The short version, if you want to skip me ranting like a lunatic: Google Webmaster Tools query data is, as far as I can tell, completely, 100% useless. It’s not a good ‘relative comparison.’ It’s so wrong that it might actually be a bad idea to use it at all. Now, here’s the whole, tragic [...]

I’ve talked about data visualization a few times now. Every time, I change the presentation, adding stuff, tweaking it, etc. This is the latest version. It’s not annotated (sorry) but it’s pretty self-explanatory. Have a look: There’s also a growing link bundle here that has all the stuff I reference. Oh, and hey: If you [...]

It’s no accident that Google Analytics is the most widely used analytics platform on the web. According to W3Techs, and cited by TechCrunch, GA has an overwhelming market share among web analytics platforms at 81.9%, and is used by more than 55% of the top 10,000 sites. Beloved for its intuitive format and multi-dimensional reporting abilities, [...]

You’re a small business and you’ve got a decent website—but you’re not sure how it’s doing. What you need is Google Analytics (GA), but you’re not sure what to make of all the reporting options. Don’t worry, we can help. What’s Important in Google Analytics? For a small business, the most complex reports aren’t going [...]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve probably seen that Google Analytics (GA) announced a new beta called Shortcuts: The idea is you can save new report views you’ve just discovered or old report views that you revisit often. How Do I Make a Shortcut? Couldn’t be simpler, really. [...]

I gave a talk titled Data That Persuades at SES San Francisco yesterday. I’d like to say it was a fantastic home run, but I was bleary-eyed and out of it, and I think some of my points didn’t totally get across. So, I just finished an annotated version: All my slides, with notes explaining [...]

Google AdWords (AW) Remarketing has been a brilliant tool from the outset, but let’s not kid ourselves – it’s a bit of a chore to set up. You have to generate yet another tracking code, tag various pages on your site with it and wait for those pixels to gather precious user cookies. Google – [...]

Who saved Middle Earth? No, not Frodo. His will shredded like wet toilet paper. Gollum took the lava bath, destroyed the ring, and saved everyone from a 36″ Dark Lord. Does he get any credit? Nooooooo. Nine-fingered Frodo is the hero. The ladies all swoon at Legolas and Aragorn. But not poor Gollum. Internet marketers, [...]

Building dashboards is a big to-do for any marketing professional. The temptation is to cram it full of juicy data and a novel worth of narrative explaining said data. Well, you shouldn’t. Trust me. There is such a thing as the perfect dashboard. And I’ve already built it for you. The Anatomy of the Perfect [...]

I noticed that my original Google Analytics video tutorial is a wee bit out of date. Like, 4 years out of date. So, here’s a new basic install video: