Archive for the ‘Google Analytics’ Category
December 14, 2007
Great news for Google Analytics fans, December 13, 2007 marks the official arrival of the replacement to urchin.js we have all come to know and love (or hate) 🙂
The urchin.js tracking script has been downgraded to legacy status and should be phased out within the next 18 months or so.
The new ga.js code has a new syntax and comes with all sorts of bells and whistles to make your life easier and, let’s face it, spend more time hooked on GA 😉
Included with this update is the beta functionality that allows for the analysis of multiple metrics directly from the calendar interface. You may now select page views and visits for instance and compare them across time periods or against the entire site.
New tracking code and functionalities
If you look at your Google Analytics interface under Settings > Check Status, you will see that Google now offers both code snippets for the GATC (Google Analytics Tracking Code) that rely on the _getTracker method which generates a page tracking object with a host of new functions.
Here is what the code will look like: (more…)
Tags:analytics, code, ga.js, google, new, pagetracker, urchintracker, _getTracker, _trackPageview
Posted in Google Analytics, Technical tips and tricks, Web Analytics | 9 Comments »
December 13, 2007
C’est Noël avant la date pour Google Analytics avec
- Un nouveau code de suivi
- Un comparateur de mesures dans le calendrier
Nouveau code de suivi et nouvelles fonctionnalités
Dans votre interface d’administration de Google Analytics, si vous allez voir dans Paramètres > Vérifier l’état, vous verrez que Google vous propose le nouveau code de suivi (GATC ou Google Analytics Tracking Code) qui se sert de la méthode _getTracker pour créer un objet qui va ensuite mesurer le trafic de vos pages.
Voici un aperçu du code de base: (more…)
Tags:analytics, code, comparaison, ga.js, google, urchin
Posted in Google Analytics, In French, Technical tips and tricks, Web Analytics | 1 Comment »
December 11, 2007
Nouvel épisode de notre série des indicateurs clé de performance tiré de la traduction française du livre d’Eric Peterson The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)!
Pourcentage de nouveaux visiteurs et d’habitués
Le pourcentage de nouveaux visiteurs et de visiteurs habitués est un KPI marketing qui fournit un indicateur de haut niveau de la santé générale de votre activité. (more…)
Tags:analytics, anayltique, eric, eric peterson, indicateur, indicateur clé de performance, indicateur performance, indicateurs clés de performance, key performance indicators, kpi, performance, peterson
Posted in Bible des KPIs, Business Tips and Tricks, Google Analytics, In French, Web Analytics, Web analytics Demystified | 2 Comments »
October 31, 2007
After the acquisition of Visual Sciences, we all wonder how Web Analytics vendors will react. So let’s get back to the different vendors out there and try to take a look at the future.
If we take the latest Forrester Research regarding Web Analytics that Megan Burns wrote a few months ago, which you can download here at Unica’s website, we find the main Web Analytics vendors well represented. Here’s a graph that sums up Megan’s findings:
Based on this, on the leaders corner we will have after this merger: Omniture, WebTrends, Unica and Coremetrics. But other players need to be followed as ClickTracks, IndexTools, of course the free tools as Google Analytics and the coming Gatineau and let’s not forget the local players such as Nedstat (The Netherlands) or Xiti (France).
So Omniture is becoming the Web Analytics green giant, will the others be able to compete and how? (more…)
Tags:clicktracks, coremetrics, forrester, megan burns, nedstat, visual sciences acquisition, xiti
Posted in Gatineau, Google Analytics, IndexTools, Omniture, Thoughts and Ideas, Unica, Visual Sciences, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News, WebTrends | 2 Comments »
October 16, 2007
It’s always a pleasure to go to the eMetrics summits and hear from Brett Crosby what’s new and what Google has been working on in a very concise way. 15 minutes tops, crystal clear and true value for your money 😉
Last eMetrics in Washington, Google announced the launch of Google Website Optimizer. This time around, they are pushing a bit further by rolling out some very exciting features and holding true to their word to continuous support of their Urchin software version.
I’m pretty sure Julien will comment further about these new features. Let me just announce the big steps. So, what’s new with Google Analytics?
In a nutshell:
- Internal site search
- Event tracking of Web 2.0 Rich Internet Apps
- Outbound link tracking (TAGLESS!)
- Optional new GA.js code
- Urchin software from Google in beta version, only sold through GAACs.
Getting a bit deeper into the different features, Internal Site Search will show you the who, what & where of your internal search module. Reports will include time spent after search & reports of what happens afterwards. You can tie this back to your goal conversions and your e-commerce. I already know of a couple of clients who are going to be utterly thrilled with that!
