Presentation from January 29, 2013. It covers Google Analytics basics, including how it actually works. Then it turns into a giant rant about all the ways in which Analytics data is inaccurate. Finally, we look at how powerful the tool really is with a advanced Analytics trick...

1. Wine & Web
Google Analytics
…Lies and Truth
Andy Crestodina
@crestodina #wineweb

2. Google Analytics
Basics

3. How Google Analytics Works

4. Such lovely reports!

5. Google Analytics: Visitor Flow

6. Traffic Diversity: Social, Email, Search

7. Content: views, time on page, bounces…

8. Social Traffic

9. And as long as you add campaign code…
Source: Google URL Builder

10. Email Traffic: Campaigns

11. Search Traffic

12. Traffic Sources (and diversity)
Healthy!
Risky…

13. Traffic Sources
Search Traffic
Visitors who found you through a search
engine, organic and paid (PPC)
Referral Traffic
Traffic from other websites
Direct Traffic
Visitors who knew about you already and
typed your address directly into a browser

14. …but are they accurate?

15. Google Analytics
Lies!

16. Search Traffic Lies: Brand Keywords
Brand searches may exceed 20%
…isn’t that really “direct” traffic?

17. Search Traffic Lies: Hidden Keyword
Data
(not provided) often exceeds 50%

18. 39% of Organic Keyword Data is (not
provided)
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Source: Search Engine Land, Nov 2012

19. Referral Traffic Lies
• Traffic from your own site?
Link issues (www, http://, full URL in links)
•Traffic from webmail?
Email links when clicked within a browser
• Traffic from social sources?

20. Direct Traffic Lies
All traffic for which a
“referrer” wasn’t specified
So really “direct” traffic is any visit that…
1. isn’t from a link on a search engine
or website
2. and doesn’t have campaign code

21. Direct Traffic Lies
Social traffic Traffic from mobile apps without
campaign code (some twitter
apps, mobile ads)
Email traffic Traffic from programs like Outlook
Other traffic Visits from non-browser files like
PDFs, Word Docs, this Powerpoint or
other files
Campaign traffic Any click from a link containing bad
campaign code
Internal links Traffic from pages with missing GA
Code

22. In-Page Analytics: Lies and Truth
Which link did they click?

23. Crazy Egg doesn’t have this problem…

24. Other Problems
1. No cookie? No data.
2. New visitor? Or new computer?
3. Time on page? Or time on tab?
4. Is that you in your stats? No filters.

25. Is this a problem?

26. Google Analytics
Truth

27. Blog Optimization
Which blog posts convert visitors into subscribers?

28. Subscribers per Blog Post
Reverse Funnel Path with Advanced Filter for “Goal Previous Step 1” set to /blog/
Interesting!

29. Page views per Blog Post
Why do I need this??

30. Subscribers per Page View per Blog Post
Also known as …conversion rate!
#winning

31. Let’s watch that in so-mo…
1. View: Conversions > Goals > Reverse Funnel Path
2. Set Advanced Filter: “Goal Previous Step 1” contains /blog/
1. Sort by “Goal Completions”
2. Export to Excel
3. View: Content > Site Content > All Pages
4. Set Filter: show only /blog/
5. Combine within the spreadsheet to calculate Conversion Rate

32. Now drive some traffic to it!
1. Add links to older posts that still get traffic.
2. Write new posts on similar topics and add a link.
3. Write a roundup of your top posts. Put it on top.
4. Keep sharing: Twitter, FB, G+, LinkedIn, Friendster
5. Add it to your email signature.
6. Put it in your home page slideshow.
7. Use that $100 Google Adwords promotion in your
drawer. Try buying traffic with PPC.
Hey, I could do that!

33. Wine Lies & Web Truth
Thank you!
@orbiteers #wineweb