I find metrics and business intelligence to be extremely telling and cannot live without them. The ability to test, optimize, re-test and ultimately obtain the desired action of a user or customer at the best possible price is something only afforded to online advertising and marketing as long as you use the right tools.

I am sure you have heard of conversion tracking, and Google’s tools within AdWords and Analytics make it very easy. Here is my guide to setting up, finding the data, and understanding the differences between Google AdWords Conversions and Google Analytics Goals and Filters.

First Setup Google AdWords to talk to Google Analytics

Be sure to tie your Google AdWords account to your Google Analytics account. To do so you need to have the email that you use as your AdWords login the same as an email of a user of your Google Analytics. Once you have an email that is the same for both AdWords and Analytics you login to your Google Adwords account. On the top menu click the Analytics tab (see graphic below).

The Analytics account will be listed as long as your Analytics has a user with the same email as your AdWords account. Follow the steps and you will then see your Analytics reports available via the “Analytics” tab within Google AdWords.

How to Setup Conversion Tracking within Google AdWords

To set up the conversion tracking within Google AdWords click on the “Conversion Tracking” submenu underneath the “Campaign Management” tab.

You then “Create a New Action” and you need to name it, such as “Registrations”, other data can be associated to it also. Once you save the action you will be given code to put on the page.

You copy the code and paste it into the page that the user will see after they take your desired action. For example if you have a registration page named “register.php” and it collects their name and email with a button to “register” and the next page once registered is “welcome.php” then you put the code on the “welcome.php” page.

Example of how the flow of data works with AdWords: an individual searches on your keyword within Google, the Google network, or Content Network (depending on how you set up your AdWords campaign) then they see one of your advertisements (you can create many different variations) and go to your landing page, submit the information to register with you, then the next page which has the Conversion Tracking code is presented to the user “Thanks for Registering” and the code pings Google AdWords to register a conversion.

You will now see which Campaign, AdGroup, Keyword and Advertisement within Google AdWords generated that conversion. Cost per conversion and other useful information is provided as well.

How to Setup Conversion Tracking within Google Analytics

To set up the conversion tracking with Google Analytics you create what they call “Goals”. To set up a goal you first look under the “Website Profiles” and next to your Domain you will see the “View Reports” and “Edit” under “Settings”.

You will see under the “Conversion Goals and Funnel” heading a list of Goal Names, starting with sequential numbering of G1 G2 G3 etc. Click the “Edit” link under settings to set up a Goal.

Note: What is different about the Google Analytic Goal tracking code as opposed to Google AdWords Conversion Tracking is that you do not need to set up code on your pages for the Goal Tracking. However, you must have the generic Google Analytics code on all your pages for it to work.

There are a list of fields to fill out, the question marks provide information on what is needed. Two main items to understand, Goals and Funnels. Goals are set up by simply putting the URL of the page that as the Goal page. Every visit to that page will be counted so you need to be careful and assure that is a unique page that can only be accessed the way you want. For example if the Goal page is your home page because a new registrant is taken to the home page after registering you will not only have the total of new registrants but it will also show the total number of visits to the home page for that day. The total will be inflated. This is the major difference between the accuracy of the AdWords Conversion tracking and the Google Analytics Goal tracking. However, the Funnels, which are optional, assist in removing the inflated Goal counts.

To utilize Filters, which are incredibly helpful and powerful, you define the path you would like to see a person take. In other words your Goal may show 10 registrants, however you may want to know if they went to the Goal page by first going to the registration page as this would remove all the inflated visitors. For example, if the Goal shows 20 visits to the Goal page and only 10 came from the registration page then you know there were 10 registrants. Utilizing filters can be used for many purposes.

Here are two powerful uses of the Goals and Filters, for internal site development and optimization as well as external advertising campaign testing.

First, internally you can use the filters to show the paths that are taken to registration. Is it home page –> registration or content page –> registration, any path you may suspect or see within Analytics you can filter here.