Event tracking of Web 2.0 apps will allow you to track RIA in Ajax, Flash, Silverlight & Air and it will not inflate artificially your page views. It’s based on an event hierarchy of objects, action & label. Your object can for example be your player, the actions the buttons you use such as play, pause, etc. and the label will displays the name of the content.In your reports, you’ll be able to cross segment this with your other data such as geography for example.
As mentioned, outbound links will be tracked without additional use of tags. Gosh, that’s going to make life soooo much easier!
If you want to be able to use those 2 last features mentioned, you’ll have to update you code to include the new GA.js tag. It will also allow you to automatically detect SSL/HTTPS so that won’t be an issue anymore. Thank you very much! The new tag uses object-oriented code so it’s more compact and faster. And as a the cherry topping the cake, if you switch over from your urchin to your new GA code, EpikOne’s SiteScan is at your disposal, for free! Yeah!
Last but not least, Urchin software from Google is out in beta version, sold only by GAACs. It’s the software version that supports both page tagging and classic log files (if you still need that) and the good thing is that you can have both GA & Urchin running with a single tag. Urchin software from Google will therefore allow you to reprocess data and audit your raw logs if needed.
In terms of pricing, it’s a single fee of 2.995$, including all modules. It’s free if you’ve bought advanced support and if you didn’t, don’t worry: we will apply what you paid for moving from Urchin 5 up to Urchin 6.
So, on that note, thank you Brett, Google and the entire fabulous Google Analytics people working on this great product. And last but not least, happy birthday Avinash!
Julien back to you. Greetings from Washington.
Aurélie
Posted in eMetrics, Emetrics Summit Washington 2007, Events, Google Analytics, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | 6 Comments »
October 2, 2007
EDIT: As of 2011, Google shut down iGoogle widget API, this KPI dashboard is now obsolete
A while back, I was raving about the Google Analytics KPI dashboard module for iGoogle (by the good folks at Monitus). It seems they just went ahead and published a v2 of their dashboard tool.
If you had it installed already, you will notice an additional drop-down menu that helps you categorize your site and eventually, the get the best KPIs for your site and to compare your site against industry peers. Also, you can now enable/disable the KPIs you wish to see on the dashboard.
Go on to their site, take the tour and view the video they made to cover v2’s features.
After that, I guess you’ll be as excited as I was this morning 🙂
If anything, this is a good shout out to other vendors: who’s next in enabling a web dashboarding API? 😉
Julien
Posted in Blogging, Google Analytics, Web 2.0, Web Analytics | 2 Comments »
September 20, 2007
The advent of free Web Analytics tools puts pressure upon pricings. Media buying agencies are working hard to report useful results. Advanced Web Analytics clients are adapting their data gathering strategies to feed online data into data warehouses and revisiting the very concept of business intelligence.
We all agree that we have to make decisions based upon data. Where to start?
With which tool, using which team to support findings – and actions -, which consequences would it hold upon the very core of your organisation? (more…)
Posted in Business Tips and Tricks, Google Analytics, Thoughts and Ideas, Web Analytics | Comments Off on Web Analytics embracing Customer Analytics
August 31, 2007
Thanks to Michael Whittaker‘s team at Monitus, the Analytics KPI module for Google Homepage (aka iGoogle) can now be used multiple times in one given iGoogle tab!
Alan Boydell of Google Analytics France first pointed me to this nifty little tool (in French) but at first I got frustrated because I could not use more than one reportlet in my iGoogle page. Yes i was pushing my luck but hey, you can’t blame me for trying 😉
Anyhow, Michael was very quick to react to my comment and presto, three days later his team had put together a fix 😀
If you like Google Analytics and would like to have your KPIs right when you open your browser, this module is for you!
KPI customization appears to be in their plans so watch this space, we’ll cover it when it’s released.
Tip: if you still like to have your news feeds and other gadgets, create a new tab dedicated to your GA reportlets. By the way if anyone knows how to bookmark an iGoogle tab, please let me know 😉
Enjoy!
Links:
Posted in Google Analytics, Technical tips and tricks, Thoughts and Ideas, Web Analytics | 1 Comment »
August 20, 2007
Attention, cet article porte sur l'”ancien” code Google Analytics avec urchin.js!!
Il y a quelques temps déjà, Mehdi et moi avions discuté d’un petit plug-in pour exclure notre propre trafic de nos rapports Google Analytics.
Bien sûr vous me direz:
“Oui, mais ne t’en fais pas Julien, il suffit d’exclure son adresse IP! Regarde dans les options de ton profil!”
et vous aurez raison… pendant quelques minutes tout du moins 🙂
En effet, cette méthode d’exclusion d’adresse IP ou de plages d’adresses IP peut être un des remèdes à votre problème, sauf dans le cas où vous vous trouvez derrière un pare-feu ou si votre adresse IP n’est pas fixe.
