It is difficult, sometimes, to convince a client that their website is actually performing quite well. Clients expectations, sometimes, far exceed their websites ability to perform. Google Analytics offers an industry leading statistics engine for website owners and developers to track and trend website performance.

Using Analytics to better understand how visitors behave, we can determine how they are finding a website, what search engines are people using and what keywords visitors use when searching. We can also review bounce rates and the number of pages viewed by a visitor.

The one thing we could not do in the past was demonstrate to the client that their websites performance is good, or bad, based on benchmarking. It was nearly impossible to demonstrate that other websites of similar size and nature perform better or worse than the clients website.

Google has “stepped up” and changed this by introducing “Benchmarking”. As users of Google Analytics, we have been given the choice to share the statistical data gathered from our websites. In return, Google has made the “Benchmarking” data available back to us.

Google states that there will be a minimum of 100 accounts compared in any given category. Some categories could potentially have thousands of sites being benchmarked.

The data from participating sites is averaged and anonymized through the aggregation process, then classified into a category. We limit the effects of outlier sites from the aggregate data in each category to help ensure that the benchmarking data is most representative of the industry vertical you choose to compare your site against.

Google Analytics Benchmarking Help

Google exposes vertical categories when there are enough websites that fall into the category. If a category for your vertical market is not showing, it is likely because there is not enough data to create a direct benchmark. You will still be able to benchmark websites of a similar size.Google Analytics benchmarking currently allows us to show a comparison for the following metrix;

• Visits – unique visitors to the website. Not hits… hits don’t mean anything.
• Bounce Rate – did they pop in and out again…
• Pageviews – total number of pages viewed during the reporting period.
• Avg. Time on Site – how long did the “stick”.
• Pages/Visit – how many pages a visitor viewed for this visit.
• New Visits vs. Returning Visitors

We currently add analytics to all of our accounts where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Online Marketing services are involved. If you are a website owner and would like to have Google Analytics installed on your website, please feel free to contact us and we would be glad to help you.

Understanding how your website is performing in relationship to search, online marketing and in comparison to your vertical markets is critically important. If you have a website and are not measuring it’s success, you may be missing an opportunity to improve.

Getting visitors is okay – Getting customers better!(tm)

Regards,

David A. West
eKzact is a leading Calgary Website Design company.

I read about “off line” or “disconnected” web applications some time ago. We are now starting to see these off line applications come into production use. Google has recently added the ability to use their popular “Google Docs” applications off line.

The Google Docs applications include a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application. Up until this point, Google Docs has been an on line only application. While the apps are extremely useful and easy to use, the limitation of only being able to work while on line was at time difficult. The limitation of only being able to show a presentation, for example, while connected to the Internet was one of the biggest limitations that I found.

The advent of the ability to synchronize a local copy of the Google apps and my actual files to my local laptop has removed the limitations. I can now work on a presentation or document on line, and in full collaboration with my peers, and then take my laptop off line (say flying to Vancouver) and continue to work on my presentation. When I arrive in Vancouver and setup to speak at the convention center, I can run the off line version of my presentation during my lecture!

If you haven’t tried Google Docs, you can easily create a free Google account and give them a try. If you are looking for an enterprise solution to email, document collaboration and calendaring, then you should consider Google Apps for your business. We have helped several small business clients in recent weeks to take full advantage of Google Apps in their business. Our own company, eKzact Solutions, has been using Google Apps for nearly 5 months now. We have grown to love the Shared Calendaring, Gmail Interface and the Apps for document collaboration.

One really nice feature of Google Apps is that we get all of the upgrades Google staffers enjoy! No fees for upgrades, and no fear of end of life. Google uses their own applications to support their own business and their 10,000+ employees around the world.

If you would like to learn more about integrating Google Apps into your business, please drop us a note here.

Cheers,

David West

Or is there? You may have noticed the billboards promoting a new Cellular phone service – Koodo Mobile. My first impression was, “cool”. Competition for Rogers and Telus. I thought to myself, “gee, I hope these Koodo folks are tuned into customer service. I hope they will answer their phones when we call.”

 

It turns out that my hopes for a new cellular phone service in Canada will have to wait. Koodo is a brand name that Telus has used to launch a new product to appeal to the younger demographic (apparently). Koodo is to Telus, as Fido is to Rogers. A no frills, pay per second, digital cellular phone product.

 

While there is no mention of the relationship between Koodo and Telus on the Koodomobile.com website, a quick search on my favorite search engine returned the results I was looking for.

 

 

The discount carrier is owned by Western Canada’s top telecom operator, Telus Corp., which already offers wireless services under its own brand but wants to target a new demographic without changing its core image.

- Telecomunications Industry News

 

 

It’s interesting that the same features that clients have grown to dislike in their core cellular services, access fees, unnecessary media services, excess fees, per minute billing etc., are the features that they are promoting at Koodo.

 

It’s actually a pretty good idea. Cover all of the markets. Launch a new brand that has no reputation, good or bad. Generate more business. It’s really not unlike the numerous web developers who have multiple website to generate business in several markets.

 

Koodo’s to you Telus. I like the new Koodo brand and the offering. I just have to decide now between Fido or Koodo for my teenagers

 

Cheers

David A. West

 

PS: Koodo Mobile, Telus, Rogers and Fido are all trademarks of their respected owers and mentioned here only because of the newsworthiness of the topic.