Below are the details of a previous Google Analytics Workshop presented by Nikki Rae, Simon Nixon and Jason Buck.  We delivered this workshop as a mix of GA learnings and User Design Experience to show how visitors behave on their site and then how to use User Experience Design techniques to fix problems and give Users a great experience!

You know that you should be measuring the traffic on your site and you may even have Google Analytics in place, but what next? With 100’s of reports available in Google Analytics, how can you decide which ones you need to choose and in fact, what do they all mean? Ultimately, we want to you go away with a real handle on how you can make more money through your website by understanding and using Google Analytics.

Using Google Analytics for Profit

  • How effective is your marketing at bringing qualified leads to your site?
  • How effective is your site at converting these leads to sales?
  • How can you improve user experience to increase conversions?

Together, we will walk through the Google Analytics interface. We will show you how to:

  • Find ‘quick wins’
  • Make recommendations for campaign tracking
  • Use Google Analytics to understand visitor behaviour
  • Discover why your qualified visitors are not buying your products by looking at which of your pages are ’stinky’ and which pages are ’sticky’
  • Use techniques like card sorting to better organise your content, prototypes to quickly sketch up your ideas, personas to bring your audience to life and user-testing to iron out the problems before you go live.

By the end of the session, you will be able to understand which reports in Google Analytics will be the most useful to you and how to interpret the reports to gain the most actionable insight.

Who Should Attend

The workshop is ideal for anybody who wants to know how to use Google Analytics to improve their marketing strategy and understand how visitors interact with their website. This includes Online Marketers, Web Masters, Campaign Managers, Website Owners/Managers, SEO’s and more.

Venue & Location

Brighton Racecourse. Located on the outskirts of Brighton’s vibrant city with views across the Sussex Downs and Brighton Marina. We’ll not only feed your mind we’ll feed your body too!

Nikki Rae: is a Web Conversion Specialist and G.A. Guru. She’s a fully qualified Google Adwords Professional, Google Analytics IQ Certified She trained in Google Analytics under the former head of Google Analytics EMEA, Brian Clifton, who even mentions her in his book “Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics” and regularly speaks on topics such as analytics, conversion and web business management. Nikki is a regular guest blogger for econsultancy.com and she also blogs for her own site Analytics Training which has practical tips on applying Google Analytics.

Jason Buck: has been helping organisations build and measure websites since 1998. Jason’s skill is in understanding and articulating an organisation’s objectives to make the best online services and tools for both the organisation and the people who use them. His clients have included Rolls-Royce, a number of award winning agencies and the UK Government as well as writing for various magazines and blogs.

Simon Nixon: prides himself on translating complicated business problems into plain English. He built his first website in 1994 and been on a wide and varied journey with a range of digital projects spanning the private and public sector in-house and agency ever since. His passion is involving customers in the design process through User Centred Design and regularly comments on the digital industry.

Refreshments
“When I invite a woman to dinner, I expect her to look at my face. That’s the price she has to pay”

  • Registration – Fresh filtered coffee, choice of mixed teas and a selection of mini cinnamon, apple and fruit pasties.
  • Mid-morning – Coffee, fruit and Yorkshire teas and a selection of luxury chocolate, oatmeal and fruit biscuits.
  • Lunch – two course hot or cold buffet lunch including tea and coffee, juices, chilled water and soft drinks.
  • Afternoon – Teas and coffees and plates of fresh homemade sponge and fruit cakes. Iced water and mints available throughout the day.

Agenda Workshop

09:30 – 09:45 Registration
09:45 – 10:00 Introduction
10:00 – 11:00 Google Analytics for Profit
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:15 Google Analytics for Profit
12:15 – 13:15 Lunch
13:15 – 14:45 Useful + Usable = Used
14:45 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 16:30 Useful + Usable = Used
16:30 – 17:00 Open Floor & Networking

Course has already happened.

Posted in Google Analytics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Quite simply, what is the difference between Unique and New Visitors in Google Analytics? I trawled the Web for ages to find a good example of how to explain this. Ultimately, I decided it was best explained as a flowchart.

A visitor is defined as Unique upon their very, very first entry to the site.
A NEW visitor is a visit that is new in the selected time scan, say 1 – 31 March 2009 – if a user is re-entering the site for a second or nth time during the timespan, then they are recorded as a returning visitor.
Hopefully, you will find this flowchart a succinct explanantion.

Flowchart for Unique vs. New Visitors - Google Analytics

Flowchart for Unique vs. New Visitors - Google Analytics

Posted in Google Analytics Definitions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The two main url builder tools that I am aware of are:

1. Google Analytics URL Builder

2. Justin Cutroni Link Tagging Tool

What’s great about these Google Analytics tools is that they are simple, yet effective.  They make life a lot EASIER!

I was asked if I would take a look at a new tool called Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder which again is perfect in its simplicity. Like the original URL builder, you can tag your URLs as standard.  However, you can also;

1. Decide if you want to add utm_nooverride=1 to the as part of your tracking.

2. Decide if you want to use ? or # in your URLs.

Conveniently, then you can shorten your URL or if you want to 301 the page, it will provide the code you need to stick in your .htaccess file.

