The site was developed to be appealing to the international audience. When I got to Screen Resolutions I noticed that the major group of visitors who were accessing the site used screen resolution of 800X600 pixels, or as you already guessed, mostly 15-inch monitors. But there was not a single monitor of that size at the company which owned the web site. When I opened the site in my own spare 15-inch monitor that I keep for the testing purposes, I was appalled at the ugly view of web pages. It was a completed chaos, because the developers did not take into consideration the needs of Internet visitors.
Naturally, after I reported my findings everything was corrected. And after a while the bounce rate went down. I also learned an important lesson that Screen Resolutions metric can be invaluable when you try to fulfill the concept of the user-friendly web site.
I was going to finish my article on this note but then remembered another useful thing that this metric can help you with. It is a hint. If you see that a lot of visitors who access the site have lower than 800X600 resolution, that might mean that searchers with mobile devices are coming to your web site. So be prepared to launch a site version that is compatible with these mobile devices, like cell phones.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
There is an interesting metric in Google Analytics
There is an interesting metric in Google Analytics and similar web analytics software. Web analysts tend to pass it over but this metric will give you an interesting insight into the world of your Internet visitors. In Google Analytics this metric is called Screen Resolutions. You can get to it if you click on Visitors and then Browser Capabilities.
I have an interesting story to tell about this metric. Not so long ago my fellow analyst asked me to help him conduct the analysis of the site with the declining traffic. It looked quite bizarre to my colleague because the site was recently launched into production, it had all great keywords and leading search engines indexed each and every page that they could find.
Visually that web site looked nice too. Maybe, designers made it too colorful to my taste, but that site was oriented on young audience and had all possible bells and whistles and link baiting hooks that anybody could ask for.
The launching was announced on many prominent blogs and link building campaign seemed to be successful too. Yet, after a while the bounce rate started to rise until it reached whopping ninety percent. Naturally, the in house SEO specialist conducted all kinds of tests but could not find any faults with the site except for minor things here and there that were fixed instantly. But all these measure did not help.
I agreed to help the guys and noticed that my colleagues researched thoroughly almost every bit of stats. Almost but not all ... They forgot to look at this metric that I was talking about in the beginning of my article – Screen Resolutions.
Read more ...
I have an interesting story to tell about this metric. Not so long ago my fellow analyst asked me to help him conduct the analysis of the site with the declining traffic. It looked quite bizarre to my colleague because the site was recently launched into production, it had all great keywords and leading search engines indexed each and every page that they could find.
Visually that web site looked nice too. Maybe, designers made it too colorful to my taste, but that site was oriented on young audience and had all possible bells and whistles and link baiting hooks that anybody could ask for.
The launching was announced on many prominent blogs and link building campaign seemed to be successful too. Yet, after a while the bounce rate started to rise until it reached whopping ninety percent. Naturally, the in house SEO specialist conducted all kinds of tests but could not find any faults with the site except for minor things here and there that were fixed instantly. But all these measure did not help.
I agreed to help the guys and noticed that my colleagues researched thoroughly almost every bit of stats. Almost but not all ... They forgot to look at this metric that I was talking about in the beginning of my article – Screen Resolutions.
Read more ...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Some of the spam comes with the solicitation in SEO area
As any other company we receive piles of junk mail. There is nothing new about it except for one peculiar thing. Some of the spam comes with the solicitation in SEO area.
Our organization has great reputation as a seasoned web analytics and SEO company, yet the solicitations from different countries come for the same services that we provide. This just shows me that the spammers just are doing blast after blast from their compiled e-mail list and don't care who is getting the letter. The promises to build a company to the top range from simple search engine submission to link building campaigns, seo web design, on site optimization and the like. There is even one weird company that sends us weekly letters about monitoring our web servers.
There are also blog spammers, of course, who try to do the link and keyword stuffing into this working blog. I am really flattered but we don't need their "comments" either. Their IP addresses are visible and the abundance of information who they are can be resolved by any good systems analyst.
I am not really judging anybody. But the question still bugs me, though. Do they think that they will get any kind of work through their e-mail blasts? Is there any fool who would look at one of those letters and would want to sign with them risking to breach the security of his company, open his code and, possibly, get penalized by leading search engines? I wish we could have some stats on these issues.
Recently, I read a lot of online discussions on the lack of qualified people in our field. So it saddens me, that good beginnings and positive steps in SEO are being diluted by the spammers, who taint our efforts in this field. We would not want any business owner fall into this trap due to his trusting nature.
Our organization has great reputation as a seasoned web analytics and SEO company, yet the solicitations from different countries come for the same services that we provide. This just shows me that the spammers just are doing blast after blast from their compiled e-mail list and don't care who is getting the letter. The promises to build a company to the top range from simple search engine submission to link building campaigns, seo web design, on site optimization and the like. There is even one weird company that sends us weekly letters about monitoring our web servers.