Que faire dans ces deux cas précis? Voici un petit truc d’expert certifié Google Analytics Authorized Consultant 😉
(more…)
Posted in Google Analytics, In French, Technical tips and tricks, Web Analytics | 21 Comments »
July 27, 2007
Après l’annonce de notre partenariat avec Web Analytics Demystified, nous sommes heureux de partager avec vous une étude d’Eric Peterson publiée le 24 juillet. Cette étude porte sur l’utilisation d’outils gratuits de web analytique, tels que Google Analytics ou le futur “projet Gatineau” de Microsoft. Malgré l’adoption grandissante de Google Analytics par des entreprises de toutes tailles – qu’elles fassent partie de l’index Fortune 500 comme Chevron, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Dell ou Dupont, l’étude d’Eric montre que les entreprises qui adoptent et implémentent des outils gratuits de web analytique sont moins susceptibles de mettre en application des best practices et donc de tirer le meilleur parti de leur investissement web analytique.
Les points d’orgue de cette étude sont les suivants:
- Les entreprises qui adoptent un outil gratuit ont davantage tendance à traiter les web analytics de façon un peu cavalière. 35% des entreprises interrogées qui utilisent des outils gratuits s’en servent de façon ad hoc, contre 20% chez les utilisateurs d’outils payants.
- Les entreprises qui utilisent un outil gratuit manquent cruellement de ressources dédiées aux web analytics. 42% des entreprises interrogées qui utilisent des outils gratuits déclarent n’avoir aucune ressource dédiée, contre 18% chez les utilisateurs d’outils payants.
- Les personnes qui utilisent des outils gratuits ont en général moins d’expérience des web analytics: 64% des utilisateurs d’outils gratuits ont moins de deux ans d’expérience dans le domaine, contre 32% chez les utilisateurs de solutions payantes.
Comme pour la plupart de ses études, et dans le cadre d’un effort éducatif et d’évangélisation, Eric publie ce rapport sur le site de WebAnalytics Demystified, Inc., dont le “Conseil des Sages” comprend Aurélie Pols.
Le rapport est disponible sur: http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/research
Un facteur de poids pour des outils gratuits, et notamment avec ces produits récemment arrivés sur le marché, est bien entendu le manque d’expérience et de recul par rapport au reste de l’industrie.
Comme le souligne Eric dans son étude, avec l’arrivée sur le marché d’outils gratuits, on observe d’importantes différences dans la façon dont sont utilisés des produits gratuits ou payants. (more…)
Posted in Google Analytics, In French, Web Analytics, Web analytics Demystified, Web Analytics Industry News | 2 Comments »
July 25, 2007
I met today with Google’s recently appointed country manager for Belgium, Erik Portier. We had a good discussion and it was a pleasure to meet in order to discuss our position as Google Analytics Authorised Consultants (GAAC). I was just a bit sad we couldn’t be of more assistance to help him promote his chair with 3 legs, as he calls it, SEO+GA+AdWords=how Google Belgium can be of service.
On top of that, his interest goes out to “Geo products”, Google Maps and Earth.
Thank you for your time, Erik, it was a pleasure.
In the mean time, another Eric on the other side of the ocean published an interesting free report entitled “The Problem with Free Analytics – July 2007“, which is now available for download. I read the report some days ago while we were spending some fabelous days in the Sarthe region in France and basically agree with Eric about his conclusions. You can read more about his opinion and reflections on his blog.
The coincidence of events is interesting as we also discussed with Erik (that’s the one based in Belgium) about how we could help each other, by collaborating on client needs and support. We’ve seen a recent increase in interest from companies using free tools in order to get the most out the data collected. Indeed, without human resources, any tool won’t miraculously spit out insights. And being an Authorized Google Analytics Consultant, we’re happy to help. I would actually encourage you to contact Julien and Mehdi if you have any questions and please, challenge them! Even though I’m also GA Certified, I must admit I haven’t really stumbled upon a question I couldn’t answer and am happy to help spread the usage of such a great tool.
I’m convinced there’s still lots to learn ad share in order to make online communication more efficient.
As a KPI for Google Analytics, following this report and the discussion with both Ericks, I would suggest a view upon the number of Goals set by profile… if I may humbly suggest…
I wonder if the average would be closer to 0 or to 4, and if it’s moving up or not, taking into account the number of profiles created, of course. It would, for us as a GAAC, at least show wether we are doing our job well or if, compared to other countries, we might need to continue providing human resources in order to get more out of the tool and help companies set-up the processes required to assure success in their Web Analytics project.