Also, internally if you have a multi-page sign up process you can determine exactly which pages potential registrants drop off. You may have individuals drop off when you ask certain questions or on certain pages, great to be able to test.

Second, to monitor external advertising campaigns that use unique landing pages you create, you can show filtering from page1 –> registration or page2 –> registration etc. This is a great way to determine, in a process of pages, which campaigns work best.

Where to Find the AdWords Conversions within Google AdWords

You can also find the AdWords conversion data within AdWords. Total number of Conversions are listed by Campaign Name, by Ad Group Name within the Campaign, by Advertisement Variation and by Keywords. The data will always be listed under the “Conversions” column.

Where to Find the AdWords Conversions and Goals within Google Analytics

Before we discuss how to use the Goal and Conversions, here is where you find the data with Google Analytics. The image on the left shows the data for AdWords is found under the “Traffic Sources” menu item. While the image on the right shows the Goals information is shown under the “Goals” tab, a lot of great information.

Now You’re Ready!
That’s it, now you are up and running and know the differences between the Google Conversion tracking with AdWords and the Google Analytics Goals and Funnels. The above is meant to get you started, however does not even begin to touch on the various ways in which you can use the data. Begin to use the tools, use your imagination and you will be wondering why you never used them before.

Sphinn is a site for online marketers to share, post, vote and learn from others. Mainly search engine optimization articles. Apparently the very well known Danny Sullivan, in that industry, launched Sphinn. Sphinn is a “digg” style site. Take a look a Sphinn here.

Google Blog Search allows anyone to search blogs and only blogs. Just as you would want your site to be listed in Google search you also want to be listed in Google blog search.

Manual Ping
The quick and easy way to assure you are indexed in the Google blog search is to manually enter your sites URL, what they call a ping by going here and simply pasting your sites feed address. A feed address may appear as “yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml”, “yoursite.com/wp-rss.php” or “feeds.feedburner.com/yourfeedname”. Enter your feed and submit. While this is easy it would be ideal to alert Google and others automatically every time your feed is updated.

Automatic Ping
WordPress and others have this set up already, recent versions of WordPress already have the Google blog search set to be pinged. However if you are using an older version of WordPress and do not wish to upgrade or have another content management system that has an XML-RPC client then check to make sure it is set up. In WordPress you navigate to the settings –> writing or in older versions options –> writing, there you will find the Update Services section, check to see if this is listed http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 and if so you are fine otherwise paste it in and save changes. If however you have a rest client the URL is http://blogsearch.google.com/ping.

More detail can be found on the Google Blog Search Pinging Service API page and Frequently Asked Questions about Google blog search.

I wrote about the SEO SpyGlass tool and why you would use it, now let’s take a look at how you can use it. To obtain a copy of you can Buy the SEO SpyGlass Tool Here.

First, what is the SEO SpyGlass tool? The tool has one mission, and that is to help you rank highly in the search engine for the key words that you wish to rank high for. In order to obtain a high rank for any keyword you need to analyze the pages that currently have the keyword spots. By determining how the high ranking pages got there you can duplicate that effort or a similar one and hopefully obtain a similar ranking.

Once you get a copy here is how it works. You can choose one of two ways to start. Choose the keyword you wish to rank highly for, and SpyGlass will determine the highest ranking site. Or you can choose a competitor site and SpyGlass will analyze that one. See the screen shot below, I choose the keyword sunglasses.

After you have chosen your keyword or URL of a competitor you then choose which search engine you want them be analyzed on. Most traffic come from Google, however many search engines are available to determine the best optimization. The next screen, below, chooses Google as the search engine to analyze the keyword sunglasses on.

Now SpyGlass does what it is best at and begins to analyze the top ranked site for the word sunglasses. Once the analysis is done you will see a row for every link showing the:

• Search Engine
• URL
• Page Rank
• Title
• Links Back
• Anchor Text
• Anchor URL
• Outbound Links
• Total Links
• Link Value

All the above and more is provided. This is all on the first tab after analysis labeled Search Engine Data, in this case for the word sunglasses the top Google hit was sunglasshut.com and that was analyzed. The second tab is labeled SEO Report.

