Liviu Taloi

I made some segments for an e-commerce web site these days. I tried to compute the number of visitors which stayed less than 1 sec on that site.

I was surprised: 30% were visits with less than 1 second visit duration, and this no of visit represent 99.55% of the bounce rate from this referrer. The nice thing was that we had 3505 visit with visit duration greater than or equal to 1 sec and less than 5 seconds, and 3087 visit with time on site between 5 and 8 seconds (during the same time interval).

From a lot of web analysts experts I know that is quite hard (to almost impossible) to compute the time on site when the users make only 1 access to that site. To make the correct time computation it needs at least 2 access, and even then, the time on the last page cannot be computed right.

I know also that the current Bounce Rate definition is on a process to change, a lot of web 2.0 sites uses 1 page to show the content (like my blog, for ex.). The fact that a user come and see only 1 page isn’t anymore a bounce, because he/she can read all the articles w/o change the URL. The new definition I found was somewhat related to the time on site, which should be less than 13 seconds to be considered a bounce.

I wonder if GA (Google Analytics) has started to implement this kind of measurement, because the segment of people staying on that site 1-5 secs, or 5-8 secs were not considered bouncing. The only segment that was 99.55% bounce was the segment with less than 1 sec visit duration…

After this little experiment on my data I made another one.  With this segments (less 1 sec, 1-5 secs, 5-8 secs - with respect to visit duration) I entered the e-commerce report. Wow.. I saw 10 transactions on the segment "less than 1 sec" and 2 transactions on the segment "1-5 secs".

And my doubts on this parameter, visit duration, or average time on site if you wish, were rising again.. How GA can compute and measure accurately the visits from 1-5 secs, or 5-8 secs, or even less than 1 sec? I know that some new web analytics software which are making some "push" from time to time to user can estimate real time visitors on site (woopra is one of these). Does Google makes some real time visitors computations, or it’s preparing to do that in the near future? And for God’s sake, how the users manage to do a transaction in less than 1 sec?

Anyway GA is coherent in all the reports regarding those segments, it reports on all the places the same values. But do I have to trust those values?? GA even computes the average time on site for those segments, which were quite nice, were believable.. (4 secs for 1-5 secs segment, and 7 secs for 5-8 secs segment)

I would appreciate any thoughts from you guys. Thanks.

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Ma uit la chestionarul completat de cei care au dorit sa beneficieze de implementarea gratuita, facuta de mine, a Google Analytics in varianta sa completa, inclusiv tracking-ul de e-commerce. Voi vorbi despre aceasta implementare la WebSell-3, Joi la orele 18:00, webinar dedicat analytics-ului. Nu stiu daca voi alege bine, dar trebuie sa aleg un site pe care sa-l ajut cu aceasta problema ca am promis…

1. Primul care a completat chestionarul este un magazin online de it&c din Bucuresti, deci daca ceva nu merge bine pot ajunge repede la ei sa rezolv. Au ceva trafic si ceva comenzi pe zi, deci de la implementare pana Joi as putea arata ceva la webinarul de saptamana asta. Au platforma pe asp + sql, lucru care ma dezavantajeaza caci nu le stapanesc.. Insa cel mai probabil voi lucra impreuna cu progamatorul lor. Mai mult de atat au codul pus putin gresit, deci ajutandu-i le voi corecta si eroarea respectiva.
2. Al doilea magazin online care a completat chestionarul este un magazin online pe o platforma de Wordpress, bine cunoscuta mie. Deci m-as descurca fara probleme sa ii ajut. Nu am multe vizite pe zi, comenzi nu prea au declarat, sunt la inceput. Au deja codul GA in pagini dar fara partea de e-commerce, goal-uri nu stiu daca au puse, nu-mi dau seama fara acces in interfata GA. Au si cont pe Twitter, o bila alba in plus pentru ei. La contact insa am doar un telefon si un formular de email, nu vad numele companiei, sediul, CUI-ul J-ul si alte informatii despre (sigur le pot afla, dar un client obisnuit nu va cauta cum voi face eu, ci va renunta probabil..). Asta e o bila neagra. Mai mult la intrebarea mea despre obiective si despre bugetul alocat acestor obiective mi-au raspuns ca nu si-au propus nimic si bugetul alocat este 0 euro. Hmm..
3. Al treilea magazin e chiar interesant, cu toate ca mai are de lucrat la partea de usability, insa am observat e singurul care si-a marcat pasii de comanda prin alterarea codului de Google Analytics, cu pagetracker, ceea ce inseamna ca acolo e cineva care se pricepe. Si am vazut codul de clickheat si parca si un alt cod de tracking. Ca atare echipa de acolo e dornica sa optimizeze magazinul. Un mare dezavantaj in cazul in care ceva nu merge bine e ca sunt din judetul Sibiu. Insa la cum am vazut codurile probabil ca s-ar descurca singuri cu ce le spun eu.. si au spus ce obiective au plus ca au bugetat acele obiective. Nice.
4. Al patrulea magazin online, caci cele 4 site-uri vad sunt toate site-uri de comert electronic, niciun site de publishing, de continut pana acum, este tot din provincie si pe platforma asp + sql. Insa vorbind cu gazduitorul lor si cu cel care le-a creat platforma am aflat ca au deja integrat codul de Google Analytics cu toate componentele, inclusiv e-commerce, insa probabil nu stiu sa ajunga inca la raportul respectiv. Nu stiu cat de mult i-as putea ajuta pentru ca este acolo cineva care e priceput si poate sa-i ajute in orice moment.