My 5 euro cents before heading off to Amsterdam. Thoughts are welcome, please don’t hesitate.
Kind regards,
Aurelie
Posted in Google Analytics, Web Analytics, Web analytics Demystified | Comments Off on Free Analytics tools, what could be the consequences of such a choice?
July 4, 2007
Vous êtes peut être déjà au courant mais OX2 est désormais le seul Google Analytics Authorized Consultant en Belgique. Notre politique est faire connaître les Web Analytics et de promouvoir l’utilisation des outils WA. C’est pourquoi, depuis la création d’OX2, nous apportons conseil et assistance sur Google Analytics.
Afin d’aider les entreprises dans leur utilisation de Google Analytics, nous avons créé deux packs dont j’explique le contenu ci-dessous: (more…)
Posted in Google Analytics, In French, Web Analytics | 1 Comment »
June 26, 2007
As you might already know OX2 is the only Google Analytics Authorized Consultant in Belgium. As our aim as always been to expand the knowledge and use of Web Analytics, since the launch of OX2 we have been supporting this product.
In order to help companies in the use of Google Analytics we have created 2 different packages that I’ll explain hereunder:
Google Analytics by OX2: Set Up & Introduction
- Google Analytics account set up and fine-tuning of settings.
- Google AdWords linking and integration.
- Full implementation document containing appropriate tagging parameters for your site.
- Introduction presentation.
- Extra information and support in the form of a credit of 2 hours with our ticketing system.
>>> Download the Google Analytics by OX2 Set Up & Introduction Sheet (PDF)
Google Analytics Advanced Training by OX2
- 1 day training session with advanced insight into Google analytics’ features and reporting capabilities.
- Topics Covered:
– Implementation best practices
– Report usage and interpretation
– Commerce and campaign tracking
– Advanced tips & tricks
- Extra training and support in the form of a credit of 2 hours with our ticketing system.
>>> Download Google Analytics Advanced Training by OX2 Sheet (PDF)
Of course these are standard services, but we can assist you with more custom consulting depending on your needs. You can then consult of list of Web Analytics consulting services on our Web Analytics website or contact us directly. And we can also provide you with Support through our Ticketing System.
Last but not least, we also have created a third package around Google Optimizer:
Google Optimizer Training by OX2
- 1 day training session.
- Topics covered:
– Introduction to multi-variate testing (MVT)
– Optimizer implementation best practices.
– Integration with Google Adwords and Google Analytics.
– Analyzing reports and acting upon them.
- Extra training and follow-up support in the form of a credit of 2 hours with our ticketing system.
>>> Download Google Optimizer Training by OX2 Sheet (PDF)
Posted in Google Analytics, Web Analytics | 1 Comment »
June 25, 2007
Comme vous vous en apercevez peut-être quand vous consultez vos rapports, les sites externes qui amènent du trafic vers votre site (aussi appelés referrers ou sites référants ou de provenance) sont très souvent des sites dynamiques.
Quand vous essayez de mesurer l’activité provenant d’un catalogue produit, d’un site communautaire, d’un blog ou d’un forum, il y a de fortes chances que l’URL des pages de provenance contienne des caractères cabalistiques auquels vous ne comprenez rien et ce même si cette page a un titre tout à fait orthodoxe.
Par exemple, si vous recevez du trafic depuis
http://www.site.com/forum?forum=56&topic=24&sessid=123
il est très probable que vous ne puissiez pas reconnaître le document à première vue 😉
La plupart des outils de Web Analytique permettent de visualiser l’intégralité du referrer.
Ce n’est pas le cas de Google Analytics car la façon de stocker l’URI du referrer est tronquée après le point d’interrogation ‘?’ qui marque le début de la chaîne de requête (querystring). (more…)
Posted in Business Tips and Tricks, Google Analytics, In French, Technical tips and tricks, Web Analytics | 14 Comments »
June 13, 2007
It’s official!
This evening I finally received an email from Brian Clifton, he confirmed us that we were officially Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAAC). We are very proud to be the first and (for the moment) only Google Analytics Partners in Belgium.
Here’s a 2 pages advert that we are going to publish in the next Inside issue (Inside is the leadig belgian Internet Business Magazine). So if you’re interested in some Google Analytics Consulting Services don’t hesitate to contact Julien.
These next weeks are going to be interesting, I remember Robbin comments regarding the telephone that was ringing all the time when they became GAAC… So we’ll see how it goes, the only thing that I can promise you is that we will follow the rule of first arrived, first served and try to staff as quickly as possible if necessary.
