Google page position has long been considered one of the holy grails for site owners, advertisers, or marketers running campaigns to increase the level of exposure for their site. If you’re reading this, you probably know that search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the main methods marketers can utilize in the everlasting quest for an improved page position. Successful SEO campaigns are executed by focusing on a variety of variables such as content development, site keywords, review of site structure and content. While it is still possible for a site to rank first on a page, Google se [...]

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Buzz is one way that political campaigns measure their marketing success, and Facebook has teamed up with CNN to reveal how much buzz the two major parties are getting as the U.S. presidential race heats up. This morning they've launched a site called Facebook & CNN Election Insights. It offers a snapshot of how much discussion is happening on Facebook about the Obama and Romney campaigns -- and, more specifically, about each of the four presidential and vice-presidential candidates. As of this morning, Facebook discussion of Republican Mitt Romney was up 14 percent over the past thr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Facebook | Facebook: Insights | Politics

Yes, it is possible to have too much of a presence on social media. Just like with anything else, customers can feel inundated and overwhelmed by company tweets and status updates. According to a survey published in September 2011, 36% of all unlikes on Facebook are because a company was posting too much. This means that a user is irritated enough to go over to settings on the actual Facebook page and complete the actions to unlike the page. Likewise, on Twitter, users may unfollow others for tweeting too much (thus clogging up their newsfeed) or making their tweets (and, likewise, Faceb [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Facebook: Insights | Facebook: Statistics | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter

In our rapidly evolving world of marketing analytics, especially with the daily articles on “Big Data” streams, predictive analytics and real-time reporting, many of us forget to consistently apply the basics we’ve learned from our research and analytics. One core basic that I call “context” provides the needed focus. Context enables a strategic view that is necessary for effectively and efficiently planning, executing, reporting, and then acting -- in other words, for charting the shortest distance from data to insights. But first a little context on context and insights. Rece [...]

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Fruji is a new Twitter analytics service that offers some pretty powerful reports, particularly when it comes to analyzing who's following you. And Fruji does it at a lower cost than some other services. Pricing ranges from free for the barebones "Basic" account up to $25 per year for the "Pro" account, which provides unlimited lists of things like "Most Valuable Followers," "Most Popular Followers" and how many verified Twitter accounts are following you. There's also a "Premium" account in the middle that, for $5 per year, lets you see up to 20 verified users that follow you and up to 50 [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Features & Analysis | Marketing Tools: Analytics | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Top News | Twitter

Popular SEO community and tools provider SEOmoz has expanded their offerings today as they announced the acquisition of Portland based Twitter analytics company Followerwonk. The exact acquisition cost was not disclosed but Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz CEO, stated that the total deal value is:the total deal value is: "in the low 7 figures (between 1mm and 4mm) and that it includes three items - cash upfront, ongoing cash incentives for the years the Wonk crew stay at Moz, and SEOmoz stock." Followerwonk allows users to search for, compare, analyze, track and sort followers. In the official annou [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Internet Marketing Industry: Acquisitions | Marketing Tools: Analytics | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing can be an effective way to generate exposure among potential new customers. Done right, that exposure can be translated into engagement, interest, and eventually, a sale. Unfortunately, social media doesn’t always get the credit it deserves for that sale, especially when transactions do not take place on the web site. Here are two approaches to tracking the business value of social media marketing in this scenario: Create Goal (Soft Conversion) Values If a site visitor orders a catalog, asks for a price quote, or signs up to receive email communications, th [...]

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A few years back, I wrote a column about a common worry people express when they use analytics to inform their optimization testing plans. Somehow they figure that the simpler tools on the market (such as Google's free Content Experiments tool) won't be able to handle their site. A more expensive tool, mistakenly, is assumed to yield more effective insight for testing, thereby "reducing" the risk of testing. This may even get fed this line by consultants who  guide their clients to overly complex tools -- why? no one is certain -- claiming that the excellent free tools aren't useful for [...]

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Photos are said to improve engagement on Facebook, but does that engagement in turn boost traffic or fans? No, our testing found — but there still might be value in using them. Ever since Facebook started displaying Reach data directly on Facebook fan pages, here at Marketing Land and Search Engine Land we have been diligently watching the fluctuations happen day-to-day.  Knowing that using photos is a sure way to attract a more engaged audience, we started to deliberately manually post more photos on Facebook, and not via our third-party tool. We spent about a week posting photos with l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Facebook | Facebook: Insights | Facebook: Pages | Features & Analysis | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Mozilla’s latest upgrade to the Firefox web browser, Firefox 14, officially launched on July 17th and brought with it a number of desirable new features. These features, however, can have some not-so-desirable consequences for data analytics. One of the more notable changes (from both the user and the marketer’s perspective) is that Firefox will now encrypt all searches made through the location bar, search box, and right-click menu using Google SSL search. By enabling secure search as a default for users searching on Firefox, Mozilla aims to provide a more secure web browsing experi [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Google | Google: Search