I have also come across a tool that goes one step further and is a hybrid of the three afore-mentioned tools as it also offers the ability to export and edit in excel.  Well done Av Eivind Savio for your Google Analytics Link Builder.

Posted in General Web Analytics, Google Analytics, Google Analytics Tools | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to work out which page of a site is the one  actually referring to yours.  Google Analytics tells us the name of the domain, but not the exact referring URL.  There is a filter that can be used to give you what you need.

Field A -> Extract A – Referral  (.*)

Field B -> Extract B – (Leave Blank)

Output To -> Constructor – User Defined $A1

See image to help.

To view, go to visitor reports and select ‘user-defined’

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Posted in Google Analytics, Google Analytics Hacks | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Went to a Women In Media event hosted by Wired Sussex. The subject was ‘networking’ and this session was presented by Jenni Lloyd from Nixon McInnes – Social Media Experts in Brighton.

I enjoyed the relaxed vibe of the event (based at The Sanctuary Cafe in Hove) and the choice of croissants, cereals and fruits supplied for our breakfast.  Yum. With copious amounts of Orange Juice and Coffee (however, not together in the same cup!).

Jenni discussed how networking can feel uncomfortable because you are approaching someone as they have something you desire.

She also led on to discuss that it helps if you know why are networking whilst giving great examples to get the message home.

1.   Learn from my peers and be recognised by them – linkedin.com

2.   International recognition as experts in our field (presenting at international conferences)

3.   Broaden my interests – Upcoming

4.   Staying in touch and keeping sane – friend twitter.com/Emm who is at home with 2 kids but wants to stay intouch with her colleagues

5.   Need a new job – www.linkedin.com

6.   Sell things – mashupupevent.com (Haven’t linked as site down at time of writing)

7.   Bring local people together – projectbrighton.com

8.  Want to stay in touch with people I used to work with – facebook

9.  Want to talk to like-minded people –  Likemind Brighton

10.    Want to find influencers and maybe join them – Twitter

11.   Want to capitalise on my expertise – http://tv.winelibrary.com/

12.   Publicise my unioque business – English Cut

13.   Want to be a thought leader and build my own brand – http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/

Thanks Jenni – it was great!

[slideshare id=2970835&doc=womeninmediabuildingnetworks200110final-100122055206-phpapp01]

Posted in Google Analytics | 1 Comment
Google in 1998, showing the original logo
Image via Wikipedia

Aaaah, nothing better than Googling one’s own name – a shameful, hidden pleasure. But this time, I have done it to investigate my ‘attributes’ and ‘personality’ as profiled by Google’s Wonder Wheel – my Google CV.  What is perceived as connected to my name as a topic?

Firstly, I perform a general web search for ‘nikki rae’ and are returned these results:

Nikki Rae in a Thong

According to Google Wonder Wheel, my Google CV can contain the following:

  • Conversion  Specialist – (Got this one right)
  • Calculator Specialist – (Casio is my middle name)
  • Rates Specialist – (Currently, 0.625300 dollars to the pound)
  • Prices Specialist – (What is that?)
  • Sales Specialist – (Yeh, ice to eskimos an’ all that)

and here follows the process…..






Have a go and let me know your Google CV!

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Posted in Giggles & Grumbles | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Introducing the P.A.N.I.C. Model of Search Behaviour,  almost named, N.I.C.A.P. (to be pronounced, ‘knee cap’, but as is cyclical I think P.A.N.I.C. works far better!
Here’s the theory.

1. Searcher has a ‘notion’ about something they want to search (internal bias)

2. Searcher starts an investigation around search aim

3. Searcher draws a conclusion

4. Searcher delivers an action

The action could be to click on the site, drill-down search terms etc,.. but feeds back into cycle,

5. Searcher has a reinforced notion

etc,…

All of these elements are influenced by ‘persuasion’ whether that be brand influence, search positioning, offline, etc.

P.A.N.I.C. Model of Search Behaviour

P.A.N.I.C. Model of Search Behaviour, Nikki Rae, https://www.analyticstraining.co.uk, Copyright 2010

Posted in Giggles & Grumbles | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Every now and again I will be running tests on this blog (in fact, probably most of the time!).  This week I am testing the Kampyle feedback form.  I would really appreciate you all ‘pushing my button’ so I can see how the data looks in Google Analytics.  Once I have this, of course I will share my review.

Feedback Form
Feedback Analytics



How to listen to your customers online from Kampyle on Vimeo.

Posted in Other Analytics Tools | Tagged , , | 2 Comments
Here is a fabulous Google Analytics Cheat Sheet created by Ian Lurie of Conversation Marketing as a response to this post at SEOMoz.
Google Analytics Cheat Sheet

Google Analytics Cheat Sheet

Apart from the fact that it is full of great hints, tips and pointers it also links to one of my very own hacks that can originally be found here and which I will host on this blog as soon as I can find a moment!!
Thanks Ian!!
Posted in General Web Analytics, Google Analytics, Google Analytics Hacks | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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