
Advanced Google Analytics for Startups - diwank
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/11-google-analytics-tricks-to-use-for-your-website
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thomasbachem
Also have a look at my <http://code.google.com/p/php-ga/> project, which opens
the door to many advanced server-side use cases.

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DanielBMarkham
Because I have a lot of web properties, I look at Google Analytics almost
every day. So I'm not a noob to the idea of analytics by any means.

I keep reading these Google Analytics articles and they all just kind of wash
over me. So many thousands of pieces of data. It just never all seems to come
together into some kind of useful whole. It just never seems to add up to
much.

I look at total traffic and how the traffic is getting there. Then I look at
time on site and page views, which show me how engaged they are. Finally I
glance at new vs. returning visitors. That's about it. I know I must be
missing out on something -- writers keep telling me this -- but somehow I'm
just not easily able to move from "here's a zillion pieces of data" to "here
is something I can do today for my content to make it better for folks"

On on the positive side, I like the new interface and features. I've been
geeking out on watching traffic arrive at the site realtime. But then again,
just like all the other stuff, it's cool glossy data, but not a lot of
actionable useful stuff.

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negw
You might want to follow Avinash Kaushik (hopefully I wrote it right), his
blog is quite popular and for very good reasons:
<http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/> His book, Web Analytics 2.0, is an eye
opener in terms of defining your own goals and processes, highly suggested.

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chanderson0
Other tips, independent of whether you're using Google Analytics or any other
tool:

\- Plan and set up your analytics early. If you're using Google Analytics, set
up goals (and goal funnels) for the major actions that are successes for your
business. If you're not using GA, figure out how to model user interactions in
a meaningful way.

\- Track any and all of your efforts to spread your web presence. Tag links in
emails, social sources, and advertising solutions. If you don't know how you
acquired a particular customer, you don't know what's working.

\- There is only one number that matters at the end of the day: revenue.
Understand how metrics play into revenue before trying to optimize for
something web-centric like "Bounce Rate" or "Time on Site".

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mackyinc
The site goals is the one thing people always neglect when using analytics. I
agree with the post that it is the foundation of your website analysis.

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toddnessa
I am learning webmaster skills and have marked this to study in detail later.
I am scratching today after having my site ranked #3 on google for my keyword
to today not being found in the search results at all. I went to bing and did
not have this problem. The changes Google made with the new search format last
year has a lot to be desired in my book.

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AznHisoka
One thing people should track is mobile user agents, and the usernames they
correspond to. That way when you do release a mobile app you know offhand who
has android, and who has iphone, and send targeted emails to those groups of
people. Same for Google Chrome, if you wish to release a Chrome app.

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ecaron
Talk about HN title link-bait. The article's actual title - 11 Google
Analytics Tricks to Use for Your Website - is much more accurate (namely
because the article has 1) nothing to do with startups and 2) nothing
"advanced".)

