Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [266]
Simple content evaluation tools are available in the Content: Content by Title report. They provide different ways of looking at your content and are extremely valuable tools, especially for publishers and content sites, simply by evaluating each page of content (I prefer viewing by the page title) and then comparing and contrasting using the buttons above the rows of information on the right side of the panel (see Figure 21-12). These buttons display the information in different visual formats, which enable a different perspective on the content and how it compares to the other data in the chart.
Figure 21-12: The Views buttons in Google Analytics from the Top Content: Content by Title report: Table (default), Percentage, Performance, Comparison, Pivot Table, and Detail
Compare a Page’s Metrics to the Site Average
Once the Comparison view is enabled, I suggest viewing the information by Avg. Time on Page. This option then shows each page of content by time on site and compares it to the other pages of content and the site average (see Figure 21-13).
Figure 21-13: Evaluate content by time spent.
The purpose of this report is to identify poorly performing pages and answer “why?” In addition, it will allow you to find the well-performing pages and answer the “why?” These reports, while informative, still require the human interaction of asking questions and finding answers. Searching for the “why?” forces you to develop theories (or causality—what caused this?) of what content that visitors liked and did not like, but you have the added benefit of evidence, rather than guesses and suppositions. Viewing graphs is not the final action; it is the means to developing a targeted approach to website improvements based on the evidence.
Another simple report in Google Analytics allows you to compare content performance by page. When viewed compared to segments, this report allows you to find the content that is more profitable for each segment and to find which content produces a high bounce rate with your visitors and has little or no persuasive value. To get this perspective, simply change the parameter of Avg. Time on Site to Bounce Rate in the Individual Page Title...Compared to Site Average drop-down selection. The graph will change to display the Comparison view with pages, page views, and bounce rates based on the average site bounce rate (see Figure 21-14).
Figure 21-14: Content bounce rates in perspective
This report shows the content that keeps people on the site and interested and shows which content makes people leave. The perspective provided by the positive or negative length of the bar in the graph is the number of visitors who bounced from the content, and when viewed compared to other content, the trends emerge, and the value of content to the visitors becomes clear. This is critical to your content development strategies and building a plan for increasing or addressing the content of the site. By identifying content that drives conversions, the marketing plans become clearer; it becomes less about guessing and more about factually driven information providing clear trends to conversion.
Use Pivot Tables
I find one of the more valuable reports for search analytics is the Traffic Sources: Keywords report. This requires some additional customization, again using one of the buttons in the upper right, namely, Pivot Table. Now, just hearing the phrase “pivot tables” can make some marketers prepare for hours of boring statistics, but this is one pivot table that you’ll want to see! Click Traffic Sources: Keywords in the main analytics navigation. Then, click the Pivot Table button. Pivot tables display an amazing amount of data in order to make better comparisons. Simply put, they are another way of viewing data that can help you build a better understanding of your website.
After you have selected the pivot table view, you’ll see that the keyword is the heading of the first column, but the second column is unused.