Yahoo! Web Analytics E-Book

Dennis R. Mortensen

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 450

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Yahoo! Web Analytics teaches readers how to collect data, report on that data, and derive useful insights using Yahoo!'s free Web analytics tool . This detailed resource from Yahoo!'s Director of Data Insights discusses the why of Web analytics as well as the how while revealing secrets and tricks not documented elsewhere. The thorough book also offers step-by-step instructions and advanced techniques on everything from using data collection groupings to creating compelling data visualizations. It's a must-read for all analytics professionals and those who want to be.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Foreword

Introduction

Who Should Read This Book?

Book Companion Websites

Contacting the Author

I - Advanced Web Analytics Installation

Chapter 1 - Getting Started

Competing on Analytics

Preinstallation Steps

Basic Installation

Data Collection Grouping

Adding and Managing Projects

Tracking Script Customization

Chapter 2 - Content and Advanced Conversion Tracking

Document Names

Document Groups

Track Downloads

Tracking Exit Links

Tracking Registered Members

Tracking Conversion Actions

Track Revenue

Creating Scenarios for Funnel Analysis

Chapter 3 - Enterprise Campaign Tracking

Types of Campaigns

Paid Search Setup

Creating and Managing Campaign Categories

Identifying Campaigns

Setting Up New Campaigns

Setting Up a Fallback Campaign

Example Paid Search Deployment

Internal Campaigns

Chapter 4 - Merchandising Tracking and Reporting

Merchandising Basics

Setting Up Merchandising Tracking

Tracking Products Viewed

Tracking Products Added to the Cart

Track Pending Sales and Reconciling Orders

Tracking Products Purchased

Tracking Discount, Tax, and Shipping

Setting Up Merchandising Categories

Merchandising Setup Tips

Chapter 5 - Advanced Instrumentation

Tracking Custom Fields

Tracking Internal Searches

Instrumentation for Flash-Based Objects

Instrumentation for Ajax-Based Objects

Setting Up External Data Sources

Validating Your Code

II - Utilizing an Enterprise Web Analytics Platform

Chapter 6 - Working with Report Results

What to Expect from a Report

A Traditional Reporting Interface

Using Calendars for Time Period Reporting

Using Cross-Reference Filters

Using Drill-downs and Drill-throughs

Sorting Report Results

Color-Coding Data

Applying Report Notes and Reasoning

Exporting Data

Chapter 7 - Customizing Report Results

Using Metric Alerts

Event Management

Using Scheduled Reports

Building Custom Reports

Bookmarking Reports

Using Segments in Reporting

User Rights and Role Administration

Chapter 8 - Using Basic Reports as Templates for Customization

Visit Reports

Demographics Reports

Content Reports

Navigation Reports

Search Engines and Referrers Reports

Conversion Reports

System Reports

Chapter 9 - Using Dashboards

Defining a Dashboard

Adding a New Dashboard

Adding New Dashboard Items

Understanding Dashboard Items

Chapter 10 - Distinctive Reports and Usage

Understanding Path Analysis

Using Scenarios for Funnel Analysis

Merchandising Reports

Using Campaign Reports

Using Internal Search Reports

III - Actionable Insights

Chapter 11 - Paid Search Analysis and Optimization

Defining Paid Search Objectives

Getting Started with Paid Search Analysis

Detailed Paid Search Reporting

Optimizing Paid Search for an E-commerce Site

Optimizing Paid Search for a Content Site

Balancing Paid Search with Organic Search

Chapter 12 - Form Analysis and Optimization

Form Analysis and Form Actions

Form Abandonment

Form Page Optimization

Form Submit Optimization

Chapter 13 - Content Optimization and Competitive Analysis

Using the Long Tail for Keyword Optimization

Using the Long Tail for Content Optimization

Determining the Width of Your Internal Search Query Box

Optimizing Content for Search- and Navigation-Dominant Visitors

Using Competitive Intelligence

A - Appendix: Yahoo! Web Analytics Web Services API

Index

Advance Praise for Yahoo! Web Analytics

In Yahoo! Web Analytics Dennis Mortensen manages to do the impossible by adding real value to ourknowledge of web analytics in an already crowded market. His clear language and excellent examplesmake this book required reading for any web analytics practitioner interested in extending his use offreely-available tools. Dennis is one of the best and brightest in the web analytics industry, and Yahoo! Web Analytics reinforces that with every page.

