Google Analytics is way cool.

**KLB** · 02-14-2007, 10:19 PM

At Chris' suggestion I added Google Analytics code to two of my sites and while I don't think it will replace my processing of server logs, I am extremely impressed with the marketing information that can be dug up with it.

If you are already using Google AdSense on your site, or are an AdWords advertiser, I'd strongly recommend giving Google Analytics a try. You can't even imagine how much information it will put at your finger tips about your traffic.

There are a few things I don't like, but they are minor. Some things I'd like to see changed are:
1) give conversion rates by actual conversions, not just a percentage.

2) allow more than 500 different geographic points to be placed on Geo map overlays (maybe allow the top 5,000 geographic points at once).

3) improve the zooming characteristics of the geo map overlay such that one can zoom into a geographic area without the markers and text also zooming.

4) fix web page overlays to work properly with pages that are rewritten (e.g. "/index.html" being redirected to "/").

**AndyH** · 02-15-2007, 02:04 AM

For my site, where milliseconds matter, it slowed the page load time down too much.

**Chris** · 02-15-2007, 06:00 AM

If you setup goals I believe you can get actual conversions.

**KLB** · 02-15-2007, 06:04 AM

I set goals for my log home site and you do get conversions, but they are percentage based and do not directly show the actual number of conversions. Since I care about lead generation I care about actual number of conversions, not percentages.

For my environmental Chemistry website I do not have specific webpages that could be considered a goal so setting up goals for that site makes no sense. My "goal" is to simply turn page views and visitors into advertising revenue.

**Westech** · 02-15-2007, 08:11 AM

On the geo map overlay, you can page through to see all points by using the previous and next links above the map. It's not ideal, but does let you see all of the data.

I fully agree that they need to improve the geo map overlay. I'd love to see them integrate it with the google maps interface.

**KLB** · 02-15-2007, 08:26 AM

Oh now interfacing with Google Maps would be way cool.

One really interesting thing I learned is that in three days people used almost 19,000 different search terms to find my site and that no search term garnered more that 1.5% of the searches used to find my site. I was also able to get a feel for the kinds of search phrases people used and the types of things people used to find my site. For instance I now know I need to spend a lot more time adding more chemical formulas to my chemical database as this is a common way people find my site.

**Westech** · 02-15-2007, 09:20 AM

It really helps drive home the meaning of the "long tail of search," doesn't it?

**KLB** · 02-15-2007, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Westech

It really helps drive home the meaning of the "long tail of search," doesn't it?

I think of it like using a really net to strip the ocean floor.

**rpanella** · 02-15-2007, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by KLB

I set goals for my log home site and you do get conversions, but they are percentage based and do not directly show the actual number of conversions. Since I care about lead generation I care about actual number of conversions, not percentages.

The reason percentages are useful is you can cross reference with most other things, such as refering source, and it will give you the conversion rate of each source of traffic you have. This can be very useful and show you where you should be spending most of your marketing efforts. Absolute conversions would not be as useful here since they can't be directly compared.
________
Anal mature

**KLB** · 02-15-2007, 06:07 PM

Actually I'd like to have both a column for absolute conversions and a column for conversion percentage.

**MaxS** · 02-16-2007, 04:31 PM

I absolutely love Analytics. II have been using it for quite awhile and it's great.

**KLB** · 02-22-2007, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by Westech

It really helps drive home the meaning of the "long tail of search," doesn't it?

Just a follow up on the long tail of search comment. Now that I have a weeks worth of GA data I can report that in the past week Google is reporting that people found my site using almost 39,000 search phrases.

People always get so caught up on searching for that magic big money phrase when the reality is that this isn't how people do searches. Focusing too much on those magic phrases can totally overlook scores of "long tail" searches that people actually do.

This also proves that when it comes to SEO, content still really is king because a really deep site with lots of content has a much better chance of catching long tail searches than a shallow site that tries to get to #1 for a handful of "golden" (more like fools gold) search phrases.

**ses5909** · 02-23-2007, 02:32 AM

I've been using analytics for a few months now too and have really enjoyed it. Yes, you can get most of this info off your server logs but I think analytics is a fine addition and the way the present the info is awesome. I set it up for all of my clients to and while some of them are overwhelmed by all the available info, they learn to like it.