We live in very complex times. As much as we talk about integrated insights, it only seems to be getting worse.
If I sound a little bleak it’s because this statement has been shared ad nauseam: digital marketers are literally drowning in data.
Data sources range from anecdotal and trivial to scientifically precise, and span numerous systems both on premise, in the cloud, and property of third-party data providers. Using several approaches to arrive at a single truth (to within a reasonable variance, I might add) is extremely difficult. …continue reading The Pros and Cons of Big Data Democratization
It was over a year ago that I first wrote about do not track legislation, and luckily for most organizations the browser-provided imperative is loosely supported or regulated today, with very few sites adhering to interpretation and compliance of the preference.
For the most part, do not track legislation is often misunderstood by the general public, and even our regulators in its definition, usage, and most importantly the privacy implications and confidence it is meant to instill. …continue reading 9 Ways to Prepare for a Future Without Cookie Tracking
Building a center of excellence analytics practice, whether it’s web analytics or data analytics, is bound to get you a lot of attention. The self-perpetuating cycle of asking business questions, diving deep into analytics data, providing actionable insights, and testing data-driven recommendations often scales by orders of magnitude quicker than the human resources and tools often allow.
Eventually, every practice runs into the problem of having to prioritize competing stakeholder demands, which is a great problem to have, but without the proper prioritization model in place, many shops can quickly fall victim to politics and worse yet, analysis paralysis. …continue reading How to Introduce a Politics-Free Prioritization Model for Analytics Reporting
One of the biggest challenges a marketer faces when trying to accurately attribute campaign success to different mediums is consistent use of campaign parameters to further segment and demystify the “Direct” or “Bookmarked” traffic sources in analytics software. …continue reading Demystifying Direct/Bookmarked Traffic in Analytics Reports
My last article provided the top five arguments for implementing a tag management solution. By now you might even be sold on implementing one in the near future, but inevitably every organization has to examine many of the same use cases and value assessments.
Let’s face it, the competition is stiff, and vendors are at each other’s throats to get your business, but the toughest-fought battle will be with your own organization.
Here are some of the biggest objections that you’re likely to face and how to squash all fears. …continue reading Top 5 reasons against implementing a tag management system and how to squash them
As I wrote in my web analytics 2012 year in review, tag management is primed for a blowout year in 2013.
Tag management systems have matured and now offer a wealth of new tracking capabilities beyond basic functionality of simply centralizing your tags.
If you’re contemplating the switch, you need to consider these five arguments for implementing a tag management solution (TMS). …continue reading Top 5 reasons to implement a tag management solution
Customization of data collection code is of paramount importance to web analysts because it constitutes the fundamental building blocks required for advanced visitor segmentation above and beyond what software provides out of the box.
Unfortunately, customization doesn’t come free.
There is an opportunity cost of developer or publisher time and sometimes third-party vendor involvement is required. Due to this tradeoff, businesses and web analysts are often faced to make tough compromises when faced with the task of implementing web analytics code, or enhancing it to support better insights.
Here are some tips to help you introduce processes to get your delicious analytics pie and eat it too! …continue reading How to define a web analytics process
That joyous time of year is upon us again, that magical time that kicks off holiday shopping right after Thanksgiving with Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
If you haven’t already started, right now would be the perfect time to deploy some last-minute conversion optimizing changes to your website to take full advantage of what will undoubtedly be a busy holiday season. …continue reading Top Conversion Optimization Tips to Deploy Before the Holiday Rush
Conversion rate optimization is one of the most effective ways to grow profits for a web business, whether it’s an SMB or an enterprise-level site.
But where do you start? What should you test? And what pitfalls should you watch out for? Here are 20 conversion optimization tips on how to get started. …continue reading Top 20 Conversion Optimization Tips
Those of us in the search community who have been around for a while can probably attest to this scenario: we’re at a trade show, speaking at a conference, or even having a drink at a bar and someone comes up to us to ask, “I’m paying $500 per month with an SEO company and I’m not happy with the results, can you have a look and let me know what you’d do differently?” …continue reading Top 5 Dead Giveaways of SEO Con Artists & How to Protect Yourself
We live in very complex times. As much as we talk about integrated insights, it only seems to be getting worse.
