Do more with mobile

Google is updating the features on mobile ads again - this time introducing click-to-call phone numbers in mobile ads. I can see this as a definitely helpful feature instead of trying to remember a number and dial.

Like Post-its for Analytics

Google Analytics has now made their annotations feature available to everyone. If you run a special promotion or your site is featured somewhere, you can create an annotation to note the event and help track traffic, conversions, etc. or just remember that it happened six months later when someone asks about the spike in traffic.

Social Sharing

Delicious changes the way you can view links which gives it a more StumbleUpon feel. You can see Google's take called Fast Flip in the Google Labs.

Checking in

The Frugal Traveler gives us an interesting approach to the benefits of Foursquare. Being mayor can be more than ceremonial when it leads to discounts or inside info on a venue. I finally broke down and installed Foursquare on my phone.

A tale of two social media sites

The New York Times reviews The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal and Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. Sounds like a soap opera.

Once you've written a blog post and hit "Publish," and garnered some initial readership and attention, you tend to move on to the next post, leaving the last one to the Archives.

(And by "you," I mean "me.")

But as blog authors, we need to continually remind ourselves that old content is just as valuable as new content, if not more so, due to our good friend, the long tail of search. Over time, it's your older content that keeps driving repeat visitors.

(And by "we," I mean "we.")

Our favorite Google Analytics guru, Avinash Kaushik, underscored this point in a recent post that explained how to use analytics data to identify existing posts that serve as search engine landing pages and make them more effective.

So I'm going to put his advice into action and optimize a post I wrote last year on the Google Analytics Individual Qualification test. I'll write up the results as a case study for our benefit, and yours.

Continue reading "Case Study: Using Keyword Analytics to Optimize Blog Post Content" »

Move over Oprah! We’re kicking off 2010 by starting the CDG Book Club. Every month or so, we’ll be reading a book about the web industry and posting our raves, rants, and other unsolicited opinions.

At least a few times a year, I like to rip myself away from screen time and consult a good ol’ fashioned book about the web industry—specifically about content, web writing, and usability. Unfortunately, a lot of the books I’ve picked up are not all that great. They’re either fairly simplistic guides geared toward web newbies or highly academic exercises that are not only a slog to get through, but have precious few practical takeaways.

There are, of course, a few notable exceptions—books that I not only recommend to fellow web professionals and clients—but that I find myself referring to again and again. Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug is one; Gerry McGovern’s Killer Web Content is another. And now I’ve found another gem that I’m going to rely on for years to come—Content Strategy for the Web. This book is absolutely a must for anyone who is involved in conceptualizing, creating, producing, and managing online content. Insightful, practical, and fun to read, Halvorson's book had me striking my forehead I-could’ve-had-a-V-8-style more times than I can count. Nearly everything Halvorson says should be self-evident to content professionals, yet she presents it in a way that’s completely revelatory.

I could go on about the book’s merit’s at length, but for the sake of brevity, let me paraphrase some of my favorite takeaways from Halvorson:

Continue reading "CDG Book Club: Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson" »

Or: CDG's Greatest Hits, 2009 Edition

One of the best ways to find out what your blog's readers are interested in, and the kinds of topics you should continue to focus on, is to simply see which posts were most popular in the past year.

Fire up your analytics program -- in our case, we're using Google Analytics -- and change the date range to Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2009 and drill down into the Top Content.

This list can be sorted in several ways; it'll probably default to pageviews. It's up to you to decide what makes a post "popular." Is it pageviews? Bounce rate? Time on page?

Once you've sorted your list according to your priorities, some interesting nuggets will probably be revealed.

We've applied this method to our own blog, using unique pageviews. Since these pages also track well with a higher time on site, it means you liked them, you really really liked them.

Continue reading "Our Top 5 Blog Posts of 2009" »

As the year comes to a close -- and CDG Interactive's offices close for the Christmas/New Year's week break (thanks, Scott!) -- the CDG bloggers take a moment to look back at the Top 9 things we learned in 2009.

(For those of you keeping track at home, that's 3 lessons each.)

What we learned ranges from how to continue to stay inspired when writing to why cute animals will always drive blog traffic.

Continue reading "Top 9 Lessons We Learned in 2009" »

Using Google Analytics to ask the right questions

In a recent conversation, one of our clients asked for more research on why their bounce rate has gone up in the past year. Their traffic has quadrupled and while their bounce rate has grown at a significantly slower pace, they still wanted to know if there was any specific cause. It was a reasonable question, and I set off into Google Analytics to find some answers.

The first thing I noticed was that their direct traffic was quite high – over 40%. Which gave me an idea – why not segment their traffic by source and see which had the highest bounce rate? Of course, I anticipated that direct traffic would be the lowest, since those are people who presumably intended to arrive at their site, while those who arrived through search and referring links are somewhat taking their chances.

Wrong. Direct traffic had the highest bounce rate.

Continue reading "First of All, You’re Wrong " »

The big day has arrived. You're responsible for marketing your business or organization and you're ready to take the plunge into social media. 

You've talked the board into it. You've talked your boss into it.

Now what?

Wouldn't it be nice if you had a Starter Kit? 

This is CDG Interactive's kit. These are five steps we take with our clients -- and that any business can take when getting into social media.

Continue reading "The Social Media for Business 5-Step Starter Kit" »

Every week, I get a Google Analytics report containing key metrics for this blog. Scanning through the data is a great way to get insights into who's coming here and why.

Until earlier this month, that is.

Continue reading "Twitter vs. the Long Tail" »

I'm just back from vacation and catching up on what I've missed, and I found some gems that I wanted to share:

Seven Skills to Look for in a Web Analytics Manager from Avinash Kaushik - as always, he goes beyond the obvious and it's a great self-check to see where you are.

From Conde Nast Traveler, The Autobiography of a Tip - in case you were wondering what happens to those dollars you hand out in other countries and what it means to the people who get them.

Seth Godin explains The Problem with Positive Thinking - iwhy don't we do it all the time?

5 SEO Pitfalls to Avoid from the Online Marketing Blog. Fall is a great time to go back and review tactics.

Search Engine Watch talks about Measuring Social Media  and suggests a few metrics.

What are you reading that's inspired you to do something differently?

On March 3, Google launched the Analytics Individual Qualification test, allowing web professionals a way to demonstrate their level of Google Analytics expertise to colleagues and clients.

The test is relatively inexpensive, priced at $50, and your Individual Qualification – if you pass with 75 80% or greater -- is valid for 18 months. [Update 1.26.10: Google revised the minimum passing score requirement from 75% to 80%.]

So what does this mean, exactly? What can you expect? And is the test an accurate reflection of your web metrics savvy, both in general, and with this tool in particular?

My colleague Lisa King and I both recently took and passed the Individual Qualification Test, aka the IQ; based on what we learned, here are 3 tips for taking the test.

Continue reading "3 Tips for Taking the Google Analytics IQ Test" »