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Keith MacDonald 9:11 am on Nov 8, 2011 Reply
Tags: ,   

How to Build Trust in Web Analytics: 3 Essential Factors

As the ‘new guy’ at Unilytics I have the somewhat unique perspective of transferring from in-house web analytics expert (in my previous role) to web analytics consultant. This perspective, combined with anecdotal stories from fellow practitioners, has lead me to the following conclusion:

For web analytics to be really successful, building trust within the organisation is paramount. Without trust from the organisation, any potential value from web analytics is constantly undermined by fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Building trust in web analytics (as a business service) requires three things: accurate data, thoughtful analysis and end-user adoption.
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John 9:10 am on Oct 11, 2011 Reply
Tags: forensic analysis,   

A Little Insight into Web Analytics and Forensic Analysis

A few years ago, I was hired as an expert witness in a court case involving a software licensing dispute. One of the contentious points was determining which of two sites was more often used by visitors to download pieces of software that were part of a larger package distribution. Because both sites are huge software repositories with myriads of mirror sites, it wasn’t a simple matter. One party was making the claim that showing proof of software download didn’t imply that visitors were completing the process. It turns out the case was settled before I got the opportunity to prove (or disprove) file download completion (based solely on Common Log format files) in a court. A quick recommendation on this type of issue, steps must be taken during the site development stage to gather and deliver this type of information; otherwise it’s a process that will get so tedious that it will eat up the last remaining bits of your social and family life. It will likely also leave you and your client frustrated long after the whole affair is over. (More…)

Bobby 7:09 am on Sep 30, 2011 Reply
Tags: ,   

Is Google Analytics Premium Right for Your Business?

Google Analytics is now offering a paid version! It’s called Google Analytics Premium, and it is set to compete with other vendors such as Webtrends and Adobe SiteCatalyst. Large enterprises that have high traffic are the target audience for this service.

The free version of Google Analytics (Standard Edition) is still going to be free; however, there are limitations with the standard version that many web analysts have lamented for years.

Here are some of the limits of the free Google Analytics Standard service:

  • Unique URLs are limited to 500K
  • Server calls are limited to 5 million per month
  • 5 custom variables (more if you’re sneaky)

 

Google Analytics Premium Advantages

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Eric 12:08 pm on Aug 29, 2011 Reply
Tags: Visitor History Export,   

What You Should Know About Webtrends VHE Data

Webtrends Analytics provides a feature known as Visitor History Export (VHE). This is an extremely useful feature many organizations are taking advantage of. In essence, this feature provides per-visitor information that falls into the following categories:

  • Campaign History
  • Search Engine History
  • Visit History
  • Purchase History
  • Custom Visitor Segmentation
  • Content Group Unique Visitor Tracking
  • Page of Interest Unique Visitor Tracking

There are many ways to use this information, especially when viewed over time. For example, Unilytics provides a product named VHE Distiller that extracts and transforms this information into a regular relational database suitable for data mining or enterprise reporting. It should be noted that VHE is not a data warehouse, per se; nor is it a complete replacement for a full data warehousing product based on visitor information. There are limitations built into the design of the VHE feature that should be kept in mind when using it. This blog presents some of these “gotchas” when using the VHE feature and resulting export files. (More…)

Bobby 1:08 pm on Aug 26, 2011 Reply
Tags: , , MCF, multi-channel funnels,   

Google Analytics has unleashed Multi Channel Funnels in…

Google Analytics has unleashed Multi-Channel Funnels in the new GA interface! This highly anticipated feature was released to the public through the latest interface on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. If you don’t see the reports, you may still be using the old interface and will need to click on “New Version” at the top right corner (to the left of your email address) to access the new interface and Multi-Channel Funnels.

What are Multi-Channel Funnels?

Multi-Channel Funnels (MCFs) are new reports that allow you to see the touch points a visitor has made along the way to a conversion. This report shows the conversion path of that visitor in the 30 days prior to conversion. The MCF reports were created to give marketers more insight into how each channel contributes to the end goal.

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