Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Back to Basics: Is your website a "closer"?

Back to Basics: Is your website a "closer"?

Many successful sales people describe closing a sale as a process that is composed of many steps. It's a dialogue -- a series of information exchanges that culminates in the ultimate sale or final agreement. This closing process occurs thousands of times every day on websites around the world. Websites and visitors engage in a dialogue during which products are chosen, shipping and credit card information is provided, and sales are closed.

But a sales person has an advantage -- he or she can observe where customers get concerned or uncomfortable during a sales process and address these obstacles before they result in a lost sale. Your website can't do this by itself.

It's up to you, the website owner or manager, to look at what happens during each step of the closing process (i.e. conversion funnel) and find a way to make each page in the process as helpful and painless as possible.

You can look at the Funnel Visualization report in Google Analytics to see how many of your prospects move from one step to the next, where they drop out of the conversion process and where they go instead. Once you have this information, you can start fixing the pages that lose would-be customers, just as a good sales person addresses obstacles that prevent customers from closing.

You can learn how to use the Funnel Visualization report in the latest Google Analytics in 60 seconds video. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.


Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using Google Analytics to Create an Optimization Plan

Using Google Analytics to Create an Optimization Plan

Let’s face it, your website is never really finished. Testing pages is an inexpensive way to manage a constantly shifting audience and market. It's great for:

1. Increasing ROI on your advertising
2. Teaching you about the likes and dislikes of your customers
3. Trying out alternatives used by competitors
4. Breaking down preconceptions about what works
   
5. Convincing a stubborn boss to try something new

What and where to test?

So where do you start? First you need a goal. What do you want users on your site to do? Complete a form, buy something, sign up for a newsletter? Without a goal, it's difficult to optimize, so you should be sure to define one if you haven't already.

Once you have a goal, you can use Google Analytics to identify those pages that are having the biggest negative impact on the total number of people "converting," or achieving that goal. These are the pages to test.

Top landing pages report

(Content > Top Landing Pages)

This report gives you instant insight into how well (or poorly) your landing pages are performing. You want to find pages that have both high "entrances" and a high "bounce rate." These pages are costing you a lot of visitors.

Goal visualization report

(Goals > Funnel Visualization)

The funnel visualization in Google Analytics shows you where people leave during your buying process. For example, the below report shows that 40% of the 200 potential buyers left during "Step X" in the checkout process. Average order value is $100. This means the merchant is losing up to $8,000 in revenue every month due to "Step X."

Exit pages

(Content > Top Exit Pages)

With this report, you should look for pages that are designed to sell, but have high exit rates.Using the top content report, I see that my product pages have a 35% exit rate. These pages are supposed to persuade potential customers to add products to the shopping cart, so they would be good candidates for optimization.

Having looked at these reports, there's a fair chance you've found high-impact pages that perform below average. If not, you can take a look at the "top content" report and pick a few pages that see a lot of traffic, but are poorly designed or out-of-date.

Setting up a test with Google Website Optimizer

Google has a free tool to test you pages called Google Website Optimizer. Find out more here .

Here are a few tips for using Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics together:

1. Make sure you get to see your variances in Google Analytics.

In the case of an A/B test this is relatively easy. Tag your variances with the GA code snippet and perhaps give them a unique name. For a multivariate test this requires a little bit of technical knowledge; you have add a little bit of code to your test page. You’ll find the instructions here.

2. Make a filter to exclude your test data from your other profiles
3. Create an extra profile where you only measure your test pages
4. Create Advanced Segments and extra goals in your testing profile relevant to the test. This lets you evaluate the test outcome on different visitor segments.
   

Other Resources

• GWO Techie Guide
• Website Optimizer Blog
• Website Optimizer YouTube Channel
  

Have another resource? Add a comment!

