Web Analytics for Government Course in Melbourne 11 March 2010

1 Day Web Analytics Course in Melbourne on March 11, 2010

Learn how to analyse a government website using Google Analytics, Urchin or another web analytics tool.

If you are currently using a web analytics tool to analyse your department’s website or are looking to add this to your website, then this course is for you.

Who Should Attend?

Managers & professionals working in Government, web developers working on government websites

Pre-requisites

None. A basic understanding of websites and search engines is recommended.

What You Get

• 1 full day of face to face training.
• A detailed 91 page printed course manual for each attended.
• Copies of the slides used in the course.
• A certificate of attendance.
• An example Excel KPI spreadsheet with the key formulas to track the success of your website.
• Access to additional course materials, utilities & resources not available to the public on the Panalysis website.
• A discount voucher 2 hour personal consulting & coaching session in Google Analytics & other professional services.

Learning Outcomes

After attending this training session you will be able to:

• Understand what Google Analytics can do.
• Install and configure Google Analytics.
• Perform analysis on your website using Google Analytics.
• Explain how Google Analytics can add value to your department.
• Understand which reports you should use in Google Analytics to be effective in your running your website.
• Set measurable business goals for your website and explain how Google Analytics can help you achieve these outcomes.
• Use a range of Google Analytics reports to analyse your website’s performance against these goals.
• Identify the visitor’s "primary purpose" for visiting the website and whether succeeded.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of content on the website.
• Understand common pitfalls / misinterpretations of Google Analytics reports
• Discuss important issues in planning new business strategies based on analysis of your business’s website.

For more information:

More information is available or contact:

Panalysis Pty Ltd
Tel: 1300 368 553
Suite 2, Level 3, 71 Longueville Road, Lane Cove, NSW 2066 Australia

Email: admin@panalysis.com.au

Registration form for: Melbourne, March 11, 2010

Web Analytics Books from Eric T. Peterson are now free

Eric has decided to provide his web analytics books

• Web Analytics Demystified
• The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators

as free pdf downloads.

Fantastic offering – don’t miss this one!

Two new articles published about Google analytics – annotations and grouping pages

Benjamin Mangold has just published two new articles on his blog Google Analytics Results about how to make better use of your Google Analytics reports.

The first article is called Make Notes in Google Analytics with Annotations – this takes you through a step by step process for setting up the annotations feature.

The second article is called Q+A: Grouping Pages in Google Analytics – this takes you through constructing a basic content drill down and how to do advanced table filters and profile filters.

Ben is a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant – his company Mangold Sengers offers basic, intermediate and advanced Google Analytics training courses.

I have attended his courses in both Google Analytics and Google AdWords training and have found them very helpful.

Designing great dashboards – part 3 now available

Further to my post a few weeks back on Designing great dashboards parts 1 and 2 from Juice Analytics, part 3 is now available.

"The third part of our dashboard design guide provides practical tips for putting information on the page in a way that communicates effectively to your audience…"

To register please visit http://www.juiceanalytics.com/registration/dashboard_design/

Using Google Analytics to Track Email Newsletters (and RSS feeds)

I often get asked how can I see if my email subscribers are looking / reading the newsletter I send out. Google Analytics provides you with an easy and free way of doing this. Today I will take you through the process step by step.

1. You need a Google Analytics account

• Set up a Google Analytics account
• If you don’t have one – all you need is a gmail email address
• Register here http://www.google.com/analytics/
• Place the code in the footer of all your web pages (How do I add tracking code to my website)

2. How does it work?

• Tracking email campaigns in Google Analytics uses a process called link tagging
  – for example the eGovernment Resource Centre Newsletter uses link tagging Eg., http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/newsletters/200809.html would be modified to look like: http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/newsletters/200809.html#?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=aug2009news
• When someone lands on your site after clicking on a tagged link from your newsletter (or RSS feed), Google Analytics removes the information from the URL and puts it in a cookie
• This way Google Analytics can now link all that particular visitor’s actions on your site from that email link.
• You can then view the results in the Google Analytics interface

3. How do you make the tags?

Google provides a tool called the URL builder –

 

• Campaign Source (utm_source) – Required. Use utm_source to identify a search engine, newsletter name, or other source.  Example: utm_source=egovnewsletter
• Campaign Medium (utm_medium) – Required. Use utm_medium to identify a medium such as email or cost-per- click.  Example: utm_medium=email
• Campaign Term (utm_term) – Used for paid search. Use utm_term to note the keywords for this ad.  Example: utm_term=government+2.0
• Campaign Content (utm_content) – Used for A/B testing and content-targeted ads. Use utm_content to differentiate ads or links that point to the same URL.  Examples: utm_content=logolink or utm_content=textlink
• Campaign Name (utm_campaign) – Used for keyword analysis. Use utm_campaign to identify a specific product promotion or strategic campaign.  Example: utm_campaign=aug2009news

For example I use the following for the eGov site:

• For email newsletter content : #?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=aug2009news
• For RSS feed items : #?utm_source=rssfeed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rssaug2009
• Why use the # ? This stops the campaign tracking urls being spidered by search engines and appearing in the search results.

4. What do you see in the GA interface?

Your campaign data is listed as ‘Other’ in your Traffic Sources section

For the eGov site this = 12.56% of visits for the month

You can also segment you data and look at what topics visitors arriving via your newsletters look at on the site – but that is a topic for another day.

So that’s how you track visitors to your site who arrive from your email newsletters or RSS news feeds. Have fun and experiment.

Designing Great Dashboards

Juice Analytics has published a 3 part book called “A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use“. To register to receive a copy, visit Juice Analytics and sign up.