A few weeks ago Google Analytics launched Content Experiments, a new testing functionality that can be used to create A/B/N tests to optimize campaigns and overal website experience. Last week Google announced 3 upgrades that will make testing with the tool significantly easier and more powerful. Below I discuss each of the upgrades and how they can enhance testing with Google Analytics 1. Ability To Copy Experiments This new functionality is valuable as it allows marketers to perform additional tests to the same page without modifying the codes, which makes the process much shorter. [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics

There is no denying that mobile marketing is one of the hottest topics in 2012. If you are a marketer in the United States, more than likely you have at least one article in your inbox describing and outlining the benefits of mobile marketing. According to eMarketer, there will be more than 106 million smartphone users in the U.S by the end of this year, and that number is projected to top 148 million by 2015. With the growing population of mobile device users combined with the up and coming generation of super texting teens, we can all understand the need to have a solid mobile experi [...]

Related Topics: Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics

There's no turning back now. A little over a year after introducing the new version of Google Analytics, the company is removing links that allowed users to revert back to the previous version. The new GA, which is built on an entirely new platform, includes the user interface changes first announced last May. In addition, it features a number of new reports unveiled since, including: Real-time stats Multi-channel funnels Load-time measurements Social reports (including on backlinkURLs) Mobile reports Flow map visualizations and Content experiments The additions to Googl [...]

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If you are serious about measuring social media, here are seven pitfalls that can lead you down the dark path to frustration and failure (and perhaps to the unemployment line): Low Hanging Fruit Basic social media metrics are readily available, easy to get and generally cheap (or free).  But if you are serious about measurement, you’ll have to break a sweat and stretch beyond simple metrics that serve as “gain” indicators (traffic, buzz volume, fans, etc.). It isn’t that “gain” metrics don’t have value -- they serve as useful pieces of important calculations. But by themsel [...]

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In many ways, being effective online means paying attention to the things that matter. That recipe includes conversion, and analytics, and metrics -- important ingredients, all -- but it also means using your brain to pay attention, as a human, to what your customer, another human, needs. Waitresses are great at this. And as far as I can tell, the over-worked ones at diners and dives often have the best 6th-sense for how to handle a customer. When it comes to your restaurant (your website) and your hungry patrons (your customers), and your waitress (uh, YOU!), answer me this: "Would you [...]

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In less than a decade, mobile computing has emerged onto the technology landscape as a force to be reckoned with. According to Gartner, smartphone shipments reached 472 million units in 2011, propelled by record setting success of the iPhone and Android devices. Market research firm NPD DisplaySearch reported similarly impressive figures for tablet sales in 2011, which approached 75 million units; an annualized growth rate of over 250%. The high volume of mobile device shipments is indicative of a larger trend -- the behavioral patterns in consumer web browsing and interconnectivity a [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Mobile Marketing

The Google Analytics team announced at Google I/O a new App Analytics functionality, to be added to the current Google Analytics offering over the coming weeks. Google already offers mobile SDKs for Android and for iOS, but until now they provided the same reports and metrics as the standard Web Analytics. In the new functionality Google adapted its whole mobile solution to the App experience, providing additional reports and metrics for App owners and developers. In addition, they adjusted the registration flow to make it more streamlined for App developers. "Our goal with the new Mobile A [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Google: Android | Google: Google Play | Mobile Marketing | Top News

A new metric appeared on the pages report on Google Analytics recently. The pages report provides basic information for each page viewed on websites. It shows the number of times a page was viewed, how long (in average) visitors stayed on the page, what is the Bounce Rate of the page and what percentage of visitors left the website through a specific page (direct link to report). However, since yesterday we started seeing a new column: Entrances. This metric tells us how many of the visits to a specific page were also the first page seen in the session. Bounce Rates are calculated as vi [...]

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Social networks are unique in that they facilitate interaction with consumers in a common language and culture native to the platform. These channels enable the creation and organic spread of magnetic content that attracts rather than distracts a consumer in a participatory mindset. For brands, every Tweet, Like, or share is an opportunity to respond in real-time, amplifying positive sentiment or shifting negative perception. Promoted  Tweets and sponsored stories are accessible to consumers in the social context because they are in their native language. Companies like Intel [...]

Related Topics: Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Facebook | Social Media Marketing | Twitter: Marketing

(Full Disclosure:  The author’s company sells a social media measurement product) At least once a week I run across an article or blog post about tools for measuring social media. Headlines like “5 Social Media Measurement Tools That Save Time and Money” or “Six Free Social Media Measurement Tools for B2B” have become as common as graduation parties in June. While it is encouraging to see so many measurement options emerging, the wide range of products in this space can be confusing. Part of the problem is that the term “social media measurement” is used to describe tools [...]

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