If you’re interested in Google Analytics,
check our previous posts about GA:
Posted in About us, Google Analytics, Web Analytics | 1 Comment »
May 30, 2007
The Friday following Emetrics, while Aurélie was attending the Predictive Analytics two day course, I was invited by Avinash to visit him at Google. I have to admit that I was pretty excited with the idea to visit Google’s offices as I didn’t attend the GAAC training in Dublin. So after a nice breakfast with Matthew and Jim I took a cab and went ahead to Mountain-view.
I had a taximan from Morocco that while driving was always looking to the back as we were having a very engaged discussion about the political situation of his country (in a Arabic influenced french). I have to admit that I regret to have launched the conversation as when we arrived at the highway I was afraid that we would get into an accident. But fortunately I got safe to Google’s HQ (a bit shaky I have to admit ;-)). (more…)
Posted in About us, eMetrics, Emetrics San Francisco 2007, Google Analytics, Web Analytics | 4 Comments »
May 8, 2007
So here it is, the long-awaited Google Analytics version 2.
Of course we at WebAnalytics.be had been in the know for a while now but, as you can imagine, we had to respect Google’s non-disclosure agreement and not even hint at it. We got special coverage of V2 when we attended the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant certification training in Dublin.
This restraint was all the more difficult since GA now breaks the barrier that separated it from the other vendors’ solutions : scheduled reporting.
That’s right, folks.
Google Analytics is free, has a user-friendly, AJAX-based interface in more than 10 languages, enterprise-class features and now sends recurrent reports to your mailbox, in the format of your choice.
I will post more details on this new release and its potential in the days to come.
So basically, smaller actors such as XiTi, Weborama, StatCounter, SiteReports et al., will no longer have a differentiative edge as a product. I hope they come up with other attractive features other than being cheaper than other vendors.
If you need consulting and/or assistance on Google Analytics or other leading Web Analytics products such as WebTrends, Omniture or WebSideStory, get in touch with us via this blog or by using our contact form.
As always, constructive comments are welcome 😉
Posted in Google Analytics, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | 5 Comments »
May 8, 2007
Fresh news from San Francisco!!!!
Google has just announced here in San Francisco the release of the Version 2 of Google Analytics. We are very excited at OX2 as we have been testing this new version since a bit more than a month now. As you know part of our Web analytics team attended the GAAC training in Dublin a couple of months ago and they also got trained on this new version.
It is radically different from the current version and incorporates great new features (I love the big bounce rate percentage and the export functionnalities have really been improved). I won’t enter into details right now as you know I’m not an Analyst (as I like to say, I’m just the sales guy ;-)).
Julien will be publishing in the coming hours a post about this new version! And we will publish more insights in the coming days/weeks.
So if you’re using Google analytics expect a radical change (but don’t worry there will be a transition period in which you will still be able to use the previous interface).
This is a screenshot of the interface:
You can also read this excellent post about Google Analytics V2 in Avinash’s Blog (Thanks Avinash)
Posted in eMetrics, Emetrics San Francisco 2007, Events, Google Analytics, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | Comments Off on Google Launches Google Analytics V2 at Emetrics San Francisco
April 16, 2007
Give your company all the competitive edge it can get by analyzing what content is viewed by the competition.
Assuming your competitors are large companies, who sometimes own a whole range of IP addresses with their Internet Service Provider, you can identify these companies thanks to Google Analytics.
It’s a pretty smooth ride, so follow gently along 🙂
(more…)
Posted in Business Tips and Tricks, Google Analytics, Technical tips and tricks, Web Analytics | 5 Comments »
March 31, 2007
Yesterday, during the Emetrics Summit in London we were given the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of Web Analytics vendors that covered most of the top players of the Industry. Jim called it the ‘Vendors Variety Hour‘. It was a pity that Ian Thomas could not participate as Microsoft hasn’t yet launched Gatineau 😉 (looking forward to see you in the panel next year).
From left to right we had:
– SAS – Omniture – ClickTracks – WebSideStory (VS) – Unica – WebTrends – IndexTools – Google
Last year during the Emetrics there was a question ‘Vendors name one thing you do better than WebTrends‘. This year I decided to bring again the question, but with a twist ;-):
‘Vendors, what would be your unique selling proposition?‘ And the twist was for Avinash that was actively representing Google: ‘Avinash you cannot say that GA USP is it’s free‘.
The answers to the question were: (more…)
Posted in About us, eMetrics, Emetrics Summit London 2007, Events, Google Analytics, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News, WebTrends | 4 Comments »
During 
OX2 Web Analytics Blog 