We’ve been working with Complete Driveway Designs – a Bury based pattern imprinted concrete driveway company – for a couple of years now. And in that time our services have had a definite, measurable impact on the effectiveness of their web presence; thanks to our Web Analytics supported SEO and PPC work, they’re now getting conversions and qualified leads for approximately 10% of what they were paying before we got involved.

In the time we’ve been working for Complete Driveway Designs, we’ve built up an excellent understanding of their work, their business, and their goals. This is something we do with every one of our clients; it’s the only way to achieve sustainable results.

The longer we’ve worked with Complete Driveway Designs, the more we’ve come to identify with the skills they use when they’re installing pattern imprinted concrete driveways. Like, for example:

• A professional attention to detail.
• An excellent understanding of the capabilities of different specialised tools.
• An appreciation of client’s needs.
• A willingness to put the effort in.
• Pride in the end result.

Despite the differences in the services we offer, at a core level we’re very similar.

We’d be interested to hear what values other agencies and freelancers feel they share with their clients: leave a comment and let us know.

Benchmarking allows users to compare key metrics such as visits, page-views, pages per visits, and bounce rate with an average value that’s been generated from data provided by other Google Analytics users. The Benchmarking feature will display your data on a line-graph; the graph will also feature a line indicating the average result for that metric for other websites within your industry.

Because you can select which category your website falls into from a hefty list of options, the Benchmarking average you see should be reasonably contextually valid. Google further focuses the Benchmark by splitting websites into three categories (small, medium, and large) depending on the amount of visitors they receives; you should be presented with an average that reflects the size of your web presence.

Why Use It?

Remember that because the Benchmarking line represents an average, it’ll be affected by erroneous results within the analytics data that it’s drawn from. So a few sites with unusually high or low bounce rates, for example, could skew the average seen by other Benchmarking users.

While Benchmarking isn’t an authoritative source for competitor analysis, it is a useful tool for rating your site’s metrics against something other than previous performance. Use it to identify opportunities for improvement, spark strategy, and inspire site development.

Accessing Google Analytics Benchmarking:

All analytics data used in Benchmarking is anonymous, and you have to agree to share your data in order to access the Benchmarking service.

To activate Benchmarking, you need to agree to share your analytics data “.Anonymously with Google and others” in your Data Sharing Settings. You can access this either via your over-arching account settings, or, if you’re setting up a new account, at the Accept User Agreement page; the option you need to agree to is below the Google Analytics Terms Of Service. Then you can overlay the Benchmarking line on your data visualisations by clicking on the ‘Benchmarking’ tab in the visitors section of Google Analytics. Benchmarking can be used no matter which version of the tracking code is installed to your Google Analytics account.

The dashboard is the first screen you see once you’ve logged in to Google Analytics. It’s an overview page, and it displays a number of reports. You can choose which reports you want to be displayed; this means that it’s possible to set up an Analytics Dashboard that presents you with key analytical business information as soon as you log on.

A well set out, well thought-through dashboard will give you a general idea of your website’s performance through bounce rates etc, important business metrics like conversion rates, and any anomalies. Then, if something catches your eye, you can drill down to get more detailed information.

You can incorporate any of your analytics reports into your dashboard by clicking on the ‘Add to Dashboard’ tab within your Google Analytics. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve been concentrating on SEO (always a good idea!) and want to track bounce rates for visitors generated by a certain keyphrase. Find the relevant report in analytics, add it to your dashboard, and it’ll be one of the first things you see next time you log on.

Some Tips:

• Don’t swamp yourself with too much information. You can have a maximum of twelve dashboard elements; use them wisely.
• Clear Identification of your business’s key metrics should dictate which reports you prioritise. Picking reports that represent your website’s goal completion rates is a good place to start.
• Remember that each of your websites or businesses may require different dashboards to show key data.
• Different analytics users need personalised dashboards so each person sees the information that’s relevant to their role.

You can add and remove new reports with ease. And, when it’s necessary, you should. Over time your business will develop, and your use of analytics will become more sophisticated. Remember that the dashboard is customisable for a reason: don’t miss an opportunity to keep tabs on relevant information, and don’t be afraid of streamlining your dashboard.

That IBM could see the worth of buying Coremetrics is no surprise. Web analytics – especially when it’s combined with the kind of aggressive optimisation espoused by Coremetrics – offers genuine and tangible ROI. More than just technical feedback, it also provides insight into visitor behaviour that can bolster knowledge of target demographics and open up new routes to selling. The IBM press release announcing the acquisition of Coremetrics contains this telling little stat:

“IBM’s 2010 CEO Study showed that 88 percent of CEOs will focus on getting closer to their customers in next five years, 82 percent of CEOs want to better understand customer needs and 85 percent of CEOs require more visibility into their businesses.”

That’s just some of the kind of data that Web Analytics can provide. Joe Davis, CEO of Coremetrics, further backs this up: “Marketers increasingly need the ability to see across their organizations and the agility to make split-second decisions based on real-time data.” This is as true for IBM/Coremetric’s giant clients as it is for North West based SEMS and Start-ups. The future of online marketing is intertwined with the future of Analytical measurement and analysis.

There’s significant change in the way people are using the internet. Social networks and blogs are taking up the majority of time spent online. The growing focus on information sharing and interaction between users and the sites they visit is clearly reflected in UKOM’s report.