—ERIC T. PETERSON, author of Web Analytics Demystified

Dennis doesn’t just know what he’s talking about, he’s built it, grown it, consulted on it, and sold it toYahoo! Now—finally—he’s written the book. Don’t let Dennis’s smile and positive attitude fool you—he has the proverbial steel-trap mind and doesn’t miss a thing. You get the advantage of his insight, hiswisdom, and his unerring ability to tell it like it is. He can explain the “why” of web analytics verywell but is stellar at showing you the “how.” Specific variable settings, actual conversion tracking, andgetting the most out of your search marketing dollar—it’s all here. If you want to actually derive valuefrom these tools rather than just look at the pretty reports, Dennis lays it all out. This is a book you cancount on.

—JIM STERNE, Founder, eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit

Web analytics is complex, but Dennis prefers things to be simple. As the individual who drove the initialdevelopment of Yahoo!’s Web Analytics tool, he managed to conquer mind-numbingly complexissues by presenting them in a simple and useful way. It’s no wonder that he did it again with his Yahoo!Web Analytics book. Dennis takes you behind the scenes of this robust web analytics application andexplains how to implement it in just about every situation so that you get what you need out of this tool.Whether you use the Yahoo! Web Analytics or not, this book belongs on any serious web analytics professional’s desk.

—BRYAN EISENBERG, New York Times bestselling author of Call to Action and Always Be Testing, cofounder of FutureNow, Inc.

As insightful as it is inspiring, this is the definitive book for making the most out of Yahoo! Web Analytics.It is a guiding light for navigating the solution’s capabilities and detailed enough to be a step-by-stepguide. And who better than Dennis to write it! It is clear that Dennis has poured his experience fromuncountable numbers of client conversations into this work. It is worth the equivalent of 100 hours ofconsulting from the well-known figurehead behind Yahoo! Web Analytics.

—AKIN ARIKAN, Multichannel Marketing author and Internet marketing product strategist at Unica Corporation

In Yahoo! Web Analytics, Mortensen does more than just give insight, tips, and tricks about the tool—he provides the details about the impact Yahoo! Web Analytics can have on your business with a laser-like focus on moving from data to true business insight and action. It’s a must-read for those interested in not only web analytics, but for those interested in improving their business online!

—JASON BURBY, Chief Analytics & Optimization Officer, ZAAZ, and coauthor of Actionable Web Analytics

Measurement, testing, and constant improvement are at the heart of all successful online marketing campaigns. This book is a detailed and practical guide to using Yahoo! Web Analytics to turbo-charge your business performance. Dennis is eminently qualified to be your guide—he was instrumental in building the software. Get the book before your competitors do!

—TIM ASH, CEO of SiteTuners.com and bestselling author of Landing Page Optimization

Senior Acquisitions Editor: WILLEM KNIBBE Development Editor: SUSAN HERMAN Technical Editor: MIHAELA POPA Production Editor: DASSI ZEIDEL Copy Editor: LIZ WELCH Production Manager: TIM TATE Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: RICHARD SWADLEY Vice President and Publisher: NEIL EDDE Book Designer: FRANZ BAUMHACKL Compositor: CHRIS GILLESPIE, HAPPENSTANCE TYPE-O-RAMA Proofreader: KATHY POPE, WORD ONE NEW YORK Indexer: TED LAUX Project Coordinator, Cover: LYNSEY STANFORD Cover Designer: RYAN SNEED Cover Image: ISTOCKPHOTO

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-42424-7

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mortensen, Dennis R., 1972-

Yahoo! Web analytics : tracking, reporting, and analyzing for data-driven insights / Dennis R. Mortensen.

p. cm.

1. Yahoo! Web analytics. 2. Web usage mining—Computer programs. 3. Internet users—Statistics—Data processing.

4. Web sites—Statisics—Data processing. 5. Consumer preferences—Data processing. I. Title.

TK5105.885.Y34M67 2009

006.7—dc22

2009009722

TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Yahoo! is a registered trademark of Yahoo, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Yahoo! Web Analytics. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than thirty years later, we’re still committed to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected], or if you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex.

Best regards,

Neil Edde

Vice President and Publisher

Sybex, an imprint of Wiley

Acknowledgments

For me, writing a book goes like this. I wake up early Saturday morning and wobble out to the kitchen. I fix bowls of cereal for the girls, who’ve been up for hours for some reason, hit the shower, and get ready for work—writing another chapter.

We’ll put on our jeans and T-shirts, stumble out the door as soon as we can, and on most days, stop by Murray’s Bagels and get some supplies—which include the obligatory Red Bull for me.

Then it’s off to the Yahoo! 18th Street office, where we spend the entire Saturday working before heading home late in the evening. Lather, rinse, and repeat for 5 months.

