The worst job in the world? President. I’d rather be a telemarketer (been there, done that). It’s not the assassination threats, or the constant hounding by the press, or the fact that you can blow up the earth about 40 times over. It’s about attribution. You get ‘credit’ for things that go wrong, and no [...]

This video is now out of date. See the latest GA install tutorial here. Soooooo, I started this tutorial with every intention of being serious. But it’s been a long week, I was up at 4:30 AM and I had Evan in the tutorial. Things went downhill fast. Regardless, it still shows you how to [...]

I’m an idiot. Last week, someone commented on a post I wrote for SEOMOZ’s YouMOZ service that they’d like a Google Analytics Cheatsheet. I wrote back “OK, I’ll do it.” Guess what? Google Analytics has a ton of features. And even more tricks and hacks that folks have developed over the years. So this 2-page [...]

I just published a new post up on SEOMOZ’s YouMOZ. It’s worth a read if you’re looking for a way to find pages on your site that have not received any clicks from organic search. Find Invisible Pages Using Google Analytics

Seriously, this is not, and never has been, an ‘adult’ site. K? You’re wondering why I even have to say that? Well, today I innocently took a glance at my Google Analytics referring keyword report, and look at my #1 keyword for the last 30 days: I thought maybe that was some kind of organization [...]

You may think that, with Google Analytics, you don’t need your server log files any more. Or, as someone who runs a web site for your business, you may not even know what log files are. They’re redundant, right? Wrong. You still need those log files! What’s a log file? Whoa there, you say. Ian, [...]

I’m speaking at Pubcon tomorrow in the Real-World Content Creation Tactics session. I’m going to focus on how you avoid destroying copy with SEO, and how to do great analytics-centric SEO. If you know me, you know I rehearse, in part, by writing. So here you go – a preview of tomorrow’s talk. “Write good [...]

This post assumes you’re a Feedburner user. If you’re not, here’s the short version: Feedburner gives you a bunch of free tools to enhance your site’s RSS feed. You can read more and get set up (for free) here. Everyone brags about their Feedburner subscriber numbers. Too bad those don’t really tell you squat. The [...]

It’s not that bad, I swear! 27 easy little steps that will take you from the day the boss pokes her head into your office and says “Hey, I think we need analytics” to the night you get Employee of the Year for leading a company-wide turnaround. Establish from the start that analytics is not [...]

My mom’s a PHD physicist. My dad, a PHD engineer. By the time I was 13 they’d both given up on any dreams of me being a math genius and instead hoped I’d finally count to 20 without removing my shoes. So, when I click ‘publish’ for this post, I’m going to flinch a little, [...]