Tragand o concluzie cumva la cele spuse de mai sus, voi alege sa implementez codul de Google Analytics asa cum trebuie si cu rapoartele care trebuie la primul site care a raspuns apelului meu de a completa un chestionar, desi este pe platforma asp. Voi incepe implementarea astazi sau maine cel mai tarziu, sper sa o termin repede, si sa prezint cateva rezultate interesante participantilor la webinarul WebSell-3, dedicat analytics-ului si metodelor de masurare a traficului si conversiei.

PS. In curand voi posta si linkul chestionarului pe baza caruia voi alege un site ce va beneficia de o implementare in GA de segmente avansate si rapoarte custom, despre care vom vorbi in webinarul WebSell-4, tot analytics, dar mai avansat putin.

PS2. Mai astept poate se inscrie si un site de continut care are nevoie de ajutor pe partea de implementare a Google Analytics… eu am promis 2 implementari, una la un magazin online care s-a adjudecat, si una la un site de publishing, care se lasa asteptat.

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Today we’re excited to announce Google Ventures, Google’s new venture capital fund. This is Google’s effort to take advantage of our resources to support innovation and encourage promising new technology companies. By borrowing the best practices of top-tier, financially focused venture capital firms and bringing to bear Google’s unique technical expertise and brand, we think we can find young companies with truly awesome potential and encourage their development into successful businesses.

At its core, Google Ventures is charged with finding and helping to develop exceptional start-ups. We’ll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven’t thought of yet.

De aici: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/googles-newest-venture.html

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Ati observat ca am scris mai rar in ultimul timp pe blog. Unul din motive, nu este singurul, este si testarea interactiunii cu userii direct pe Twitter. Am contul pe Twitter (@ltaloi) de ceva vreme, mai exact de pe la sfarsitul anului 2007, dar il folosesc in mod intensiv de cateva luni de zile. 

Mai mult, in ultima luna de zile am experimentat diverse abordari pentru contul meu de Twitter ca si pentru contul unor clienti, majoritatea cu magazine online. Am tras deja niste concluzii, insa mai e mult de lucru pana sa declar ca am stors din acest instrument tot ce se putea. Dar am clienti sau prieteni pe Twitter care deja au facut primele vanzari directe sau oricum au folosit acest instrument pentru a castiga bani.

In concluzie, desi este un instrument cu o acoperire media mica, aproximativ cateva mii de persoane vorbitori de limba romana (Top 100 Bucharest) il folosesc, Twitter se dovedeste un tool deosebit de util pentru anumite afaceri pe net.

Multi s-au plans ca postez prea des (cei mai vorbareti) pe Twitter, unii mi-au dat unfollow, insa am reusit sa adun peste 1000 de followeri si asta de cand ma ocup mai bine de acest cont de pe Twitter. Altii mi-au multumit pentru linkurile postate acolo, cu multi dintre ei am dialogat mult mai facil decat pe blog, Twitter dovedindu-se un instrument mult mai fierbinte decat blogul.

Astazi vreau sa mai incerc un experiment: cel putin o data pe saptamana (depinde de timpul meu liber) voi anunta pe blog 1 ora de consultanta gratuita si o tematica despre care sa vorbim pe Twitter. Astazi, vorbind cu @bogdanclaru despre Google Analytics am ajuns la concluzia ca trebuie aruncata putina lumina asupra acestui serviciu Google. Azi, de la ora 14:00 la ora 15:00, daca nu cumva ma lasa conexiunea de Internet, voi sta de vorba cu voi despre Google Analytics. Voi raspunde la cat mai multe intrrebari despre acest serviciu Google.

So, astazi de la ora 14:00 la ora 15:00 (GMT +2, Bucharest time) va astept pe twitter.com/@ltaloi sa vorbim despre Google Analytics (#GA pe twitter).

PS. Puteti sa urmariti discutia si de aici din blog, in sidebar exista un widget ce afiseaza discutiile mele de pe twitter.

