Event Tracking to Reduce Bounce Rate Due to Affiliate Sites

One of the greatest challenges a web analyst faces in the field is gaining full visibility into all facets of an organization’s online presence. As analysts, we are curious creatures by nature with an unquenchable thirst for data and knowledge. We want to know where traffic is coming from, how these visitors are using the website, and where they are going. Discovering a missing piece to a data collection puzzle can be a double-edged sword: It means we aren’t getting the complete picture, but it also serves as motivation to always be on the lookout for new sources of analytical data.

In the past year, we were approached by a client in the financial services industry that wanted to track their website’s organic performance on search engines as well as receive monthly analytical reporting and recommendations. A few weeks after initial implementation, however, we noticed a consistently high bounce rate to the website. These bounces were primarily happening from the Home page of the website, which is a major red flag to even the most inexperienced of analysts. After some additional analysis and a look at the navigational summary of visitors, we were able to determine that most of these bounces weren’t leaving the website: They were proceeding to the separate secure Online Banking portion of the website. Due to internal security policies of this particular bank, we were unable to implement any direct tracking of this platform beyond the Home page of the website. A new solution to alleviate the high bounce rate needed to be identified.

That’s where event tracking came in. With Google Analytics, event tracking is a method traditionally used to track actions visitors can perform on a website that aren’t captured by the standard analytics script. This often takes the form of a PDF or document download. Since we could not place any sort of tracking code on the Online Banking platform itself, we decided to place the event tracking code on all links on the bank’s website that pointed towards it. The change in the skewed bounce rate for the website was noticeable almost immediately:

Not only did this help alleviate the high bounce rate, but it also provided more insight into how the bank’s customers used the site and where the entered the Online Banking platform from.

There are never perfect circumstances when it comes to web analytics. More often than not, internal policies, procedures and security will stand in the way of getting the complete picture of an organization’s web presence. Learning these policies from the start and identifying alternative solutions will help in overcoming these obstacles.

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5 Reasons to Use a CMS-Based Website

If you are considering redesigning or building a new website, a Content Management Systems (CMS)-based website is a must. The use of a CMS website will save you time, money, and create efficiencies.

5 reasons to use a CMS website:

1. Easy to update content: Adding, removing, or updating content may be executed by staff members without the need for a web designer.
2. Design: Simply change the design and appearance of the website without the headache of using editors or creative suites.
3. SEO Friendly: Stay on top of the Search Engine Optimization of the website.
4. Increased Functionality: Plug-ins and widgets may be integrated effortlessly for additional functionality.
5. Security: Content is safely stored in a database.

There you have it. Five quick, great reasons to switch your company's website over to a Content Management System.

Privacy Protection on Search Engines & Social Media vs. Value of Data

USA Today recently ran an article about Facebook's data collection methods and the issues they raise with privacy protection. Although there is very good reason for these concerns to be voiced, consumers should still be aware that not all monitoring is a bad thing, and in fact, a lot of the monitoring that marketing and business intelligence departments do often benefits consumers greatly.

Check out our latest YouTube video that we released earlier today discussing this hot topic:

So what are you thoughts on this? Be sure to leave comments on both the blog and the video!

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Top Tips to Stay Relevant to Google Quality Raters & New Google Algorithm November 2011

As we all know, Google recently rolled out an update to its search algorithm. One of the focuses of this update is serving up the most recent, up-to-date information for a user's search query. A human element is also brought into the equation, with the algorithm working alongside Google Quality Raters to rank relevancy and age content. Check out our video below, where DMG's CEO Daniel Laws provides some tips to keep your website relevant and ultimately lead to increased targeted traffic.

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Managing PPC on Microsoft adCenter

Just last week Microsoft updated their adCenter Desktop program, making it easier to manage and update PPC Campaigns running on the Bing and Yahoo Search Engines. A few of the changes included faster bulk bid estimates, easier import process of Google AdWords campaigns, default location targeting, and more. For the official announcement and further details about the updates check out the adCenter Community Blog. Now Microsoft adCenter just needs to make the Search Query Report accessible to agency log-ins, since it contains import data to managing keywords. Anyone have any other changes they would to see on adCenter Desktop program?

By the way, have you seen the new changes to the web UI of adCenter? PPC Hero wrote a great post detailing the major changing.

Philadelphia Web Analytics Symposium November 2 & Future of the Mobile Web

This past Wednesday, both the CEO Daniel Laws and Web Analyst Brandon Wensing of DaBrian Marketing Group were able to attend the Web Analytics Symposium at the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton, hosted by the Web Analytics Association. We were able to sit in on some very interesting lectures and presentations by industry legends like Jim Sterne covering the latest in Web Analytics, as well as the importance of Analytics as a whole as the internet evolves. In addition to the fantastic presentations, the symposium was also a great opportunity for DMG to network with all sorts of Web Analytics and Marketing professionals from all over the northeast region of the United States.

One particular point that came up across a large portion of the presentations on Wednesday was the increasing importance of mobile with regards to the web. This tied directly with countless conversations that have occurred within the walls of the DaBrian Marketing office, as we've felt for a while that companies need to put more emphasis on monitoring and expanding their mobile offerings. If you missed the WAA Symposium on Wednesday, check out our latest YouTube video below. Also be sure to subscribe to both our blog here and our YouTube channel for weekly updates on trends, practices, tactics, and more!

Impact of Google Analytics Premium on Web Analytics & Consultants

Web Analytics solutions such as Google Analytics, WebTrends, and Omniture have continued to evolve with increased functionality for social media and mobile analysis. Unfortunately the gap between free web analytical solutions and enterprise solutions was significant until now. The introduction of Google Analytics Premium not only impacts the web analytics enterprise solutions market but also analysis service providers, business intelligence solutions, and consultants. Before Google Analytics Premium, small and mid-size businesses were forced to use free tools such as Yahoo Analytics or pay an “arm and a leg” for enterprise web analytics solutions such as WebTrends and Omniture. Realistically, there wasn’t much of a middle ground in this space.

With the addition of Google Analytics Premium and several improvements to the free Google Analytics solution, the gap between enterprise solutions just got a little smaller and puts more pressure on the industry to continue demonstrating value for web analytics/business intelligence dollars. It will be interesting to see the industry’s response in the future to Google Analytics Premium as well as how Analytics Consultants will modify their service offering to avoid direct competition with Google.