May
30
The Changing Face Of Google
Filed Under Google Updates | 7 Comments
Google is now rolling out it’s latest update called Universal Search. While this is one of the most important changes to the SERP’s in years, there is no reason to panic! If you are like me, your site has an active Web 2.0 marketing plan. The inclusion of more prominently displayed news and other related media results will be a big plus to sites that include Social Network Marketing applications like WordPress.
Google’s Universal Search Explained
Google SERP’s are now beginning to present results to users of its main Web search engine, including images, video clips, book information, news headlines and local business (through Google Maps).
Google said the change, which it calls “universal search,” required a multiyear effort to update it’s technical infrastructure and the algorithms it uses to rank and display their search results. Google’s move comes as other Internet Search Engines such as ASK, Windows Live and Yahoo are also working on changes to their functionality, including adding different types of information into the SERPS. In my article Website Usability and Search Engine Optimization I describe a little about Google’s new action plan.
If you take into consideration the focus that Google is putting on personalized search and incorporate Universal Search into that business model, the results are startling. It is obvious that Google is fully committed to being a one stop Internet shop for everything that a user needs. The promotion of Google Base and Google Checkout is more evidence that Google doesn’t expect users to need to go anywhere else. By gathering as much information about the way average users behave is the backbone of Universal Search.
Google is taking the data it gathers through personal search and the Google Toolbar and applying the results into Universal Search. A lot of people are complaining over privacy issues and the sheer amount of data that Google is gathering, as well as the tight lipped manner in which Google uses that data. I personally have found my search experience is much better when signed in to personal search. Google has seen the patterns of sites I click on and is doing a better job of putting relevant sites in front of me.
How Universal Search Effects Website Owners
How do these changes effect you and your site? If you are a service or information site that doesn’t sell goods and products then you absolutely must have a blog or other dynamic content system. I am seeing sites that are 10 years old and industry leaders falling down the SERPS and being replaced by 1 and 2 year old blogs! I use WordPress as my content management system and prefer that it is added as an extension to an existing domain. This make the domain itself a publisher.
If you have an e-commerce site, then Google Base and Google Checkout is the way to go. The thing you have to keep in mind about Google Base is you really should use the API to submit your product info. A spreadsheet might be a short term solution, but if you don’t keep it updated, you have the chance of your store being ousted every 45 days. Like Froogle, Google Base requires that stores keep their content and products fresh and updated.
In conclusion Universal Search is going to greatly assist users in finding relevant information about the topics they are interested in. From a standpoint of a publisher it will mean that you will have to keep your site fresh and dynamic to stay in the SERPS as a relevant source or an authority on any given subject.
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May
10
Website Analytics: Understanding Basic Web Site Statistics
Filed Under Website Analytics | 2 Comments
A couple of weeks ago I posted an article on Website Analytics An Overview Of Traffic Statistics which was a pretty basic post about traffic stats. I have gotten a ton of emails from people who want to know more about analytics, how they work and why they are so important.
I want to take a second to let everyone know that while I appreciate emails and questions, it would do everyone a favor if questions were posted as comments on the blog post. This helps keep everything organized and helps me keep my posts fresh in the SERPS. Even though WordPress asks for an email address to comment, I don’t ever SPAM or contact my readers ever. Feel free to leave your questions as comments so everyone can benefit.
Basic Web Analytics - Simple Traffic Statistics
Just about everyone and their mother has a website these days, but most of my readers have a site that one way or another makes money. Whether you sell software or products right from your site or you provide a service and your site generates leads, your site is an important part of your business. In fact the majority of my clients rely solely on their site for income.
If you have a site, you have stats. No matter what platform your site is hosted on, your server tracks your site visitors, where they came from, what type of browser they use, etc. All of these stats can tell you important information. For example by looking at the average screen resolution of your site visitors you can tell if your site is configured properly so users don’t have to do any unnecessary scrolling. Knowing the keywords users typed in to find you can help you build up keyword strategy and build more pages with content that visitors are interested in.
Using A Web Based Analytics Web Traffic Program
While it is true that you could invest a ton of money and get a program like WebTrends which is a very expensive, but powerful suite of tools for analytics, most web site owners can get everything they need out of a tool like Google Analytics. One of the problems with Google Analytics is that there is a limit to how much traffic it will process. While that number is pretty high at 5 million page views per month, if you have an “active” AdSense account there is no limit. What Google considers as active is any one’s guess.
