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 [...]

If you’ve followed my blog musings in the last year or so at Portent, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a dashboard nut. My Perfect Google Analytics Dashboard post took off in ways I never imagined. (Thanks guys!) But here’s the thing: I was lying to you all – or misleading you, anyway. There [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

Friends, SEOmans, eMad Men— LEND IAN YOUR EARS. Tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. (PST), Ian Lurie, CEO and Webfather of Portent, Inc., will give an exclusive webinar at SEOmoz.  His free-to-all-comers presentation “Data-Driven Content” will illuminate, educate, inform and otherwise rock your search marketing world.  (We hope.) Topics Ian will cover include: Why great content is [...]

Google Analytics is Hard Google Analytics is tricky. There are cookies, utm_codes, and lots of counterintuitive definitions. As Kanye West would say, “It’s enough to drive a sane man biz-erk.” Can’t Someone Put This All in One Place? When I was studying for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification, I was overwhelmed by the number of [...]

I cannot lie – The prospect of taking the Google Analytics Certification Test intimidated me. I know my way around Google Analytics well. I counsel clients. But Google has this way of concocting test questions that are just odd enough to make you question your answers. Would there be lots of questions on the code [...]

I’m Michael Wiegand, resident Analytics nerd at Portent. Let’s be honest: With a slew of new Google Analytics features being launched every 6-12 months, it can make your head spin just keeping up, let alone finding a practical application for them. In this monthly series, I’ll tackle making sense of one of the more powerful [...]

If there’s one amazing thing about Google Analytics, it’s that Google’s ability to improve it is never dormant. At their Mountain View compound, they’re always looking for a way to constantly better their products. Here at Portent, we have a similar resolve – except that ours is to exploit Google’s tools to achieve our internet [...]