There are also blog spammers, of course, who try to do the link and keyword stuffing into this working blog. I am really flattered but we don't need their "comments" either. Their IP addresses are visible and the abundance of information who they are can be resolved by any good systems analyst.
I am not really judging anybody. But the question still bugs me, though. Do they think that they will get any kind of work through their e-mail blasts? Is there any fool who would look at one of those letters and would want to sign with them risking to breach the security of his company, open his code and, possibly, get penalized by leading search engines? I wish we could have some stats on these issues.
Recently, I read a lot of online discussions on the lack of qualified people in our field. So it saddens me, that good beginnings and positive steps in SEO are being diluted by the spammers, who taint our efforts in this field. We would not want any business owner fall into this trap due to his trusting nature.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
All additional advantages
I attach to this principle a lot of importance because unlike big corporations who hire in droves web analysts, copywriters, editors and the like, and spend humongous piles of money on pay per click campaigns, all responsibilities related to the ability to reach up the masses online, statistical calculations and web analytics itself fall into the lap of SEO specialist. Personally, I think, that this is the wrong name for this job, but, obviously nobody found any better title.
It is really tough to be the leading in-house SEO specialist because his ass is always on the line, thus the pressure never really goes away. This pressure increases even when the guy successfully pushes forward the business that he is working for, because the company feels that it needs to expand and assemble a team of people who would push up the productivity. Overall, I’ve never met an in-house online marketer who was not looking deadly tired or constantly overwhelmed.
Yet, in a year or so, this SEO professional becomes invaluable for the small business because he acquires so much powerful knowledge and expertise in the required industry, that he can complete some of the most challenging and daunting tasks with closed eyes. In this case, one of the main tasks of the small business owner becomes the necessity to create the most comfortable working conditions and highly rewarding pivotal position in the company’s future. This policy will pay off and is going to be smart investment, if the company plans to stay and grow in its online business.
I did not mention all additional advantages of hiring an in-house SEO specialist, because many of you can fill up the blanks yourselves without my help. Anyways, having somebody who can analyze and explain why things are happening on Internet and fix the problems directly presents more opportunities than turning to the outsourcing company for solutions. This still does not mean that outsourcing firms can not co-exist with an in-house online marketer but I will get into the subject deeper in my future blog entries.
It is really tough to be the leading in-house SEO specialist because his ass is always on the line, thus the pressure never really goes away. This pressure increases even when the guy successfully pushes forward the business that he is working for, because the company feels that it needs to expand and assemble a team of people who would push up the productivity. Overall, I’ve never met an in-house online marketer who was not looking deadly tired or constantly overwhelmed.
Yet, in a year or so, this SEO professional becomes invaluable for the small business because he acquires so much powerful knowledge and expertise in the required industry, that he can complete some of the most challenging and daunting tasks with closed eyes. In this case, one of the main tasks of the small business owner becomes the necessity to create the most comfortable working conditions and highly rewarding pivotal position in the company’s future. This policy will pay off and is going to be smart investment, if the company plans to stay and grow in its online business.
I did not mention all additional advantages of hiring an in-house SEO specialist, because many of you can fill up the blanks yourselves without my help. Anyways, having somebody who can analyze and explain why things are happening on Internet and fix the problems directly presents more opportunities than turning to the outsourcing company for solutions. This still does not mean that outsourcing firms can not co-exist with an in-house online marketer but I will get into the subject deeper in my future blog entries.
Friday, July 15, 2011
The ability of deep thinking and analysis of situation
I am observing a lot of discussions in articles, online and even in the books dedicated to SEO and web analytics. It seems that small business owners are searching for some sort of a definite answer to the question that bothers them. And the question is the following: should they hire an in-house SEO specialist or find a hundred percent outsourcing solution to all their SEO problems.
To put it simply, there is no easy answer to this question. In my personal opinion, a small business company should hire an in-house specialist, especially if their business is completely Internet driven. Unfortunately for the small business owners, they can not find enough qualified people to hire. There is an extraordinary lack of search personnel.
This does not surprise me at all, because the SEO specialist in the company has to have deep knowledge in many disciplines, great intuition and a lot of other qualities that I will discuss in my future blog entries. And even when they find such a person, in most cases, employers want to work, according to the principle "if Charlie is here – Charilie is working".
I think, if you want to kill any spark of creativity in an SEO specialist, you will be treating as a 9-to-5 employee. The ability of deep thinking and analysis of situation usually does not thrive in a dusty old office or a cubicle. And the work for an online marketer does not end in the office, as you know it. It does not matter where your SEO professional is as long as your business gets the results. So the aforementioned business principle should change to the following one: "if Charlie is delivering the results – Charlie is working".
Read more ...
To put it simply, there is no easy answer to this question. In my personal opinion, a small business company should hire an in-house specialist, especially if their business is completely Internet driven. Unfortunately for the small business owners, they can not find enough qualified people to hire. There is an extraordinary lack of search personnel.