Posted by Tim Bakker and Janco Klijnstra of Traffic4u, a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Undo Send

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Undo Send

New in Labs: Undo Send

Thursday, March 19, 2009 3:39 PM

Posted by Michael Leggett, User Experience Designer

Sometimes I regret sending a message the morning after. Other times I send a message and then immediately notice a mistake. I forget to attach a file or email the birthday girl that I can't make her surprise party. I can rush to close my browser or unplug the Internet — but Gmail almost always wins that race. 

An email to the wrong Larry pushed me over the edge. I could undo just about any other action in Gmail — why couldn’t I undo send? Many people agreed, including Yuzo Fujishima, an engineer in the Tokyo office. My theory (which others shared) was that even just five seconds would be enough time to catch most of those regrettable emails. 

And now you can do just that. Turn on Undo Send in Gmail Labs under Settings, and you’ll see a new “Undo” link on every sent mail confirmation. Click “Undo,” and we’ll grab the message before it’s sent and take you right back to compose.



This feature can't pull back an email that's already gone; it just holds your message for five seconds so you have a chance to hit the panic button. And don't worry – if you close Gmail or your browser crashes in those few seconds, we'll still send your message.

Official Google Blog: Make sense of your site: tips for webpage design

Official Google Blog: Make sense of your site: tips for webpage design

This is the second post in The Power of Measurement series. These posts are designed to cover ways to make your website as successful as possible, especially in the current economic climate. Here, Website Optimizer whiz Sandra Cheng explores the topic of website design and offers tips to help you get more from your site. -Ed.

In our last post, Avinash Kaushik dove into the world of website analytics and explained the power behind the bounce rate metric. With bounce rate, you are able to identify which webpages are turning away the most visitors. And while it's incredibly useful to identify which pages need fixing, what do you do next?

Back in the good old days, you would go back to the page and redesign it based on what you or other people thought was right for your site. Now, you can actually run a test on your website and let your visitors decide the best version of your page, instead of just going with a gut feeling. Here, I'll discuss website testing — executing different versions of a page to see what sticks — and the various ways you can make the most of your site's design choices.

To begin website testing, start by brainstorming variations of your website. You can decide on small changes, like swapping out a photo, or large changes, like an overhaul of your website's layout or color scheme. Then, by using a free tool like Website Optimizer, you can test your changes by automatically showing different visitors different versions of your site. From there, Website Optimizer will tell you which version your visitors liked the most by tracking which website variation was the most successful in reaching your goal. You can set your goal to be a sale, someone submitting a form or clicking a link, or any number of other interactions with your site. It's like running a simple experiment — without the complicated data analysis.

Testing your site can often reveal surprises. For example, we were surprised by the results of our own test on the Picasa homepage. In version A, we used the word "free," gave it an action-oriented headline, and included a pretty image of the product. In version B, we deleted the photo, used a button instead of a link, and called out the value proposition ("The easy way..."). Which version do you think led more visitors to download Picasa?

Version A

Version B

We predicted that Version A would be the clear winner since it had a photo to captivate visitors and a "free" product call-out. However, the data from the tests showed that the cleaner, simpler Version B was more effective. In fact, the changes in Version B increased downloads by 30%! This example illustrates a powerful point: sometimes you need to rely on data — not your gut — to make decisions that will help your website and your bottom line.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "With so many different aspects of my website to test, how do I know where to begin?" Here are four design tips to pay attention to:

• Tip #1: Pass the 8 second test. At first glance, a visitor should understand the purpose of your website within a few seconds. People are busy and have limited attention spans — you want to keep them from hitting the dreaded back button.
• Tip #2: Tell them what's in it for them. Create clear and tangible benefits (e.g., "Save more! Make extra money! Look better with our product!").
• Tip #3: Use compelling images. Try product images instead of generic stock photos, icons with blocks of text, and buttons instead of links. Keep in mind that a low-quality, irrelevant image can kill your site's credibility.
• Tip #4: Close the sale. Help your visitors take the next step. Make that step clear and easy to reach; don't make them hunt for it. Action words like "buy now" may work better than "add to cart," for instance.
  

