Book Review - Google Analytics by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri L. Ledford
Category Book Review
One of the hardest things to do if you own a website is to figure out how effective it might be in accomplishing your goals. Is it selling products? Are people signing up for things? One of the best (and cheapest) ways to find answers to those questions can be found in the book Google Analytics by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri L. Ledford. Good coverage on an essential software package...
Contents:
Part 1 - Basic Analytics: Why Analytics?; Analytics and AWStats; Oh, No! More AWStats!
Part 2 - Setting Up Google Analytics: Getting Started; The Settings Dashboard; Filtering Your Data; Using Analytics Goals; AdWords Integration
Part 3 - The Reporting Dashboards: The Executive Dashboard; The Marketer Dashboard; The Webmaster Dashboard;
Part 4 - Marketing Optimization: Unique-Vistor Tracking; Visitor Segmenting; Marketing Campaign Results; Search-Engine Marketing
Part 5 - Content Optimization: Ad Version Testing; Content Performance; Navigational Analysis; Goals & Funnel Process; Web Design Parameters
Part 6 - E-commerce Parameters: Commerce Tracking; Loyalty & Latency; Revenue Sources; Product Merchandising
Index
On the surface, it looks like Google Analytics is pretty basic. Number of hits, where they came from, etc. But when you dig down deeper, you'll see a wealth of features that can tell you a whole lot about your site. It also integrates into other Google features like AdWords, so you can see how your marketing efforts are playing out. Tyler and Ledford take what could be a dry, dull subject (analytics) and demystify it into normal language and understandable examples. Rather than just going down the geek trail, they look at the Google offerings from all the user offerings, from webmaster to marketer to executive. So really regardless of which role you play in an organization (or if you play all three), you should be able to quickly figure out the specific value that Google Analytics offers to you. I particularly liked the part where they covered the browser characteristics of your visitors. This feature can help you decide how much effort to put into cross-browser compatibility. You may only be getting 10% of your 10000 visits via Firefox, but that's 1000 potential customers. Do you want to take a chance of losing that much potential business by not making sure your site works with that browser?
The only recommendation I would have for a reader of this book is to make sure you already have a Google Analytics account (or you plan on signing up). If you're reading the book just for fun, many of the sections start to run together after awhile as the marketing displays have much in common with the other two views. If you're not actually playing around with Google Analytics while you're reading, you'll miss quite a bit that the book has to offer. Or else you'll end up going back for more focused reading later on.
Either way, this is a book that you'll want to consider if you have any interest in Google Analytics.
One of the hardest things to do if you own a website is to figure out how effective it might be in accomplishing your goals. Is it selling products? Are people signing up for things? One of the best (and cheapest) ways to find answers to those questions can be found in the book Google Analytics by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri L. Ledford. Good coverage on an essential software package...
Contents:
Part 1 - Basic Analytics: Why Analytics?; Analytics and AWStats; Oh, No! More AWStats!
Part 2 - Setting Up Google Analytics: Getting Started; The Settings Dashboard; Filtering Your Data; Using Analytics Goals; AdWords Integration
Part 3 - The Reporting Dashboards: The Executive Dashboard; The Marketer Dashboard; The Webmaster Dashboard;
Part 4 - Marketing Optimization: Unique-Vistor Tracking; Visitor Segmenting; Marketing Campaign Results; Search-Engine Marketing
Part 5 - Content Optimization: Ad Version Testing; Content Performance; Navigational Analysis; Goals & Funnel Process; Web Design Parameters
Part 6 - E-commerce Parameters: Commerce Tracking; Loyalty & Latency; Revenue Sources; Product Merchandising
Index
On the surface, it looks like Google Analytics is pretty basic. Number of hits, where they came from, etc. But when you dig down deeper, you'll see a wealth of features that can tell you a whole lot about your site. It also integrates into other Google features like AdWords, so you can see how your marketing efforts are playing out. Tyler and Ledford take what could be a dry, dull subject (analytics) and demystify it into normal language and understandable examples. Rather than just going down the geek trail, they look at the Google offerings from all the user offerings, from webmaster to marketer to executive. So really regardless of which role you play in an organization (or if you play all three), you should be able to quickly figure out the specific value that Google Analytics offers to you. I particularly liked the part where they covered the browser characteristics of your visitors. This feature can help you decide how much effort to put into cross-browser compatibility. You may only be getting 10% of your 10000 visits via Firefox, but that's 1000 potential customers. Do you want to take a chance of losing that much potential business by not making sure your site works with that browser?
The only recommendation I would have for a reader of this book is to make sure you already have a Google Analytics account (or you plan on signing up). If you're reading the book just for fun, many of the sections start to run together after awhile as the marketing displays have much in common with the other two views. If you're not actually playing around with Google Analytics while you're reading, you'll miss quite a bit that the book has to offer. Or else you'll end up going back for more focused reading later on.
Either way, this is a book that you'll want to consider if you have any interest in Google Analytics.
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