adwords?

9) Do you want to block internal IP Addresses or IP ranges (networks)

10) Do you want to track internal searches? E.g. phrases people enter into your own site search engine.

Goals, Site ID & Access

11) Do you want to track goals on your website? E.g. every time someone makes a purchase, completes a lead form or views important pages.

12) What are three important keywords that describe your business?

13) Do you know how to give administrative access privileges to other users?

14) What type of website do you have? Ecommerce, lead generation or brand lift?

Even if it’s just for a short time (1 hour) to install it or guide your team, it would probably be the best hour of time you ever invested in. But I am not trying to sell you snake oil, a fisherman that guts fish for a living gets pretty good at his job. I personally believe that Google Analytics is the best choice for small to medium sized businesses. As soon as you get above 5 million page views per month I like Omniture, Webtrends, or urchin. They start at around $2800 and you need the resources (server) to host your own data.

Tracking Site Referrals Isn’t as Easy as it Sounds

–Carrie Hill

Tracking site referrals is done automatically; you can find them here unless you use filters that can change. The URL builder works fine for me but I have heard this echoed before a few times. When your destination URLs are tagged properly you can find them in all traffic sources reports.

You would see something like this:

Then drill it down to take a closer look.

Here, you will find the landing pages they landed on from the email or banner campaign. The result above is from a manually tagged email campaign. The same technique can be applied to banners, non Google PPC or anywhere you have the control to tag a link. Heck, I noticed twitter is doing it in their emails that get sent out when you get a new follower now.

Lag Time is Way Too Long

–Carrie Hill

This is another misconception. Once upon a time there was another analytics company that thought it would be nice to tell the world Google Analytics takes 24 hours or more for report data. Is there are delay? Yep, but it’s more like a couple hours. You can verify this by choosing today in your timeline, click apply—you should see plenty of data.

If you have installed the tracking code correctly you should see data within a couple hours. Four days to wait for data is unheard of (by me). I have always been able to diagnose technical problems when data exceeds 24 hours to populate reports.

These are all common questions and concerns. The product itself “Google Analytics” is pretty solid. When/ if bugs are found they are addressed in a timely manner. These engineers are among the best in the world. Google Analytics evolves in a perpetual motion and so must the people who use it.

Your solution for web analytics (paid or unpaid) comes with required learning or mandatory contracting of resources. Contracting of resources is where you want to be picky. What I mean by that is, know yourself! What do you want? Do you want to be fully empowered? Are you really looking for a solution to manage all the headaches and bring you the gold nuggets? Knowing the answers to those 2 simple questions will make your journey a lot less time consuming.

I hope this helps solve some of your problems!

If it does not, there’s people like me that can solve them for you

Other Great Resources

I like the following resources because they are good and FREE

• Google Analytics Power User Guide
• Avinash is always good for top level analytics advice
• A great team to have on your side for AdWords, Analytics, Optimizer and urchin support

In theory you should not have to spend a dime on learning Google Analytics, but true analytics strategy teachers are worth their weight in gold. I am not afraid to say we spent significant time and money on education with great pleasure.