What does this information mean for the online marketing industry? An increase in web use means there’s more potential for engaging with visitors. Well, although UKOM’s figures might seem distressing at first, showing a relative 3% fall in the use of search engine websites, there’s a concurrent 10% increase in the use of portals, which increasingly incorporate their own search functions. Think Yahoo!, MSN’s integration of Bing on its homepages, the increasing ubiquity of iGoogle… People are using the web more, so they’re using search more, they’re just getting used to having search come as part of their portal.

It’s the increasingly social nature of web use that presents the biggest opportunities in our industry. Brands and businesses – i.e. our existing clients and our future clients – need to react to this change, and we need to be there to offer them the skill-sets and the tools that meet their needs.

It’s in the interests of the search platforms to facilitate effective advertising and marketing, hence Google’s quick response to changes in web use (Content network remarketing, for example). It’s in our interest, and the interests of our competitors, to do a number of things:

• Continue to develop our analytics methodology so we can deliver actionable insights within a changing online environment.
• Adapt our use of advertising platforms so we’re always exploiting the opportunities that will benefit our clients.
• Ensure that we continue to deliver best-practice SEO which is always centred on the visitor.

We’re well up for it.

Does anyone have any other opinions on what UKOM’s report indicates for our industry? Leave a comment and share your insight.

Twitter have put the first of their dedicated business-user features – rumoured since last year and following the launch of paid ads last month – into beta testing. A few lucky souls have been invited to trial the Business centre; one of them has decided to share some screenshots with mashable.com.

The features that will be available to Twitter Business Centre users are intended to improve Twitter’s usability as a customer relations and PR platform; Business Centre users will be able to receive direct messages from Twitterers they don’t follow, and will also be able to add multiple users to one account.

These tweaks should make Business Centre Twitter profiles more flexible tools for dealing with customer enquiries, and increase the reaction-speed of damage-limitation public relations. Twitter is increasingly a tool for consumer campaigning; these Business Centre features indicate that Twitter fully understands the needs of their commercial users, and what they use their social media profiles for; speedy communication and flexible reaction.

There is, however, no word as yet on the access to “stats” that, according to statements made by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone last year, will eventually be made available to business users. Being a measurement-focussed agency, we’re more than a little bit interested in what these stats will include, especially seeing as Biz Stone has expressed the desire to provide users with “some of the analytics” related to their Twitter accounts.

Website analytics is the process monitoring and interpreting the interaction with users with a website. Analytics can track every movement a user makes on page and where they come from. This is crucial in PPC Management as knowing what people clicked on and what they did on the site will allow you to make informative decisions on how to bid on particular key phrases.

Analytics is the beginning of a PPC Management, taking the information from the analytics it is possible to make usability decisions on the website. This may include removing bottle necks in the purchase funnel or reducing the bounce rate on landing pages.

Monitoring analytics with your PPC campaign can make the difference to those clicks that not provide a return. Taking the data and turning it into information that can be used to make decision about your website to increase conversion rates and ROI is how you can manage your PPC campaign the best.

When it comes to managing a PPC campaign there are a number of important tasks which are crucial to ensure that your campaign is earning the best ROI possible. Monitoring a PPC campaign using basic analytics will provide you with details for your campaign but collecting the right data and feeding back into the campaign is the most important role.

Website analytics is the process monitoring and interpreting the interaction with users with a website. Analytics can track every movement a user makes on page and where they come from. This is crucial in PPC Management as knowing what people clicked on and what they did on the site will allow you to make informative decisions on how to bid on particular key phrases.

Analytics is the beginning of a PPC Management, taking the information from the analytics it is possible to make usability decisions on the website. This may include removing bottle necks in the purchase funnel or reducing the bounce rate on landing pages.

Monitoring analytics with your PPC campaign can make the difference to those clicks that not provide a return. Taking the data and turning it into information that can be used to make decision about your website to increase conversion rates and ROI is how you can manage your PPC campaign the best.

Due to the internet being digital and computerised, internet traffic flow is logged automatically, online marketing is therefore one of the most tangible advertising methods. It only becomes tangible however when you utilise website analytics for both analysis and reporting. Website analytics can provides very high levels of accuracy on the successes or failures of your online marketing campaigns. Using visitor segmentation you can split your visitors into many areas, usually unique to your specific marketing campaigns, the five main traffic sources being:

• Direct – Visitors entering your URL in the address bar.

• Referral – Visitors who came from an external website, not search engines.

• Natural Search – Visitors from natural search engine listings.

• Paid Search – Visitors from sponsored search engine listings.

• Paid Referral – Visitors from sites that you pay for a click through, i.e. as price comparison sites.

Once you have the basic segmentation you are then able to segment further to investigate in greater detail and with the appropriate tracking parameters, monitor and obtain accurate feedback on each of your individual online marketing campaigns. This is essential for you to ensure that you are not only maximising opportunity, but are also receiving good return on your investment.

Once armed with the relevant segmentation and KPI information you are able to make informed and managed decisions about budget allocation and future spend in direct correlation to your actual Return on Investment.

The morning seminar and network session provided a good simple introduction to SEO and PPC to an audience of eighty business owners who all understood the importance of online marketing but few have the time or the knowledge to setup or manage such online marketing campaigns.

Although the event was informative there was only so much information that people could take onboard and little emphasis during the event was put on website analytics, the most crucial aspect of your online marketing campaigns. Before investing in and implementing any form of online marketing you must be sure that the campaign will provide an acceptable level of return in order to justify the initial spend.