UPDATE: Am fost online pe Twitter. Cele mai bune intrebari le voi publica aici, daca am ce.. experimentul nu a fost o reusita, dar nu e bai, zilele nu au intrat in sac. Poate nu am ales bine tematica despre care sa vorbim, poate nu am ales bine ziua in care sa ne intalnim pe twitter, poate ca twitter nu e un canal pentru a purta discutii asemanatoare unui webinar. Nu voi abandona acest proiect si voi incerca in alta zi sa colectez intrebari puse in direct despre o tematica anume. Poate ma veti ajuta voi si vom alege mai bine tematica si momentul, ce ziceti?? La ora inchiderii  (15:05 2009-03-29)acestui prim experiment citisera acest post putin peste 30 de insi si pe twitter nu am inregistrat nicio intrebare..

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It’s important for a non-ecommerce site, such as a blog, to keep an eye on efficiency, how well it perform. One measure we can implement, one KPI is the number of comments. I think is important for o blogger to write as good as possible and try to have a lot of trackbacks or comments to that posts. So, I decided to try to measure this number of comments and puting in GA as a goal to my blog.

The GOALS can be implemented very easy in GA using 2 different URLs: one for the comment form (example-blog.com/write-a-comment.html) and the second one the url for thanking that the user has posted a comment (example-blog.com/thaks-you-for-comment.html). That is easy. But the WordPress has some other structure of capturing and posting a comment. Could be the Comment Goal deployed by using Regular Expressions but seems to me quite complicated, and not as good as this method: altering the GA tracking code and using some variable as comment-posted=true.

Step1: inserting a variable in the URL for tracking when a comment was posted

In wp-comments-post.php, which should be located in root, at line 72 (I have an old version of wordpress, so keep looking for redirecting which should be at the end of that file) we have the redirect to the same URL as the post after a comment is posted:

$location = ( empty($_POST[’redirect_to’]) ? get_permalink($comment_post_ID) : $_POST[’redirect_to’] ) . ‘#comment-’ . $comment_id;

you shoud alter that URL and insert some variable, in my case comment=1:

$location = ( empty($_POST[’redirect_to’]) ? get_permalink($comment_post_ID) : $_POST[’redirect_to’] ) . ‘?comment=1′.’#comment-’ . $comment_id;

Update: ERRATA 1 - in the new WP version I didn’t succeed to pass a variable using the URL, a get variable (there is a function called apply_filters() which strip my URL and wipe the string ?comment=1 from it). So I made some workaround using a cookie. So, for the 2.7 version of WordPress users put this line before the redirect took place:

setcookie(’comment_posted’, ‘1′, time() + 40, COOKIEPATH, COOKIE_DOMAIN);

Step 2: Altering the tracking code for Google Analytics

Google Analytics has a function which track, or tag a page, it’s the same. The usual code for doing this is:

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src=’" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXX-X");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>

and now you whish to capture that variable, COMMENT=1, which means you have a comment posted:
(the URL after a comment is made at this post should look like this http://www.liviutaloi.ro/2009/02/13/ how-to-track-comments-as-goals-in- wordpress-using-google-analytics / ?comment=1 # comment-1011)

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src=’" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXX-X");
<?php
$comment=$_REQUEST[’comment’];
// you look for that variable in URL, a GET variable
if($comment==1) {                                                                                                      
// see if it has the correct value of 1, means a comment just posted
?>
pageTracker._trackPageview("/thanks-for-comment.html");
// and then alter the URL that Google will record for this page, instead of the real URL
<?php } else { ?>
pageTracker._trackPageview();
// else, if it’s a normal URL, someone looking at this post, will not alter the URL recorded by Google Analytics
<?php } ?>
} catch(err) {}</script>

Update: ERRATA 2 - now, let’s read that cookie (this cookie will expire in 40 seconds, you could try to reduce that time, means that a user who post a comment with a frequency of 2 comments per minute it will record 1 Goal into GA - I put 40 seconds just to be sure that there is enough time for the browser to make that redirect, for slow connections)

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src=’" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXX-X");
<?php
$commentposted=$_COOKIE["comment_posted"];
// you look for that variable in COOKIE
if($commentposted==1) {  
// see if it has the correct value of 1, means a comment just posted
?>
pageTracker._trackPageview("/thanks-for-comment.html");
// and then alter the URL that Google will record for this page, instead of the real URL
<?php } else { ?>
pageTracker._trackPageview();
// else, if it’s a normal URL, someone looking at this post, will not alter the URL recorded by Google Analytics
<?php } ?>
} catch(err) {}</script>

After 60 seconds that cookie will expire so, if the user post another comment we can track it as a Goal. Hope this version will run for all of you.

