Just a quick note to announce that I am now an Optimization Manager at Adobe. What does that mean to you? While analytics and optimization go hand in hand, going forward the emphasis will be more on the optimization side of things. Also, now that I’m primarily using Test&Target as a split testing tool, I […]
Read moreConversion Tips from a Crying Toddler
March 19, 2011 
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Every know and then I have an “a-ha” moment where I realize something about human behavior – specifically how to get someone to do something.
I have quite a few of these in my head which I’ll start sharing on my blog.
Today it’s a lesson I learned from a crying toddler.
Read moreFour New Additions to the Google Analytics API
March 11, 2011 2 Comments
For those of you not following the GA API change log Google just added four new data points:
ga:dayOfWeek
ga:percentVisitsWithSearch
ga:visitsWithEvent
ga:eventsPerVisitWithEvent
Here’s my take …
Read more3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Conversion Rates
February 24, 2011 1 Comment
I’ve read my share of articles on “101 things to test to improve conversion rates”. While most of the suggestions are usually sound, I find that these lists are often overwhelming and you don’t know where to start.
So here’s how to start with a a simple but often overlooked problem …
Read moreGoogle Analytics Report Permalinks
February 1, 2011 13 Comments
Just a quick post on a very cool trick I recently learned from my colleague Mike Plummer. If you’ve ever tried to bookmark a report in Google Analytics or share a report URL via chat, you might have noticed that some of the report’s criteria isn’t included. For example, here is the URL in my […]
Read moreGoogle Analytics API – Now With New Dimensions and Metrics
January 24, 2011 2 Comments
Google just added a boatload of new dimensions and metrics to the Google Analytics API: http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2011/01/127-new-dimensions-and-metrics-through.html I’ll spare you the technical details (you can read the official post) but I do want to comment on what I think is the most important change – 10 new Adwords dimensions. Here’s why – I admit I’m not […]
Read moreThe Future of Split Testing and Conversion Rate Optimization
January 21, 2011 3 Comments
I’ve been fortunate enough to see and experience first hand the evolution of the Internet, from even before the web till today. I’ll spare you a lengthy history lesson explaining how we’ve gone from brochureware sites to where we are today, but I do want to share some thoughts and perspective on where I think […]
Read moreGoogle Analytics on Intranets and Development Servers / FQDN
January 20, 2011 3 Comments
Just a quick posting about using Google Analytics on pages that don’t use a fully qualified domain name. If you’re using Google Analytics on a site with a URL like http://intranet/ or something like http://mydevserver:12345 it won’t work. Specifically, the Google Analytics JS code will not send the tracking hit (__utm.gif) to the GA servers. […]
Read moreSplit Testing and Return Visitors
January 3, 2011 3 Comments
Just a quick post about a phenomenon I’ve personally seen happen but don’t recall ever seeing mentioned in split testing articles. I’ll start by saying that ideally you should always look at the results from any split test by segmenting your visitors. It’s not enough to know that overall version X did better than version […]
Read moreThe Problem with Monthly Reporting
December 9, 2010 2 Comments
Just a short blog entry about something that’s been bothering me for many years. I think the best way to explain the problem is by starting with a simple riddle. My site had visits 31,000 for one month, and then 30,000 visits the next month but the overall trend for visits was up. How could […]
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