Google Analytics
Search Engine Land is your source for Google Analytics news and content. You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
Don’t miss out! Get the Search Engine Land newsletter delivered daily to your inbox. Subscribe for free!
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 24, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo’s New Search Clothes — But Will It Help? (Probably Not) Less than a month after seeming to pull out of the search game by announcing a search outsourcing deal with […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 18, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: California Wildfires: August 2009 Edition Yes, parts of California are burning again — and the map makers are at work. Via Google’s Lat Long blog, there’s a new comprehensive map of […]
Seven Common Mistakes That Cause New Advertisers To Fail
The fundamentals of a good pay-per-click campaign have not changed over the past six years. However, every single day, advertisers new to the world of PPC advertising are making the same mistakes as veterans made years ago. You can save yourself lots of time and money by examining the mistakes of others so that you […]
SES San Jose Day Two Live Blog Coverage
Today is day two of three of the SES San Jose show. The sessions are now complete for the day and I believe I have complied a lot of the live blogging sessions. If I missed any, feel free to comment below. Here is some of the coverage for day one: Beyond Googling, Online Marketing […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 11, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Microsoft Doubles Up On Cashback To Give Bing A Boost Microsoft announced that they have created a “Bing stimulus package” using the Cashback program, in an attempt to encourage searchers to […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 10, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Pitches Benefits, Ease Of Using Google Maps Google’s outreach last week was all about Street View. This week it appears to be Google Maps’ turn in the spotlight, thanks to […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 5, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Buys Video Compression Company On2 Earlier today Google announced that it had acquired On2 Technologies in a stock deal worth approximately $106 million. There’s little true information about how Google […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 4, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo Enhances Flickr Search Just when you think Yahoo is out of the search game, they strut their stuff with an improved Flickr search. Flickr, the popular image service, has revamped […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 3, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How To Maximize The Impact Of Your Top Performing Keywords Behavior is unique for these high volume/value keywords and as a result, steps need to be taken to make these terms […]
Googlebot Makes An Appearance In Web Analytics Reports
A few days days ago, I noticed some strange Google Analytics data: Googlebot appeared as a browser in the reports. Although this might sound like a not-so-important fact when it comes to SEO, it is a major change in the Web Analytics field. As Avinash Kaushik and I wrote in the SEMJ journal article Web […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 27, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Geekynomics? Finding The Hidden Government Within Google’s Magic Money Machine Joseph Heath, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto, has published the timely Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate […]
Yellow Reflects on Chrome
Is the much ballyhooed Google Chrome — the new open source browser — as shiny for advertisers as it is for those testing the Microsoft beta version and commenting via online posts? Those of us in local search are sitting on the edge of our seats to find out for sure, since Google is considered […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 23, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo Buys Xoopit To Advance “Smarter Inbox” Strategy The web’s first (and some might still argue only) “killer app,” email, was invented roughly 35 years ago. And everyone seems to have […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 22, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Is Yahoo Trying To Sell Small Biz & HotJobs? Yesterday on the Yahoo Q2 earnings call, CEO Carol Bartz spent time talking about local and small business (SMB) advertising. She said […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 20, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Seeks Privacy Counsel With Gov’t Ties Google Watch points out a job posting on the Google site for “Privacy Policy Counsel” based in Washington, DC. Given that Google is under […]
Is Twitter Sending You 500% To 1600% More Traffic Than You Might Think?
Earlier I posted that Google Analytics and other JavaScript-based tracking tools might be undercounting visits from Twitter. I’ve done some more digging, which supports the case. In my test, Twitter seems to have sent 500% to 1600% more traffic than log files or hosted stats packages like Google Analytics might show. How Twitter Might Send […]
Google Announces “Favorite Places” Amid SMB Sales Event
Yesterday Google held a private event for small businesses (SMBs) at San Francisco City Hall hosted by SF Mayor Gavin Newsom. Private it was. As I searched for the email confirming that I was “on the list” (because I was told I wasn’t on the list when I arrived), I saw the gatekeepers turn many […]
Microsoft Fights Google Apps With Free, Web-based Office
Watching Google and Microsoft lately has been like watching a tennis match: Each company seems to be taking turns hitting back at the other with new announcements, new products, and so forth. The latest volley isn’t strictly search-related, but it’s very notable: Microsoft announced “lightweight” versions of its Office products that will be free and […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 13, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing’s Impact: 3 Things Search Marketers Need To Know Bing has made a splash in the media recently – but now that the hype has faded, what will be the real […]
Bing’s Impact: 3 Things Search Marketers Need To Know
Bing has made a splash in the media recently – but now that the hype has faded, what will be the real impact of the new search engine for search marketers in the trenches? Most professional search marketers are now used to the perpetual changes in algorithms, bidding systems, performance metrics, and ad center tools […]
Google Expands ‘My Location’ On The Desktop, Tests Search Layers In Maps
Two pretty cool things coming out of Google Maps today: First, an official announcement that Google’s “My Location” feature is now available more widely on the desktop. Second, Google Operating System has discovered what looks like a test that lets users create “search layers” in Google Maps. More on that in a moment. If you’ve […]
What Is Real Time Search? Definitions & Players
There seems to be no end to companies saying they offer real time search these days. And no end to people quoting how Google itself says it wants to improve in the area. But what does real time search really mean? This article offers some definitions and focuses on players in the space. Real Time […]
Google OS Reactions: The Positive, Negative & The Paranoid
Late yesterday Google announced (or finally admitted) that it had developed an operating system, called Chrome OS, not to be confused, exactly, with the related Chrome browser. Everyone and their grandmother seems to have an opinion about it. Here’s a sampling of the reaction, positive, negative and in-between: The fans, boosters and generally positive takes: […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 8, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Pitches New Small Business Customers, Ignores Existing Ones Google is hitting the streets of San Francisco next week — with at least one high-powered supporter in tow — to talk […]
The Google Operating System Is Real: Google Chrome OS Announced.