The SEO Report is fantastic, it tells you step by step what to do next. There are seven sections:

• 1. Optimize keywords
• 2. Increase Google PR
• 3. Find link partners
• 4. Submit articles
• 5. Find traffic sources
• 6. Use social media
• 7. Get listed in directories

Each section tells you exactly what steps to take, for example the Get listed in directories section gives you links to the directories to submit your site to. You simply go down the list, submit to all and you are done. Step by step instructions are given for every section.

SEO SpyGlass is a powerful tool, follow the instructions and you may see your search engine rank increase significantly.

Learn more about the SEO SpyGlass Tool here, or buy your copy now, or download a trial copy here.

In case you are wondering the tool is search engine safe and friendly. SEO SpyGlass is 100% safe and Google-friendly. SEO SpyGlass includes support for both Google and Yahoo! API keys to make sure you access these search engines safely. Plus, SEO SpyGlass supports Human Emulation, which makes the software appear to search engines as a living breathing human being with a Web browser — so search engine won’t tell the difference. SEO SpyGlass also fully supports working from behind a proxy, so you can still monitor your rankings without problems.

With regard to future updates, the program will download updates automatically as soon as you start it. Buy your copy here.

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Stay tuned as I install and test SEO Suite v8 from Apex Pacific. Find a direct link to the trial download page here.

Apex Pacific also has many other useful products we will test later. I will post the user experience of the software, ease of use, run some tests and provide results.

Technorati is a site to track blogs and media through tagging. They currently track 107.3 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media, as of the writing of this article.

Tagging is done by you and as long as you use their required code you will be submitted to their system. You may tag your post with keywords that you believe are relevant to your post. As Technorati is so large now you want to be found in their system. Some sites make their decisions on whether or not you can participate in an advertising campaign or even make your services available in their directory look at Technorati as one of the deciding factors, such as ReviewMe.

Here are the steps to get started:

• join free here
• enter and claim your blog or site so Technorati may validate you own the blog, all you do is create a post with a code they give you. Once you are validated you may then delete your post.
• you will have a main account with a bio and other information, which is about you
• next you will enter general tags for you
• most importantly, you will never be found in Technorati, you need to enter tags for every post you have

Now you will be found in the Technorati directory. Their metrics include a Ranking, Authority and a Favorite metric. To assure you are in the directory you need to use the following code: which they calculate, and a favorite rating.

Tags will assist in bettering your Technorati rank. To place a Technorati keyword on your post, below is the code for tagging your content: vc news

Code for tags:
<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/VC%20News" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/technorati.com');" rel="tag">VC News</a>

Favorite buttons such as this, get the code from Technorati, allow users to Favorite your site

Code for favorite button:
<br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://www.longest.com" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/technorati.com');"><img src="http://static.technorati.com/pix/fave/tech-fav-1.png" alt="Add to Technorati Favorites" /></a>

Technorati Tags: wordpress, technorati, website traffic

WordTracker is a great tool. It allows you to increase your site traffic faster and cheaper when used appropriately. Especially in conjunction with posts that use permalinks (see our past article) having those keywords. WordTracker let’s you determine what people are searching for on the Web. It also helps you identify keywords and phrases that are relevant to your site or business and most likely to be used as queries by search engine visitors. You can also determine how many competing sites are using those keywords and can identify the phrases that have the greatest traffic potential. A quote from a user on their site.

“Why I use Wordtracker as my Number One Search Engine Positioning Tool.” Nick Usborne Copywriter

Wordtracker is now the industry’s leading keyword research tool, as they have a database of over 330 million search terms updated on a weekly basis. Links to Wordtracker:

• Keyword Tracker Tool
• Free Trial
• Product Tool
• WordTracker Offers

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Technorati Tags: wordtracker, seo, search engine optimization