Google Analytics (GA) is quickly becoming the analytics package of choice for many companies.

This is not surprising. I mean, it’s FREE!

But that aside, some of the more intricate functionality and customizable components of GA hold real value, and should be utilized. This article is part 1 of a two-part series on Google Analytics Profiles and Filters.

GA filters do just what their name implies. They filter out data so you can more easily find the pertinent information.

Profiles allow you to create different data sets with varying filters for separate reporting. Incorporating these separate profiles and filters into your GA setup can help you analyze data more accurately and efficiently.

Then, if you actually act on your analyses, you can potentially increase your site’s conversion rate.

Profiles and Filters Work Together

An important concept in GA is the idea of separate profiles. You should create a separate profile for each set of data you want to analyze, and then apply the appropriate filter(s) for each profile. It is easier to explain by example, so the rest of this post is a list of what I consider to be must-have profiles & filters, and how to enable them.

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As SEO consultants, we're asked a variety of questions. Many of them are strategic questions like: "How do you know if a page is optimized for the right terms?" or tactical questions like: "How do we structure our site to be more SEO-friendly?"

But just as often, the questions are fundamental ones: "How do I know if one keyword is searched on more than another?" or "How do you know what type of redirect is being used?"

And whether you're a seasoned SEO expert, or an in-house SEO manager new to your position, having a few SEO tools in your back pocket can help answer some of those fundamental questions.

A Little Background:

The impetus for this post came from a current client who is getting ready to "step into the spotlight" for SEO within her company. She's relatively new to SEO and is feeling the pressure of needing to be The Expert, so I was going to send her a few quick (and free) SEO tools for her to keep in her back pocket as she fully assumes this role.

Then I thought there might be others out there who'd be interested in this info.

And here we are.

So here’s a short collection of free SEO tools and tips I often reference to help answer some of those fundamental questions – or sometimes, just to make the job a little easier.

Enjoy.

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Google recently released a new version of its interface that allows advertisers to now see stats split by Google vs. Search Partners (AOL, Ask, Google Product Search, Earthlink, Shopping.com, etc) vs. Content. Until now, advertisers have had visibility to the Content aspect, but not to the Search Partners.

Why is this helpful? For this particular client below, for example, I was able to see that the traffic driven from the Search Partners is converting at a much greater cost per conversion when compared to the traffic driven from Google itself. Armed with this new knowledge, I’ve turned off the Search Partners for this client and am focusing efforts primarily on Google.com:

Some advertisers ponder whether Google Adwords is shooting themselves in the foot by providing this level of visibility. In my opinion, no they are not. AdWords ongoing commitment to providing advanced levels of reporting, such as Search Query Performance reports and Placement Performance reports for example (which the other PPC engines do not currently provide), has yet to cause our clients to spend less with Google.

I mean, sure, the Search Query Performance reports provided us with some startling insights into the pitfalls of Broad Match, resulting in us tightening up our match type strategies and applying more negative keywords in our account. And, yes, Placement Performance reports have shed light on underperforming sites within the Content Network, resulting in us setting up more Site Exclusions. And yes, now we are even excluding Search Partners in this instance highlighted above.

But do these exclusions mean that we are ultimately going to spend less each month with Google? No way! We’re not going to spend less, we’re just going to spend smarter - by shifting funds to better performing keywords, better performing Content sites and better performing distribution channels within AdWords, in turn increasing our clients’ ROI.

In fact, I’d strongly argue that in the long-run the added visibility that these reporting enhancements provide will actually result in many advertisers spending more with AdWords. Why? Because, Increasing ROI = Increased Justification for More Search Budget.

Kudos once again, Google! As far as I’m concerned, this is brilliant and your feet are quite safe (as if you were concerned). Much thanks for providing this level of transparency and accountability, and for giving advertisers the tools we need to manage PPC intelligently.

Last week I had the pleasure of hopping on an airplane and flying 3000 miles to attend the User Interface 13 Conference.

Guess what. It was well worth it, so I wanted to write a quick post thanking Jared Spool and his exceptional team at UIE for putting on such a valuable and efficient event. All of the sessions I attended were top-notch, but I just want to call out a few.

Jeremy Keith from Clearleft gave a home run seminar on “Bulletproof Ajax”. I’ve been to all-day Ajax seminars in the past, which were good, but Jeremy is a step above the rest in his knowledge, experience and seminar structure.

Luke Wroblewski’s “Content Page Design Best Practices” and Scott Berkun’s “Why Designers Fail and What to Do About It” I found especially motivating. These guys back up what they preach with tons of experience and are very entertaining as well. If you get a chance to attend one of their sessions at a conference, take it.

Then, of course, there is Mr. Spool. I could write a book about him. Don’t worry. I won’t. Jared’s vast knowledge gleaned from research in the field of User Experience is the core reason this conference is so worth it. Any team would walk away with new ideas on how to better serve their customers/users after attending Jared’s talks.

He’s pretty damn funny too.

All in all the UIE conference was terrific. I strongly recommend you check out next year’s event.

In the past couple of years, Closed Loop Marketing has had more and more companies contact us who were actually already running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns - some managing in-house, some outsourcing to other agencies. So if they were already active in PPC, then why were they contacting CLM? Because by-and-large, these companies were quite disappointed in their PPC campaigns, with results ranging from mediocre to downright dismal, and they were searching for SEM guidance.

CLM was hired to audit and essentially ‘make over’ these accounts, and the results across-the-board have far surpassed even our expectations. At the Web Builder 2.0 conference last week in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of speaking to this at a session called Extreme Makeover: SEM Edition. In this session, I shared the common pitfalls that we see companies fall into time and time again, the strategies that CLM applies to successfully remedy these common PPC-killers and the final outcomes of our clients’ Extreme SEM Makeovers. In that same spirit, CLM has created ‘SEM for ROI - Top 10 SEM Inspection Checklist’. This checklist represents what we consider some of the most impactful elements to critique first within your PPC campaigns to find areas for improvement.

#1

Download a Search Query Performance Report from Google AdWords (note that such a report is not available in Yahoo or MSN - only Google). Mine this for more keywords to add, as well as more negative keywords to add.

#2

Calculate your ROI from Broad, Phrase and Exact matched iterations of your keywords to determine profitability for each and adjust your match type strategy accordingly. This can parsed from the Search Query Performance report.

#3

Download a Placement Performance Report from Google AdWords (this report is not available in Yahoo or MSN). Use this to identify which Content Network Sites are not converting well, and set up site exclusions accordingly.

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