I could devote a whole post to what the difference is between page views, hits, unique visitors and visitors. 5 million page vies a month is a lot of traffic. If your site is getting that much traffic then you can easily fork over the money for an advanced web analytics package.
Google is free, but if you need more features specifically conversion tracking and custom funnels there are paid services like Web Side Story that are also web based. A Web Based tracking system means that you have to install code usually at the very bottom of every page, usually before the </body> tag. The stats are kept on the tracking system’s server.
While Web Side Story is very powerful it is also difficult to configure unless you are a geek like me or you can hire a consultant. Don’t bother trying to get support out of them, they are pretty weak in that area. In fact one of my clients just dumped them due to support issues. I was getting a lot of great data from them, but it would take weeks to get help in setting up the conversion data we needed to track software sales from search engine > keyword typed > entry page > navigation > demo download > eventual purchase.
That last sentence is an example of a conversion funnel. With software it can be days between the demo download to the purchase. This is the primary weakness of Google Analytics, and even to an extent WSS and OneStat. WebTrends and NetTracker rely upon log files which means they can’t give you real time statistics, but because they are server based, they have scripting and cookie services that allow you to plant a tracker on your visitors so you can see a sale days after a download of a demo.
Traffic Statistics Gathering on Windows IIS Server
While it is true that IIS (that is Windows’ webserver) collects stats automatically, you do have to go into your site’s definition file and make sure that all the available stats are being gathered. By default only the most basic visitor stats are collected. A program like Webalizer can take your traffic logs and view the stats in an easy to read format locally on your computer or online through a web interface.
Traffic Statistics Gathering on Apache Linux Web Server
Like many of you I prefer open source web servers. I am an Apache and Red Hat guy and have been for a long time. Systems like WordPress run better in the environment they were meant for. I have ported many an open source system over to the Windows PHP Triad system, and it leaves a lot to be desired.
Apache saves visitor tracking very much like IIS and you also have the option of choosing what stats you want to track. Most of the servers I have set up keep the stats and traffic logs in the default path /etc/httpd/logs/access_log, but I always make a custom location based upon the domain name. Again Webalizer is an easy system to use, but you should see what your hosting provider uses and supports.
Since I have my own servers I have a lot more options than most of my readers. If you are hosting just 1 website you will have to see what your host uses. I don’t know of any hosting company that doesn’t account for web traffic analysis. Even GoDaddy hosting has an OK system.
I will be getting into great detail about web analytics over the next week.
May
1
Website Usability: How Visitors Use The Search Engine Results Pages SERPS
Filed Under Website Usability | 1 Comment
A SERP or Search Engine Results Page is the webpage that shows all the results from a search entered into the engine. If you type in “social network marketing experts” into Google the top 10 websites listed are and the page they are located is a SERP for Social Network Marketing Experts on Google. I have many keywords that are #1 in the results, mainly for localized keywords since I like to meet my clients in person prior to doing business with them. I only work for legitimate businesses and I have to completely understand a business and their marketplace to work my magic.
Visitors Usage of SERPS and What You Can Do About It
Looking through the last 2 years of Usability testing studies I have done, the numbers were quite shocking when it came down to the SERPS. In 89% of all searches the tester did not travel past the first SERP, a little over 9% went to the second SERP, and the number of users that hit the third SERP was so few that it was less than 1%. Since a SERP on Google has 2 or possibly 3 ads at the top and 10 results, it is almost a difference of life and death to be above the fold, the fold being the point where a user has to scroll down to see more of the page. Yahoo is even worse because it has a ton of ads as well as sponsored listings at the top, and I dare say they hide paid placement in the natural searches based upon their Site Submit. This leaves very little in the way of room above the fold in Yahoo.
I have some stats that show about half the users didn’t click on any listings below the fold. I am sorry to say that I wasn’t able to separate out the experienced user from the less experienced user while collecting and processing these facts. I heartily believe that a more experienced user, especially one using Google, will traverse past the fold to find the best match to there query.
Generally a Google SERP only shows 4 or 5 listings above the fold, on high profile keywords, some of the sites show 2 listings, usually the home page and the keyword specific page under it. Another note is on the right side their are usually 6 or 7 ads as well for a visitor to choose from. These facts reinforce the statement that your Title and description are the key to getting clicked on!