PaulGSmith.com: Web Analytics, Usability and More

We all know that Google has a solid lock on the Internet search market, at least from an end-user point of view. But not everyone knows the other major players. At this time it looks like Yahoo!, Windows Live, and Ask also need to be considered, especially in any search engine optimization project. Google stands alone at the top because of it’s strong user base, but don’t forget it also drives the back-end of many other sites, most notably AOL, Earthlink, and AT&T. 

Yahoo! is the next nearest competitor to Google in the search market. According to Comscore at the end of 2007, Yahoo! accounted for about 22.9% of all internet searches (compared to 58.4% for Google). Windows Live and Ask probably rank right behind in the vicinity of 10%. But Windows Live is agressively growing it’s user base; and ASK probably has some of the most interesting search technology. Most solid search optimization efforts are probably fairly safe in focusing on these four important search engines.

The longer a purchasing decision takes, the more important a customer’s safety and trust in a Brand, Product/Service become.

Good quote from the WebMetricsGuru blog. If you want to see the full post from Marshall Sponder, check out “Online Marketing Slow to Generate Sales - new ScanAlert study“. Basic point here is that very few web-based decisions happen in a vaccuum. I’d like to discuss the implications for measuring engagement. Is the point to get them to do things on the website or is it to get them to take an action or make a decision.

This doesn’t apply just to sales oriented site. I spend my days working on a leads-oriented site where the desired decision could take 12-24 months. Consider a sequence of visits that begin with banners linking to a landing page and a quick exit (scanning visit). Later this visitor returns to the site and looks a little deeper. Maybe reads articles and uses applications (high engagement?), then leaves. Finally, after lots of discussion and/or investigation, the visitor returns (several months later) and fills out a form requesting a contact or more information (maybe another short visit).

Is it enough to develop engagement measures or KPIs that focus on a single visit? How do we assess this over time? What if we can’t use persistent cookies? What if our users don’t allow the cookies?

I recently read a good post written by Kathy Sierra on the “Creating Passionate Users” blog. She speaks to the downside of creating a really great user experience on a web site. It takes so much time and effort. The question of who will do all the work required to make an engaging useful site like user training, manuals, how-to guides, etc. Her point: Your Users Will. The more your user community contributes the less you need to spend. Read Kathy’s entire post on User Community and ROI.

Cameron Olthuis on Pronet Advertising wrote an interesting article about the 10 things you should be monitoring in your digital ecosystem. His list includes:

1. Company name
2. Company URLs
3. Public facing figures
4. Product names
5. Product URLs
6. Industry “hangouts”
7. Employee activity/blogs
8. Conversations
9. Brand images
10. Competitors

He also provides some interesting links to tools which can be used to help measure these data. As your company’s awareness and focus grows beyond concern with just your website and how it is performing, web analysts are compelled to look other places where information about your business exists. This was hard enough when advertisers and marketers were concerned with banner placements and other online media, but with the advent of blogs and sites like MySpace and YouTube, it is even more critical to try and get a handle on what is being said about your company and products everywhere on the Internet.

The original 10 things has been expanded a couple of times. While this discussion is not completed or has not reached the point of being definitive yet, it is well worth the time and consideration.

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