17th December 2007

Goal Setting Using Google Analytics

By : Nidhi Gupta

Google Analytics Goals

As with any aspect of a web site, it is easy to get lost in the data. Webmasters can spend hours in their Google Analytics account examining the charts and graphs, but still not come to any conclusions about what is working and what needs to be improved upon. When measuring the success or effectiveness of a site, the term “conversion rate ” is often used. The conversion rate is based on the number of users who complete a desired action on the web site, whether it be completing a purchase, submitting a form, or downloading a file. The purpose of this article is to explain how to use Google Analytics as a tactical tool to provide insight into strategic objectives such as increased conversion rates. For beginners, be sure to read “Introduction to Google Analytics ” before continuing.

Google Analytics makes it easy to track the number of conversions on your site, as well as the path the user took to convert, through their conversion goals section. A user can set up to 4 goals for any given profile, each with its own funnel path. To track a goal, there should be a specific page on your site that only displays once the desired goal or conversion has taken place, this is most often a confirmation page or “Thank You” page.

Simple site tracking programs allow users to see the total number of times this page was loaded, but this is not a complete picture. Google takes it one step further, and incorporates the path the visitor took to convert. This path can be used to qualify the user and confirm theories about how and why the user converted.

Source: Embarcgroup.com

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17th December 2007

Search Engine Marketing Ethics: Don’t Believe The Hype

By : Nidhi Gupta

Search Engine Marketing Ethics

Getting to the top of the search engines, and staying there, is an ongoing process. This does not mean it is expensive to stay at the top. In fact, in most cases, it’s rather affordable. But beware, there are pitfalls along the way to search engine Zen.

The old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true”, applies to SEO (search engine optimization). There are many companies that will promise top results using less than ethical methods. Including slick salesmen that will convince you that all the top sites cheat the search engines in order to stay on top. You will run into web site owners that mask keywords to get top positions making it sound very tempting to follow in their foot steps.

Don’t be fooled by such hype. These are short term solutions that can lead to a permanent ban in the top engines. Once you are banned in Google, Yahoo, MSN or ASK, you may as well dump your site and start over. If you’re looking for long term success on the internet, don’t cheat the search engines.

One of the cheats is masking content with “noscript tags”. The noscript tags are used to define an alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed. People have been taking advantage of this and filling it with content that visitors don’t see, but the search engines do. While this does work, it is short term and believe me when I say, you will be caught. You will have no warning, no second chances. You will wake up one day and your site will not be found.

Source: Woothosting.net

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