Ars Technica posted earlier that Google is to unveil its long rumored computer operating system, and now Google confirms this is true in a blog post: Introducing the Google Chrome OS. The company says that the OS will be released later this year (likely in the fall, I’m told) to developers, designed primarily for netbooks […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 6, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Image Search Makes SafeSearch Toggle Switch Quicker Google Image Search has made it a bit easier to toggle between the three levels of SafeSearch. SafeSearch is the adult image filter […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 2, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Blog Search Sees Twitter Trends & Raises With Blog Search ‘Hot Queries’ A lot of the innovation in search these days is all about What’s happening right now? Twitter is […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 30, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: OPA Study Reaffirms Display Ads Drive Search Search and display. One often hears how they work together, but there’s still plenty of skepticism out there, especially in the SEM community, about […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 29, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Long Tail of Paid Search Account Effort If you spend enough time sitting at your desk in summer, you can go slightly insane. That aside, daydreaming sometimes leads to back-door […]
Google Tests Dropping Off Country Specific Search?
The SEO Home blog has noticed that Google UK is now testing removing the radio button to only show “pages from the UK.” If you visit google.co.uk you may notice the radio button, but some are noticing that the radio button for that country specific option is now missing. Google UK With the Country Specific […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 26, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords Conversion Tracking: How To Optimize Your Account 10x Quicker Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could get data 10 times faster so you could make your bid & ad decisions […]
AdWords Conversion Tracking: How To Optimize Your Account 10x Quicker
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could get data 10 times faster so you could make your bid & ad decisions in days instead of weeks or months? If you are presently only tracking sales conversions in AdWords, there may be a better way.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 24, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How Twitter Might Send Far More Traffic Than You Think Over the past year, I’ve seen many people report that Twitter can send tons of traffic to a web site. Certainly […]
How Twitter Might Send Far More Traffic Than You Think
Over the past year, I’ve seen many people report that Twitter can send tons of traffic to a web site. Certainly I’ve seen first-hand how Twitter has become one of the top non-search referrer sources for Search Engine Land and for some other sites I oversee. But as much as you think Twitter is driving […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 22, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: It’s Official: Wikipedia Is A Google News Source Google’s “experiment” in using Wikipedia as a news source on Google News is over, at least in the U.S. and Canada. The experiment […]
Beginners Guide To Creating Mobile AdWords Campaigns
The number of people who access the web from a mobile device is on the rise. However, those accessing the web from a mobile device with a full browser (such as an iPhone or Blackberry Storm) and those on a mobile browser (such as Blackberry Curve) see different sets of information, and, more importantly to […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 19, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Goes Rainbow For Gay-Related Searches Google Operating System notes that Google is once again flying rainbow colors to support gay pride celebrations happening this month throughout the world. Certain searches […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 18, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Book Search Adds Seven New Features Today, Brandon Badger, Product Manager, Google Books, announced on the Inside Google Book Search Blog, seven, that’s right seven, new features and tools for […]
Google Enables Importing “Goals” Into AdWords For Easier Conversion Tracking
The Google Analytics Blog announced that advertisers can now import their Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into AdWords for conversion-tracking purposes and CPA bidding. Beyond CPA bidding the benefit is that it “lets you track campaign ROI and optimize your account for conversions directly inside the AdWords interface.” The move simplifies the overall process of […]
Do-It-Yourself SEO Advice For SMBs
In last week’s Small Is Beautiful column, Hanan Lifshitz posed the question “Do SMBs Still Need the Middleman to Advertise?” It’s an especially timely question, given the recent Borrell report about the number of small businesses who cancel their contracts with online advertising providers within a year. The short version of my reaction to the […]