Step 3. Define your Goal into Google Analytics

Put as Goal URL: /thanks-for-comment.html, or whatever you defined as thank you page for a comment posted, give this Goal a name and that it’s all.

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Am pus inca un instrument util zic eu celor care isi dedica marea parte din ziua de lucru comertului electronic. Ideea adaugarii acestui mic instrument mi-a venit urmarindu-l  pe Krumel pe twitter, un bun specialist al mediului online pe care il recomand cu caldura, si care anunta zilele trecute aparitia pe youtube a unul canal dedicat serviciului Google Website Optimizer (GWO) - cititi aici de ce ar trebui si magazinele online sa faca teste de tipul split A/B sau MVT in cautarea solutiei ideale la o problema de uzabilitate folosind GWO. M-am uitat si eu la filmele de acolo, la webinar-iile de acolo, la o parte din ele eu partcipand live la momentul cand au fost programate de catre organizatori. De altfel urmaresc blogul GrokDotCom al celor de la FutureNow Inc si in mod special pe Brian Eisenberg (TheGrok) ale carui lucrari le am in biblioteca personala. Nu stiti ce pierdeti pana nu le veti citi..

Revenind, deci am mai adaugat in sidebar un RSS cu filmele de pe YouTube pe care le-am marcat ca si favorite, filme interesante din punct de vedere profesional, sper utile pentru cei care se ocupa de optmizarea paginilor sau de cresterea conversiilor pe paginile magazinelor online. In masura in care timpul imi va permite voi avea grija sa caut si sa marchez ca si favorite mai multe filmulete de acest gen.

Pana atunci va doresc vizionare placuta!

PS. Am pus RSS-ul si in header-ul blogului, astfel incat la apasarea iconitei RSS din bara de locatie/address bar/location bar, veti putea opta sa subscrieti la cateva feed-uri pe care le intretin, toate sper utile pentru cititorii acestui blog.

PS2. Pe cei ce vor sa afle mai multe despre magazinele online ii invit sa intre pe grupul dedicat discutiilor despre comertul electronic, iar daca nu le este suficient ii invit sa vina la iSell - traningul de comert electronic pe care il sustin cu ajutorul Picant Events.

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For the WordPress bloggers that use Twitter Tools I made some modifications in /plugins/twitter-tools/twitter-tools.php at line 186 (line 480 at new version of this plugin, try to look for "$tweet->tw_text"). I inserted some tracking variables for Google Analytics

Making titles a long string without strange chars

$spaces = array(" ", "-", "!", "&", "’", "`", "?", "_");

$escapedtitle = str_replace($spaces, "", $post->post_title);

$link=get_permalink($post_id).’?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=’.$escapedtitle;

Instead of the original line at 187

$tweet->tw_text = sprintf(__($this->tweet_format, ‘twitter-tools’), $post->post_title, get_permalink($post_id));

I put this

$tweet->tw_text = sprintf(__($this->tweet_format, ‘twitter-tools’), $post->post_title, $link);

Reading these days this post written by Claudiu about tracking Twitter with Google Analytics and using for a long time ago Google URL Builder for tracking all my online marketing campaigns, I made this modifications in the plugin I use for updateing my twitters with my blog posts. If you don’t use Twitter Tools and use online services like TinyUrl to shortening your URLs use the script provided by Claudiu on his post.

You’ll find your statistics in GA / trafic sources / campaigns under source=TWITTER and medium=SOCIAL-MEDIA. After that you can track stats for each tweet, looking to campaigns titles = your post title w/o spaces and ohter strange chars. 

Another way to track your links is using this service, TwitClicks.com, which short your URLs but in the same time show you stats.

Keep an eye on your tweets!

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Original article

[…] Google posted a video of Colonial Candle’s experience in website testing and landing page optimization, which helped boost their sales by 20% (yes, even in this economy). I know when reading a blog, things like landing page testing can seem very cerebral if you’ve never done it before.

So, check out this video to get a visual sense for what testing can do for your site:

Later Update: Videos: Actionable Web Analytics Tips - via Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik, see there 3 videos about actionable web analytics

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De cateva ore Google SearchWiki nu mai este un experiment ci este live, poate fi folosit de oricine… am aflat despre lansare de pe blogul lui Ionut. Desi deocamdata cautarile celorlati internauti nu sunt afectate de modificarile pe care le facem personal in rezultatele Google (SERP’s) nu e exclus ca intr-un viitor apropiat sa vedem influente ale top-urilor personale in rezultatele Google oferite tuturor utilizatorilor. Pentru a-l vedea in actiune trebuie sa intrati pe varianta in limba engleza (hl=en) si sa fiti logati in contul dumneavoastra de Google.

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