Hoorah! I don’t often say hoorah, let alone publish it in a blog post. However, I’m that chuffed about the latest development in the Google Analytics interface that it needed to be said.
I had been repeatedly asking Google when they are going to release multi-touch point conversion attribution in their Analytics interface for a long time, and have kind of given up hope of it being introduced. For me, the lack of multi channel conversion tracking (or ‘conversion journey’ tracking) was the principal reason web marketers used alternative analytics providers in addition to (or instead of) Google Analytics.
That’s all changed now with the release of Google Analytics’ new Multi Channel Funnel reports. They can be found in the new version, under the My Conversions tab.
Previously, Google Analytics had attributed conversions / goals / sales to the last known visit. So if a visitor interacted with a site like this:
• Visit 1 – Clicked through from an email campaign.
• Visit 2 – 2 days later, searched on Google and found the site again via an Adwords link.
• Visit 3 – 5 days later, searched for the brand name on Google and clicked through via the organic listings, and then converted.
… Then the final organic search visit using the branded keyword would get the credit for the conversion / goal / sale. When really, all visits of journey contributed to the conversion.
The way various channels interact with each other to generate conversions can now be analysed in these multi-channel reports. It can help answer questions like:
• On average, how many visits does it take before a visitor converts on my site?
• To what extent is my Adwords campaign driving or assisting conversions which were typically attributed to branded keyword searches?
• How many days are there between first visit and conversion on my site?
• What are the most popular times of day / week / month / year for converting visitors to initially find my site? E.g. they could be converting during lunchtimes, but doing their research in the evenings?
… There are so many conversion-led questions which can be answered now.
Marketers will need to ensure that goals are setup correctly and campaigns are properly tagged (with the URL builder) to make the most of these new reports.
We’re getting stuck into the new reports here and creating some best practice multi-channel analysis reports… and generally loving it.
Hoorah.
Site owners & marketers and SEO’ers have probably heard quite a bit about this over the past couple of weeks or so… but it shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise that Google is penalising low quality content sites. The algorithm update has apparently affected 12% of the sites in the US, and caused some to lose 90% of their traffic!
What is it?
Google has identified sites which have:
• Shallow or poorly written content
• Content copied from other online sources
• Content which isn’t useful or relevant
… and discriminated against them in the SERPs.
Tips
Whilst we are yet to see the impact of this update in the UK, you should think about the following:
1. Identify potential poor quality pages and content on your site:
o Landing pages which are producing high bounce.
o Pages which are causing high exit rates.
o Pages which you feel may have been copied from another source (you can simply copy and paste content into Google, or use more sophisticated tools like this one)
o Conduct some user testing on pages which you feel could be causing high bounce
2. Create a CONTENT STRATEGY – Think about how you are going to create unique and valuable content for the site on a regular basis. It all starts with users and your target market. What information will they find useful on the site? For example, if your site offers short term apartment lettings in Liverpool then how about publishing pages about “The Best Walks Through Liverpool” or “The Complete Guide To Travelling Around Liverpool”.
You’ll need to ensure:
o Your content is unique (crucial!!!!)
o You commit to it. Block out a couple of hours each week for idea and content generation.
3. Make your content easy to share! Ensure content is easy to post to Twitter, Facebook or social bookmark (Digg / Delicious / Stumbleupon etc..) The more popular a piece of content is, the more likely it is to rank highly.
4. Promote your own unique content – If you upload an awesome page about “The Complete Guide To Travelling Around Liverpool” then tweet it, post it on Facebook, link to it via other pages on your site, maybe email your database about it.
5. Remove aggressive ads / ad blocks from pages – It appears as though this update is linked to the amount of advertising a site carries in relation to the unique content on that site.
6. Ensure your content is easily readable – rather than uploading paragraphs of un-broken text, use bullet points, sub headings, images, links, video. Think about the sites you often re-visit to read and why you read them
In essence, this isn’t an update which only affects SEO…. It affects usability and conversion!!!!!
Google announced this week that it was changing the way local results were shown in the SERPs.
From this:
To this:
It basically means that local results will dominate the 1st page more, and more information will be displayed to users for who use location-based searches on that 1st page: descriptions, images, star ratings, links to reviews, full address and phone numbers. You can also see that the map has been shifted to the top right of the results page.
So what does it all mean to those who care?????
- LOCATION BASED SEARCHERS: These guys should be happier in theory. Visitors are getting more information on that results page, and generally more relevant results. However, relevance is governed by the effectiveness of the Google local algorithm. If the information provided in the Google places isn’t up to scratch then it will inevitably affect user experience on this page.
- SEO PEOPLE: We SEO’ers have an important role to play in ensuring our clients’ local listings are uploaded effectively, with bags of relevant information… especially if we are targeting location-based keywords.
- SMALLER BUSINESSES: As long as their Google Local / Places listings are fully updated, and as long as they are getting good reviews, then these guys will be a lot happier. They won’t have to rely on ranking-dominating directories as much anymore, and will generally get more exposure on the SERPs.
- DIRECTORIES: Could be bad news for directories who don’t have any ‘bricks-and-mortar’ relevance to a location search.
As I always say whenever commenting on Google search changes… the guys at Google would’ve heavily tested this and would not have rolled it out if it detrimentally affected user experience. After all, if the search engine landscape stayed the same then search engine marketing would be dull!
