Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: This is a great collection of ways to drill-down on your GA data.
If you're new to Google Analytics or an occasional user check these 5 Simple Google Analytics Tips You Should Be Using.
Implication: Even if you're an occasional user of Google Analytics, Regular expressions can help you drill down - for example the pipe symbol can help you isolate alternate brand terms, i.e. M&S|M and S|
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: In case you missed this in our web analytics section, this tool allows you to see the most important links on your site. We have two other tutorial this week to help get more out of Google Analytics.
Implication: Follow the tutorial to find out the most important navigational links on your site.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: When I'm giving training I always stress the value of the simple 4Q/ visitor intent tool and notice that anyone who hasn't heard it always reaches for their pen.
Implication: Now the two are linked you can see which visitor types or segments are satisfied / dissatisfied. This video steps you through how to setup custom reports with custom variables and apply custom segments - it needs a tutorial but it's quite straightforward really!
Value: [rating=3]
Commentary: A tool to show how users view your page according to it's complexity and visual emphasis.
Implication: Try uploading a screen grab of your home or landing page which is free. It's main role may be in influencing colleagues that less is almost always more.
Value: [rating=5]
Commentary: These tools are the workhorses for keyword research for many SEOs and PPC folk. You may have noticed they have currently been upgraded.
Implication: Review this post to understand what these tools offer behind the new interface.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: We originally wrote about when the tool was first introduced in May, it's now been updated.
Implication: The update gives average positions and allows you to track your target keyphrases. Remember that the tool isn't 100% accurate based on several analyses we've seen.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: This bookmarklet is for hardcore GA users who want to drill-down on non-standard dimensions.
Implication: For me, the most useful feature is the "Second Page viewed" dimension since this provides a quick way to see which calls-to-action are most effective across the whole site or for individual pages. I'll do a post soon explaining why.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: Google Analytics is developing a rich ecosystem of supporting tools and applications based on third-party applications integrating with Google collected data through its API for data exchange. At Smart Insights we hope to be featured on these pages before too long in the "Business Intelligence" category for an App we're building to help marketers manage and get more from their online marketing - but without being an analytics guru - more to follow!
Implication: Many of these tools are about improving visualisation and extracting data (see the reporting section). So review what's available if you want to get more from GA.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: I find the Google AdPlanner is one of the most underused but useful of the free marketing tools. It's recently been renamed "The Doubleclick Adplanner" from Google. There's also a new feature we've been notified about this week...
"Site details pages in Ad Planner now display a site's top 10 audience interests, which represent the aggregate interests of the site's visitors.
In these top 10 lists, each interest is assigned an affinity score, such as 3.9x, which means visitors to the site are that many more times likely to be interested in the topic than the average Internet population".
Implication: The tool is intended to encourage display advertising and support media planning through Google's networks which it's fine for, but I recommend it for finding potential partner publisher sites for SEO and E-PR activities plus competitor benchmarking - it's a poor persons Hitwise, but with good demographics.
We've SEO tools this week...
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: A free usable tool using the SEOMoz link database which maybe useful now that the tried and trusted Yahoo! Site Explorer'ss Day's may be numbered with the Yahoo! / Bing merger. I'm also seeing more people using the SEOmoz toolbar on my Advanced SEO courses.
Implication:
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: This week our other tool is an infographic to help think through your SEO Practice
Implication: This chart isn't for SEO experts, instead it's a great way of summarising the main SEO factors and good for training your content writers in the Art of SEO perhaps.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: A round-up of tools released in the last couple of months - nothing new for us here, but a good overview.
Implication: Check whether you're aware of these tools and whether you can steel a march on competitors by using innovative tools like YouTube promoted video
Value: [rating=5]
Commentary: Don't miss our post explaining the features of the new Google Webmaster Tools queries feature
Implication: We give 8 implications for marketers in the post
Value: [rating=5]
Commentary: Web analytics systems are widely used, but don"€™t give direct qualitative feedback from site visitors and customers. It's surprising that relatively few companies use the qualitative tools listed here, although their popularity is increasing rapidly.
Implication: Review these 5 different categories of tools to find out ways you can improve your knowledge of customers satisfaction and gain new ideas for varying your marketing mix.
Commentary: A different type of tool this week - I was reviewing Visual Complexity for possible book cover designs and network visualisations. I haven't seen this map before - it's based on the Tokyo Subway and sites are related by type and importance shown by size.
Implication: Interesting that the map which dates from April 2009 is not being updated this year since the main sites on the Internet have not changed significantly in size relatively to each other. Barriers to entry are getting higher.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: This isn't straightforward - you can see it as an elegant workaround for the limitations of tracking in Facebook or a tortuous kludge.
Implication: Worth investigating for any company with a significant fan base on Facebook. This additional post shows how you can segment Facebook users and visualisation conversion funnels, sales and leads.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: I've used Chrome since beta, but have kept with Firefox for SEO analysis until it became too bug-ridden, which fortunately coincided with the capability of extensions in Chrome. If you haven't made the switch yet, there's almost nothing to stop you, although the web developer and SEO Book plug-ins for Firefox are superior IMO.
Implication: Review the ones which work best for you from this post. For me the two essentials are PageRank Status and a Simple Nofollow checker. For a more in-depth analysis of linking authority and on page tools check out SEO Site Tools.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: This looks to potentially be a useful tool for large organisations, on the site it explains: Rapleaf's Social Network Data Append helps you discover where your customers are online and what they look like. We help you identify influencers, age groups, gender breakdowns, and interests from your customer list quickly so you can simplify CRM and marketing efforts.
Implication: Understanding shared behaviour between customers using email and social media, i.e. Facebook Fans and Twitter friends will become increasingly important. I can see this tool being particularly important to B2B organisation to find advocates and influencers on an email list.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: All marketers love Google Alerts for monitoring new mentions of their brand, domain name, product categories or competitor equivalents. This tool gives you much more control. I also use Giga Alerts which uses the Yahoo! database for greater coverage.
Implication: Use Alert Rank to view over a dozen detailed ranking values for each alert to prioritize the ones you must act on.
Value: [rating=4]
Commentary: There is a wider choice of AB/MVT Tools than you might think. This site does a great job of bringing them together.
Implication: When reviewing and selecting a tool check the criteria on this site.
By Dave Chaffey
Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.
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