E-Media Tidbits

Just in time for the holidays, Google has announced some potentially valuable new additions to its free Web metrics suite, Google Analytics.

Among the highlights: better metrics from mobile devices, more flexible goal setting and tracking, automated and custom metric alerts and more precise tracking of individual visitor behavior.

The new tools build on what the company describes as its "enterprise-class" features that were first introduced late last year and include: advanced segmentation, custom reports, site search analytics and motion charts.

Google Customer Solutions Engineer, Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar, led a Webinar on Oct. 29 explaining the basics of the new tools. The Google Analytics blog, meanwhile, is featuring a series of posts to discuss the features in more depth.

One thing to remember before you log into your Google Analytics (GA) account is that these features will be rolled out gradually over the next month or two. You may or may not find them in your profiles immediately, but Google said it expects the full launch to be completed before the end of 2009.

Engagement goals

Previously, goal tracking was reliant on visits to specific pages on your site -- typically an e-commerce or newsletter sign-up screen. Readers who visited the specified page and completed an action (signing up or placing an item in a shopping cart) were counted as "conversions."

Under the new system, goals may now be tracked based on reader engagement metrics including time spent or number of pages viewed on your site. For example, you may set a goal to track visitors who spend more than five minutes on your site or who visit more than 10 pages per visit. In addition, Google has increased the number of goals that can be tracked to 20, from the previous four.

Expanded mobile reporting

One of the challenges of tracking mobile devices has always been the lack of support for JavaScript and cookies on most cellular phones. As such, precise Google Analytics mobile reporting has been generally limited to devices such as the the iPhone or Android, which have full Web browser functionalities. The workaround for organizations that need to track mobile traffic more closely has been to implement server-side solutions that do not require interaction with the visitor's mobile browser to work.

Google has now integrated this strategy into GA, taking a lot of the heavy lifting out of the process. In fact, Google has even provided basic code examples for PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX [PDF] and plans to make these snippets available from the GA dashboard in the near future.

In addition, Google will be providing a software development kit for Android, iPhone and iPod Touch applications to allow tracking of visits, session length and bounce rate. The kit will also allow developers to track on-page events, thereby providing very specific interaction metrics within mobile applications.

Advanced table filters

Say goodbye to CSV files. GA now lets you filter reports in real-time without having to export to a spreadsheet to do basic analysis. You can include/exclude results based on metrics such as visits, pages/visit, goal conversion rate or any custom goals you have set for your site.

Multiple custom variables

As newspapers and other media outlets struggle to develop new online business models, understanding the behavior of different readership segments is critical to success.

Multiple custom variables, then, may be the one new feature everyone from Web producers to publishers is going to want to learn more about. In brief, variables can now be assigned to visitors at three different levels: individual visitor, session or page.

At the visitor level, a tag such as "registered visitor" may be applied to track the behavior of all of your readers in that cohort. At the session level, a tag such as "commenter" could be applied to any visitor who interacts with your commenting system. At the page level, a tag of "sports" could be assigned to any visitor who visits your sports section.

The system will allow up to 50,000 different variables to be defined, each of which can be specified via JavaScript code embedded in your page templates.

Sharing segment and custom reports

Advanced segments and custom reports were released late in 2008, but were available only within the user account that created them. Google has now added a simple link within the reports dashboard that will allow you to e-mail the advanced report to any recipient with an Analytics account. The recipient will have the opportunity to review and adjust the report and decide which site profiles they wish to apply it to.

Analytics intelligence

The system now allows both preset and custom alerts that will monitor 11 dimensions and 18 metrics on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. The Intelligence Alerts dashboard will look for significant changes in visitor behavior on your site, positive or negative. It will highlight changes such as average time on site, bounce rate or increased referrals from individual Web sites. You can manage the sensitivity of the alerts from low to high to control the number of alerts the system reports.