Once you've decided which details to test — a call-to-action, color, headline, layout, or video, for example — go to Website Optimizer and set up an experiment. For first-time users, we recommend a/b testing, meaning testing one variation of your page against another. After you launch your experiment, Website Optimizer will do the heavy lifting and show you when the data is "statistically significant." (In case it's been a while since your last Stats 101 course, statistical significance means that an event is unlikely to have happened by chance, and that you have enough data to know that there is a true difference in which page variation your visitors prefer.) The results will start showing in your reports page and for each experiment, the corresponding bar will begin to turn red, yellow or green. When the bars start to turn green, you have a winning page variation that is helping you reach the goals you have set for your website:


Remember, best practices may work best for some, but they are not necessarily what's best for your site and your visitors. In the past, a few opinions and a strong hunch determined an effective website design. Now, armed with metrics, data, and tools galore, you can let your visitors tell you what works best for them and for your site.

Good luck, and get testing!

Posted by Sandra Cheng, Product Manager, Google Website Optimizer

Official Google Blog: Here comes Google Voice

Official Google Blog: Here comes Google Voice

Google just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service Google acquired in July of 2007.

The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive. You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance.

Inside AdSense: Driving monetization with ads that reach the right audience

Inside AdSense: Driving monetization with ads that reach the right audience - Advertisers spend more money on campaigns that reach the right audience; helping them do that should drive more revenue to your websites. This week we're announcing plans to provide interest-based advertising across AdSense publisher sites to help achieve that goal. In the past, advertisers have taken advantage of contextual and placement-targeted advertising on AdSense publisher sites. With this enhancement they'll also be able to reach users based on their previous interactions with them, such as visits to the advertiser website, as well as reach users on the basis of their interests (such as "sports enthusiasts" or "travel enthusiasts"). 

Over the next few months we'll start offering interest-based advertising to a limited number of advertisers as part of a beta, and expand the offering later in 2009. Whether the advertiser's goal is to drive brand awareness or increase responses to their ads, these capabilities can help expand the success of their campaigns and should increase your earnings as advertiser participation increases. 

To develop interest categories, we'll recognize the types of webpages users visit across the AdSense network. As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we'll add them to the "sports enthusiast" interest category. You can visit the Help Center to learn more about how interest categories will be developed and your associated account settings. As a result of this launch, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please ensure that your site's privacy policies are up-to-date and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009.

Users browsing the web will benefit from the additional relevancy that interest-based ads can provide. And by visiting the new Ads Preferences Manager, users can see what interest categories we think they fall into, or add and remove categories themselves. The Ads Preferences Manager can be found by clicking on most "Ads by Google" links you see on Google ads throughout the web. 

You can read more about how interest-based advertising benefits the online ecosystem and about the privacy innovations developed for this launch in the Official Google Blog and theGoogle Public Policy Blog. 

We look forward to providing users with ads more closely tied to their interests, helping advertisers reach their campaign goals, and helping you to monetize your website most effectively.

Posted by Aitan Weinberg - Product Manager

Official Google Blog: Chatting away on iGoogle...

Official Google Blog: Chatting away on iGoogle...: "I'm a creature of habit. My morning routine consists of going to my desk with coffee mug in hand and checking my email, reading the news and updating my to-do list. One place I can do all of that without having to go to multiple websites is iGoogle. Having the ability to work on email right on my iGoogle page has been awesome, but I simply couldn't get the same Gmail experience without the chat feature. So we got together with the iGoogle team several months back to talk about how to integrate a chat feature on iGoogle, and since then, we've been running experiments with a small number of iGoogle users and have also been using it internally. We're pleased to announce that starting today we are extending the feature to a larger set of iGoogle users."

Official Google Blog: Power down for the planet

Official Google Blog: Power down for the planet