To quote an introductory paragraph from the document:

This document will approach dashboard design in a holistic way, beginning with general goals and evolving to specific data presentation. Part 1: Foundation will help you identify your target audience, understand what type of dashboard you want to create and why it is valuable to your organization. It concludes with guidance regarding how to focus your message on the information and metrics that matter. Part 2: Structure will get you started on designing your dashboard, including what form it should take, how to arrange for audience understanding, and what navigation, interactions, and capabilities will make the dashboard useful and engaging. Finally, Part 3: Information Design dives into the details of interface and information design. You will learn how to lay out your dashboard and best practices for charting and data presentation.

Parts 1 and 2 are now available – part 3 is not far away…..

WAA releases report on Government and Non-Profits use of Web Analytics

The Web Analytics Association (WAA) in the US has recently released its 2009 survey findings on "Tapping the Potential of Web Analytics for Public Sector and Non-Profit Sites".

The survey asked three questions:

1. How are Web site managers in the public and non-profit sector measuring the performance of their web sites?

2. Can any KPIs used by many non-commerce organizations be used to measure the impact, effectiveness, and contributions of all non-commerce Web sites?

3. Can we develop a series of benchmarks for the key dimensions of visitor online interaction with the Web sites in the public and non-profit sectors?

124 respondents completed the survey – 83% of those came from the United States,.

Some of the findings include:

• 60% only dedicate a few hours a week to web analytics – only 12.5% of respondents described themselves as web analysts and nearly 70% of organisations don’t have a dedicated web analyst;
• monthly reporting is the norm;
• traffic reporting is used by 82% of organizations;
• only 10% link web analytics to return on investment;
• US government sites track file downloads more often than others surveyed; and
• Segmentation is not widely used.

The report provides some thought provoking key takeaways for government web analysts:

1. Conduct high-value, deeper analyses

2. Focus your analytics evangelizing on people in your organization who stand to benefit from Web analytics and have shown an interest in using analytics.

3. Use voice of customer, usability testing, and focus groups in tandem with Web analytics

4. Build official and unofficial alliances

5. Give more thought to how people want to consume Web analytics data.

It is interesting to compare these findings with the results from the 2008 Australian Web Analytics Survey conducted by Hurol Inan of Bienalto. Of the 208 respondents for the Australian survey, 20% were from government. When analysing the government respondents, the survey found that 60% of government organizations looked at web analytics as not important or less important as other web functions. Most government analysis consisted of reporting traffic – no one reported using advanced analysis.

Hurol’s analysis concluded that "Government remains significantly challenged in terms of identifying the objectives
and KPIs of web analytics, and also lacks the key support of management."

There are many similarities between the US and the Australian studies. It seems government still has some way to go when it comes to really analyzing their data and applying their findings to optimising their websites.

If you want to read more about these surveys, the Web Analytics Association has made their report available from their web site for a small charge. A presentation of the report’s findings is also available for free!

The 2008 Australian Web Analytics Survey is also available from Bienalto.

If you want more information about how to develop KPIs for your website, the eGovernment Resource Centre has a collection of links you might find useful as well as a section on Return on Investment.

Third Annual Australian Web Analytics Survey is now open

Bienalto is running the third annual Australian Web Analytics Survey and asking for responses.

It will only take 15 minutes of your time.
When you complete the survey you are in the running to win an iPod Touch 16GB, valued at $419. You’ll also receive the survey results as soon as they are published.

Last year’s survey showed that 77% of respondents were satisfied with web analytics data. Where does your organisation sit now? Bienalto want to know what’s changed when it comes to measuring the success of your site.

You can download last year’s results

The survey closes on Monday, 24 November 2008.

Do you Woopra?

What on earth is Woopra? Woopra is a comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application. And it’s free! It provides: Live Tracking and Web Statistics; Rich User Interface; Real-time Analytics; Manage Multiple Blogs and Websites; Deep Analytic and Search Capabilities; Click-to-Chat; Visitor and Member Tagging; Real Time Notifications; Easy Installation and Update Notification and Developer Tools.

This is live stats – see it as it is happening on your website!

The Woopra interface installs onto your computer as a desktop client and it was very easy to install.

Currently, Woopra is in beta testing phase (version 1.2 beta) with access only available by private invitation. You can request an invitation by signing up for Woopra, and notification of approval will be by email. This is what I did

I had to wait a few weeks until yesterday when my Woopra request was approved. I then downloaded a tiny piece of javascript code and stuck it in the footer of the site and now I am Woopraing!

Web Analytics for Government

1 Day Web Analytics Course

Learn how to analyse a government website using Google Analytics, Urchin or another web analytics tool.

If you are currently using a web analytics tool to analyse your department’s website or are looking to add this to your website, then this course is for you.

In 2005 the Auditor General produced a report "Measuring the Efficiency and Effectiveness of E-Government". This report showed the importance of correctly measuring websites to provide evidence of the value of the online initiatives of government departments. This course will assist you to develop the skills to do just that.

In just 1 day we will take you from the basics of this tool through to advanced analysis. This course will use Google Analytics during the presentation, however the skills you learn during this course can be used in other web analytics tools such as:

• Urchin
• ClickTracks
• WebTrends
• Omniture
• HBX

Participants are encouraged to discuss their needs in advance of attending this course. Participant websites will be used as case studies during the course with their permission.

Who Should Attend?

Managers & professionals working in Government, web developers working on government websites

• Does your agency or department have a website?
• Are you looking to understand how successful your website is in serving your constituents?
• Are you interested in getting real results from your website?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this course is for you.

Where and When?

Melbourne – Wednesday October 22, 2008

Register at Panalyis.