Benefits of Google Website Optimizer

Posted on March 10, 2010
Filed Under Google Ad Words, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Quality Score, Google Updates, Google Website Optimizer, Pay Per Click, Toronto SEM Consulting, Web Analytics | Leave a Comment

Google Website Optimizer

Google has become the most important search engine because it is used by the majority of online users. This has resulted in businesses needing to take steps to optimize their websites to make them Google search engine friendly and increase their search engine rankings. It has become essential for a business website to rank on the first page of a Google ‘search’ that is related to their business in order to reach their targeted customers. The Google Website Optimizer is a key tool to helping a business increase online visibility.

The Google Website Optimizer is a tool that permits website owners to test various versions of their site content so they can determine what will best attract their targeted audience. In other words, they test different versions of the content on their live site to learn what will lead to the highest conversion rates.

There are a number of benefits to using the Google Website Optimizer. For instance, testing various versions of a website landing page will help you identify the best content that causes users to take action. Because the landing page is the main page used to attract users, using multivariate tests on such things as promotional text, headlines, calls to action, and images, the goal of your page can effectively achieved and the page communicates the call to action you want users to take.

The Website Optimizer allows you to create experiments where you test your landing page and a conversion page. You tag these pages with experiment tags that Google provides. You will then push the tagged versions of your pages live. Once your pages are tagged, you can make the rest of the changes. You can add different variations of content to test into the Website Optimizer tool. You will then launch the experiment. When your test page is opened in a browser, the experiment tags on your page will contact the Website Optimizer and request a set of variations to display on the test page. When a user visits your test page, they will see one combination of your content variations. If the user proceeds to your conversion page, Google will record a conversion. After you launch your experiment, Google will provide you with reports about performance of your test content.

Testing will enable you to identify what users respond to best so you can create a website that will be more effective in getting your desired business you want. The only way to figure out what content will work best on your site is to test different content. The Google Website Optimizer will help you study the effects of different content on your users so that you can create the most profitable website.

Take a quick tour of the benefits of Google Website Optimizer

Google AdWords Management

Posted on February 4, 2010
Filed Under Google Ad Words, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Quality Score, Toronto SEO Consulting | Leave a Comment

Google AdWords Management

Google is the most popular and most used search engine today. When website owners promote their site, it is essential that they are included in Google. Google AdWords ™ is an innovative advertising program available to all business marketers, no matter the size of the company, which allows businesses to reach potential customers.

When you do a Google search, you will see a list on the right side of the results page that says ‘Sponsored Links.’ These advertisements are placed by Google’s AdWords program on behalf of the advertiser. An advertiser only pays Google when someone clicks on the ad and goes to the advertiser’s website. It is an effective marketing campaign that allows for any budget no matter how big or small. As well, advertisers can reach national or global internet users.

With Google AdWords management, you create your advertisements and choose keywords that are relevant to your business. When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to the search results. One can then ‘click’ on your ad and go directly to your website. When it comes to setting your budget, there is no minimum spending amount required. For example, you can set a daily budget of $3.00 with a cost of .10 cents for each click. It will all depend on how much you can afford and you can modify your budget at anytime. You are charged only when someone clicks the ad, not when it is displayed. Payment options vary by country and currency.

The key to running an effective Google Adwords campaign is implementing the best possible AdWords set up. The keywords and phrases should describe what product or service you offer. The goal is to place your ad ahead of your competitors and where potential customers will see it. You have to be able to come up with the keywords people use when searching for a company that offers your products or services. The ads and keywords have to be highly targeted so that Google shows it in the appropriate place. Google’s ‘contextual targeting technology’ can automatically place your ads on web pages in their content network that are most relevant to your business. If you want more control, you can use placement targeting to manually pick exact sites or sections of sites where you want your ads to be displayed. You can then measure and optimize your results.

With the ‘Placement Performance Report,’ you will be able to review the performance of your ad on each site. That is, you can assess how well your ad is performing by looking at the number of clicks and impressions, cost, and conversion figures. You can then make modifications to improve your marketing strategy allowing for effective Google PPC management.

With so many quality business websites competing to attract customers, Google AdWords is an excellent way to reach your targeted customers. It only takes a few minutes to have your campaign go ‘live’ after you have completed the setup process. You have a choice of image, text, and video formats. The key to a successful AdWords campaign is to select the right keywords so that your ad appears on the first page of a users search results and the ad is positioned at the top or near the top of the ‘Sponsored Links’ column.

SEOmoz Linkscape - Accurate Link Intelligence

Setting Up Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking

Posted on January 26, 2010
Filed Under Google Analytics, Google Updates, Web Analytics | Leave a Comment

Google launches asynchronous tracking as an alternative google analysis tracking tool to help website owners track their site visitors. The Google Analytics Asynchronous Tracking Code snippet is a small piece of JavaScript code that website owners paste into their web pages. It activates Google Analytics tracking by inserting ga.js into the page which then provides an API for customizing how the page is tracked.

Google explains that there are a number of advantages to using Asynchronous tracking that include: ‘allows for much quicker tracking code load times as a result of the improved browser execution, optimizes how browsers load ga.js, eliminates tracking errors from dependencies when the JavaScript hasn’t fully loaded, and improves data collection and accuracy.’

The below snippet displays the minimum configuration required to track a page asynchronously. It denotes the page’s web property ID and then calls ’trackPageview’ to send the tracking data back to the Google Analytics servers.  The best location for the google analytics tracking snippet is at the top of the <body> section. To set up asynchronous tracking, you just have to copy and paste the following snippet replacing UA-XXXXX-X with your web property ID:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push([’_setAccount’, ‘UA-XXXXX-X’]);

_gaq.push([’_trackPageview’]);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement(’script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;

ga.src = (’https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;

(document.getElementsByTagName(’head’)[0] || document.getElementsByTagName(’body’)[0]).appendChild(ga);

})();

</script>

If you want to add the asynchronous snippet on pages that do not use Google Analytics or are currently using traditional tracking with ga.js, Google shows how you can convert your pages to use the asynchronous snippet by doing the following:

1. If the page already uses Analytics, remove your existing tracking code snippet and any customizations you have made.

2. Insert the asynchronous snippet at the top of the <body> section of your pages.

3. Modify the _setAccount method with your web property ID.

4. Add your customizations back in using the asynchronous syntax.

If you would rather place the Analytics snippet at the bottom of the page, you can still keep most of the benefits of asynchronous loading by splitting the snippet in half. You have to keep the first half at the top of the page and the other half at the bottom of the page. You will have to place the snippet that inserts ga.js at the bottom of the page. For more detailed information about setting up asynchronous analytics tracking and answers to common installation questions, Google Analytics provides a helpful guide on their Google code web pages.

keep looking »

Recently


Categories


Archives