This does not surprise me at all, because the SEO specialist in the company has to have deep knowledge in many disciplines, great intuition and a lot of other qualities that I will discuss in my future blog entries. And even when they find such a person, in most cases, employers want to work, according to the principle "if Charlie is here – Charilie is working".
I think, if you want to kill any spark of creativity in an SEO specialist, you will be treating as a 9-to-5 employee. The ability of deep thinking and analysis of situation usually does not thrive in a dusty old office or a cubicle. And the work for an online marketer does not end in the office, as you know it. It does not matter where your SEO professional is as long as your business gets the results. So the aforementioned business principle should change to the following one: "if Charlie is delivering the results – Charlie is working".
Read more ...
Friday, June 10, 2011
Bounce Rate metric for your web analysis
Let's take a look at another drawback. If somebody arrives directly on your landing page from other website, sees a link to another external website that you recommend visiting and clicks on it before the session timeout - a bounce will also happen.
There are so many other cases when the bounce is registered that you can not even imagine. If you are a seasoned Internet power user or even a regular surfer and you leave the page by typing directly URL in your browser and leaving that page ... You guessed right - a bounce will definitely happen. Or if you closed the tab or shut down your browser while surfing - that site will get a bounce for sure. Many of us are still prone to using "Back" button on the browser, this also may cause a bounce as well.
All mentioned above still does not mean that you should not use Bounce Rate metric for your web analysis. All web traffic metrics have their drawbacks and shortcomings. I will try to tell about them in my future blog entries. It just means that you, as a web analyst or search engine marketer should be aware of the side effects and take them into consideration right from the start when you create SEO web design, during the development of the site, etc.
Evidently, the best way of dealing with side effect is to pro actively work on segmentation of your web traffic. Then you will understand better why potential clients came to your site but did not engage and left. If you value your web traffic, you will use segmentation in combination with bounce rate for everything: referring sites, pay per click campaigns and top pages.
There are so many other cases when the bounce is registered that you can not even imagine. If you are a seasoned Internet power user or even a regular surfer and you leave the page by typing directly URL in your browser and leaving that page ... You guessed right - a bounce will definitely happen. Or if you closed the tab or shut down your browser while surfing - that site will get a bounce for sure. Many of us are still prone to using "Back" button on the browser, this also may cause a bounce as well.
All mentioned above still does not mean that you should not use Bounce Rate metric for your web analysis. All web traffic metrics have their drawbacks and shortcomings. I will try to tell about them in my future blog entries. It just means that you, as a web analyst or search engine marketer should be aware of the side effects and take them into consideration right from the start when you create SEO web design, during the development of the site, etc.
Evidently, the best way of dealing with side effect is to pro actively work on segmentation of your web traffic. Then you will understand better why potential clients came to your site but did not engage and left. If you value your web traffic, you will use segmentation in combination with bounce rate for everything: referring sites, pay per click campaigns and top pages.
Friday, May 20, 2011
There are many factors
In the previous two blog entries I was telling you how useful and invaluable Bounce Rate metric was and how you can utilize it for figuring out what kind of problems exist on your landing pages.
It is true, this metric is great but not everything is so peachy as it seems. There are some drawbacks as well. One of the reasons is that web analytics is not precise science and it is still at its infancy. There are many factors that can have impact on Bounce Rate metric. This still does not mean that you should not use it in your calculations, just keep in mind that this metric can have some "side effects".
The bounce usually occurs when the Internet visitor leaves the web page or a site before the session timeout takes place. Regularly the session timeout happens after thirty seconds, but we don’t really know the minimum or maximum time that the visitor spends on the page before this session timeout. Some web analytics specialists mention 10 seconds, other web analytics name 12 seconds, and the rest raises it up to 29 seconds.
This seems easy, isn't it? If an internet visitor left after some twelve seconds the bounce will occur. But what if you surfed to some certain web page, and then somebody called you and you left your browser open on that very page for, let's say a minute or so? This happens to many of us on daily basis. Well, the sad fact is that in this case the bounce will also be registered by Google Analytics or Urchin or any other similar software.
Read more ...
It is true, this metric is great but not everything is so peachy as it seems. There are some drawbacks as well. One of the reasons is that web analytics is not precise science and it is still at its infancy. There are many factors that can have impact on Bounce Rate metric. This still does not mean that you should not use it in your calculations, just keep in mind that this metric can have some "side effects".
The bounce usually occurs when the Internet visitor leaves the web page or a site before the session timeout takes place. Regularly the session timeout happens after thirty seconds, but we don’t really know the minimum or maximum time that the visitor spends on the page before this session timeout. Some web analytics specialists mention 10 seconds, other web analytics name 12 seconds, and the rest raises it up to 29 seconds.
This seems easy, isn't it? If an internet visitor left after some twelve seconds the bounce will occur. But what if you surfed to some certain web page, and then somebody called you and you left your browser open on that very page for, let's say a minute or so? This happens to many of us on daily basis. Well, the sad fact is that in this case the bounce will also be registered by Google Analytics or Urchin or any other similar software.
Read more ...
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