And finally I can email the final chapter to the amazing people at Wiley!

And for this, I would like to thank Elisabeth, Victoria, and Vibeke for their lovely support.

To everybody else, and you know exactly who you are, thank you so much for your wonderful support in everything I do and in making this book a reality. I would hate to mention anybody by name in danger of actually forgetting some. That wouldn’t be fair!

Cheers :-)

Dennis

About the Author

Dennis R. Mortensen is a pioneer and expert in the web analytics industry. He is an accredited associate web analytics instructor at the University of British Columbia and a frequent speaker on the subject of analytics and online marketing. Mortensen is an entrepreneur and was the COO of IndexTools until it was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. in May 2008. Today he is Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and sits on the board of directors at the Web Analytics Association. He maintains the highly popular analytics blog, VisualRevenue.com/blog.

Foreword

Several years ago, when I was the director of analytics and research at Intuit, I had postulated the 10/90 rule. Simply put, it stated that if you had a budget of $100 (or dinars or rupees or pesos) for online decision making, then you should spend $10 on the web analytics tool and spend $90 on people (the “planet-sized brains” part of the equation).

The rule was derived from my own experience. I had access to a world-class (translation: expensive!) web analytics tool. It was producing 200 reports—all kinds of things were tagged and tracked and hugged. Yet there was very little to show in terms of actionable insights.

The problem, it turns out, was that the tool was simply puking data out. There were finite resources (translation: analysts) available to make sense of the data, and online marketers were simply not able to understand much from the 200 reports. The result? Not much.

Following a deliberative shift in strategy that involved purchasing a significantly cheaper tool (translation: it would not help you into your underwear each day but did give you all the data you needed) and investing in analysts—people who could take that data, make sense of it, and translate it into implementable business actions—the results were impressive.

Fast-forward to today and one important part of the 10/90 rule, the tools part, is not an issue anymore.

You can still buy and find valid productive uses for paid web analytics tools. But they are not mandatory.

You can use completely free world-class web analytics tools from Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, and others. You can now take your precious budget and focus it all on the big planet-sized brains part.

What this translates into is your chance to be data rich and analysis rich as well!

Yes, yes, I see you jumping up and down saying access to tools, even free ones, is not enough. You are absolutely right.

Web analysis is not free. Your delightful people with planet-sized brains need training and coaching. You’ll still have to “smartify” your online marketers.

My good friend Dennis Mortensen to the rescue!

This book is going to be your starting point and a constant companion on the journey to making sense of all that data you now have access to from your Yahoo! Web Analytics tool.

I have known Dennis for a number of years now. He is smart. He is supremely knowledgeable about online marketing and decision making. He has deep hands-on experience in the world of web analytics (not just pontificating about it but actually rolling up his sleeves and getting jiggy with the data).

He is uniquely qualified to write this book, thanks to him being at IndexTools since its inception.

This book covers the length and depth and breadth of Yahoo! Web Analytics. Chapters 1 and 2 will get you going with all the right buttons to press, and before the end of first part of the book, your website will be lit up like the glorious Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City, to produce all the data, accurately, that you’ll need.

But of course that is the start of the glory. Reports, segmentation, templates, and customizable dashboards await you. Never again will you produce a dashboard that gets on the “auto delete” list!

Once there you’ll want to forsake sleep completely until you finish the book because search analysis and optimization is as awesome as it sounds. Understanding the value of your content and being truly customer-centric will be well within your grasp.

This book will ensure that your web analysts get off to a flying start and stay smart as they dig deeper into the tool to leverage all the power that lies within. They’ll be able to create custom segments and cross-tabulate data with unique reports (just as I have been doing for the three years that I have been using IndexTools).

I am excited that you have purchased this book. I know you are going to have a ton of fun learning about web analytics. I am positive that by the time you are done with the book, you’ll agree with me that analysis is sexycool.

To infinity and beyond!

AVINASH KAUSHIK

Analytics evangelist and author

Mountain View, CA.

Introduction

My goal is to take you through how you should approach analytics, and in this book we mainly use the application Yahoo! Web Analytics. You will become a true expert in this application by the end of this book. My philosophy is that you should focus on three different but equally important tasks. I have divided the book into three parts to reflect these broad tasks.

Part I, “Advanced Web Analytics Installation,” consists of Chapters 1 through 5. The focus is on data collection.

True competitive advantage in web marketing comes from collecting the right data, but also, and no less important, from configuring your web analytics tool in such a way that you can derive insight from the data. Part 1 features detailed code examples that webmasters or developers can apply directly. Marketing people and executives will learn the opportunities they can demand from this tool.

