If you work with a site that publishes articles on a regular basis then you should be familiar with how your content performs and where people are coming from. It’s also important to keep an eye out for problems, traffic spikes, and a new incoming traffic sources. This guide is a quick overview of basic Google Analytics (GA) for content site managers.
In an effort to help the content managers for SocialMediaToday.com (and sister sites), I came up with this quick guide to using GA. I believe that content managers should be able to answer 5 basic questions on a weekly basis. Additionally, if you own a content site but do not directly manage the content, this will give you a good sense of how “well” your site is doing (depending on the goals you have for the site). Please note that this information works for any analytics program though the screen names will, of course, be different.
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The number-one cause for broken pages, missed messages, mysterious errors, and general frustration is, from where I stand, uncorrected fat-finger errors. I say uncorrected because the problem isn’t the mistake, it’s that the mistake is made live and propagates. So, I’m proposing a simple solution: the F-word.
Two kinds of typos
To be clear, I’m only speaking about one kind of typo here as there are two types:
- Typos that cause problems
- Typos that don’t cause problems
A misspelled word in your blog post, content page, or email probably isn’t going to cause a problem. What will cause a problem is a typo in a link, file structure, or code file. Additional problem-causers:
- Misspelled names (people hate that)
- Misspelled URLs (people hate that too)
- Misspelled word in headlines (might not cause a problem but it’s a big typo, literally, so it’s extra embarrassing)
- Incorrect date on a publication
A new name for a problem-causing typo: the F*CKING Typo
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Something interesting happens when you let someone into your life to take care of things you’re unable or unwilling to do for yourself. There’s this fascinating level of intimacy that develops over a short period of time as one aspect of your life or business is cracked open and laid bare before someone else, a person with which you may not already have a relationship.
In order to fix the leaky pipe, get the car to start, or, in my case, remedy an ailing website, you have to give someone the keys and stand back. We, the service providers, have to get up close and personal with the inner workings of your house/car/website/life to correct the problem. It’s this unintentional close examination of what’s broken and the surrounding area that can tell a distinct story to the people who want to listen.
This idea of service provider intimacy isn’t new (is anything anymore?) but the point was made very clear to me recently.
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I was asked recently by a potential client what my “philosophy of the web” is. What seemed like a strange question at first made perfect sense when I thought about it a little more. We have an approach or philosophy about business, art, relationships, science… almost anything involving a verb. So why wouldn’t we have one for working with and on the web?
"mediocrity now howls in protest" by Hugh MacLeod
Without sounding overly simplistic, I think there are 3 types of businesses on the web, each with their own web philosophy:
- Ones that try to milk or exploit the web (think spammers, Zynga, the “make millions on Google” crowd). These people aren’t always dirtbags nor are they breaking the law but they’re looking to take everything they can get without giving much back.
- Ones that just see the web as another medium to conduct business. Decisions on the web are made the same way any other decision in the business is made. Should we change our health care provider? Should we move our office to another city? Should we invest time in a Facebook page?
- Ones that have a sincere passion for the web and what it can do for people. These are people who contribute valuable work to open source projects, manage vibrant communities of people, and write about these things because they can’t help themselves.
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December 2009, I looked back through the analytics of several busy content sites I help manage and saw a serious traffic drop-off. It’s no fun being the bearer of bad news and the news was pretty bad. Most sites were seeing close to a 40% decrease in overall traffic starting on the first week of December. It was ugly.
A little internet research, typically the cure for any random issue you can’t seem to explain on your own, did not do much to allay our fears that something – something terrible – was happening. There were a few anecdotal reports of traffic drops but I could not find anything that allayed our fear. We crossed our fingers, took some time off, and hoped for the best.
Turns out that the significant down-turn cleared itself up by the first non-holiday week in January. Here are the visitor graphs to illustrate:
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8 months ago, I was able to make the switch to being a completely virtual worker. This is something I did with great excitement, partially because of the position that let me make this shift but also because it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. I imagined a one “day on, one day off” schedule: I would spend one day completely unkempt, partially disrobed, and eating anything I found in the kitchen and the next I would make sure I had at least pants on and surf from coffee shop to coffee shop sipping espresso and checking my email on a patio. It sounded glorious.
But, like always, reality stepped in fairly quickly and reminded me that the days between showers are unpleasant, coffee shops are expensive, and working from home has some subtle pitfalls that make it much less of a paradise than one might expect. Since my month (or two) of adjustment, I’ve learned what makes me a happy, successful, home-based cog and what can turn me into a grumpy, malnourished, pain in the ass. Some of it is attitude but a good portion comes from the right tools for the job.
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