I also show you how to add reporting dimensions to the predefined report structures for fantastic filtering and segmentation opportunities.

Part II, “Utilizing an Enterprise Web Analytics Platform,” encompasses Chapters 6 through 10, where we focus on reports.

Creating reports is an easy feat, but remember that reports are never better than the data you collect. You need an exceedingly good understanding of how to work with your data.

Part II is less technical than the first part. In it I’ll teach you to use your reporting toolbox to provide targeted answers to specific questions, such as “How much revenue did we make from first-time organic search visitors from Canada last week?” For this and many other questions you’ll encounter, there is no standard report, but you will know how to get this answer and hundreds of others when you’re through with this section.

Part III, “Actionable Insights,” encompasses Chapters 11 through 13 and focuses on how to take action on your data to optimize your web property. Having gone through the effort of implementing the data collection and reporting strategies in Parts 1 and 2, you will have gained enough insight to start an optimization process.

Part III introduces you to optimization using a set of actionable insights. This is merely an appetizer, and the handful of optimizations I present are not, by any means, the only ones you can pursue. But the ideas and attitude behind them can most definitely be copied and carry you down other optimization avenues. Think of this section as an idea catalog. One of the most important questions I tackle in this section is paid search optimization. Always keep your eyes on the money, eh?

Who Should Read This Book?

Anybody interested in web analytics on a detailed level should read this book, in particular if you want to use analytics for website optimization. In my world, that includes people in the following professions: website developers and engineers who are responsible for setting up web analytics; sales and marketing people who are eager to know what they can expect from analytics at this level; and finally, my fellow web analytics and optimization experts who want a fresh angle on how to optimize their websites and truly gain a competitive advantage.

You don’t necessarily have to be a Yahoo! Web Analytics user or client to appreciate this book. However, general knowledge about website management and online marketing is a great benefit. This book does not cover the inner workings of analytics from an IT architectural point of view.

Book Companion Websites

While reading the book and once you have finished it, you are more than welcome to continue your web analytics journey online.

I maintain an active web analytics and online marketing blog, which I will update with features new to Yahoo! Web Analytics as they arrive, new reports as they are introduced, and optimization tips as they come along:

Blog: http://visualrevenue.com/blog/Book: http://visualrevenue.com/blog/yahoo-analytics-book

Contacting the Author

If you have questions, feedback, or critique, I am eager to hear from you. You can reach me through the blog mentioned earlier, but also through these social media destinations:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennismortensenhttp://www.facebook.com/people/Dennis-R-Mortensen/571491680http://twitter.com/dennismortensen

And you are always welcome to email me directly at [email protected].

I

Advanced Web Analytics Installation

Yahoo! Web Analytics uses a browser-based system to identify and track visitors through your website. It is able to pinpoint details about visitors, such as where they go and what they do while on your website. Part I of this book is intended to help you identify the successful elements of your web property. You will learn to assign costs to any type of marketing campaign, allowing you to measure return on your ad spending and other metrics. You will also learn how to add reporting dimensions to the predefined report structures for fantastic filtering and segmentation opportunities later.

1

Getting Started

True competitive advantage in web marketing comes from collecting the right data, but also, and no less important, configuring your web analytics tool in such a way that you get an opportunity to derive insight from the data. In this chapter you will learn how to install Yahoo! Web Analytics and manage projects. You will see examples of data collection grouping such as vertical and horizontal segmentation. Finally, you will learn what a tracking script is and how its data collection flexibility opens opportunities for reporting and analysis.

Competing on Analytics

I am not the one to lecture you about the importance of web analytics or how it works. Since you are reading this book, I expect that you already know the importance and value of using analytics in your business. Instead, I aim to show you how to create a situation where you are able to compete on analytics; that is, to gain a competitive advantage using web analytics. For this to happen, you are simply forced to do more sophisticated analysis than just looking at reports about the number of page views or the number of visits on your web properties, an activity also known as report surfing.

Note: Report surfing, where one looks at reports without a clear agenda, is not only unfortunate web analytics tool-usage behavior, it is one of the greatest sins a web analytics practitioner can do. The phenomenon and a solution suggestion are debated here: http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2007/09/web-analytics-report-surfing-and-how-to.html.

To compete on analytics, you need a sophisticated data collection strategy, because you cannot analyze data that you have not collected. It is that simple. You cannot collect too much data on the behavior of your visitors. You can present and report on too much data, but that is a debate we will undertake in Part II of this book, “Utilizing an Enterprise Web Analytics Platform.”