Yearly Archives: 2010

Analytics

I’m Michael Wiegand, resident Analytics nerd at Portent. Let’s be honest: With a slew of new Google Analytics features being launched every 6-12 months, it can make your head spin just keeping up, let alone finding a practical application for them. In this monthly series, I’ll tackle making sense of one of the more powerful… Read More

Random

If you use the KeywordDiscovery API, and Python, my pain is your gain. It took me a few hours to get this to work. You can grab it and go. Here’s the function, written in my usual Python Pigdin. I don’t recommend using it without a passing knowledge of Python, but that’s up to you:… Read More

Analytics

I lie at the beginning of this video. I say that there are some things I love about Google Analytics’ new ‘in-page analytics’ feature. Truth is, I hate it. You know I’m a fan of all things Google Analytics, but man, this one stinks up the joint like a rotting pig carcass. Watch the video… Read More

Random

Yeahhhh I have no idea what to blog tonight. But I happened to take a peek at my referring keywords report in Google Analytics. Here are the weirdest of the bunch: Monster trucks. I know the post that draws the traffic, but how the hell do I still rank for this phrase? Snidely Whiplash. Again,… Read More

Analytics

Soooo, a few readers asked me why I don’t use PageRank as a statistic. I thought about writing a long, angry, ranty post about Toolbar PageRank, bank bailouts and the moron on NPR today who said the USA has reduced its carbon emissions since 2000, etc. etc. but stopped myself. Instead, I’ve got a nice… Read More

PPC

I’m sure someone in branding at Google had a reason for trying to rename the Content Network the Display Network, if only to help us all forget about those awful lists of sites and thousands of impressions where clicks went to die, were unmanageable and never made a cent. Welcome to 2010, where as usual,… Read More

Analytics

What’s a good bounce rate for my web site? I get that kind of question a lot. What’s a ‘good’ bounce rate? A ‘good’ time on site? The answer, I’m afraid, is: Better than your current bounce rate. Better than your current time on site. In web analytics, it’s best to focus on your own… Read More

Random

Update 12.13.10 Big changes to the crawler code: Switched from urllib, which left sockets open and created memory leaks, crashes and other computer higgledy-piggledy, to httplib. Now fetching mime-type and using it to separate images from text pages. Better URL handling. Cleaner output – removes domain name from output for smaller, easier to handle files.… Read More

Analytics

I’m on #seochat tonight. I’m super-excited about it, so I’ve been scribbling notes for anticipated questions. The topic, which I’ve actually talked about before, is SEO analytics. For me, there are five crucial SEO metrics. If you don’t have these, hang it up: Key phrase diversity. The number of unique phrases driving traffic to your… Read More

Random

Last week, I went to Tokyo to speak at ad:tech. 20 hours of air travel so I could be there for about 48 hours. I worked on the plane, both ways. Everyone around me sneezed and phlegmed like there was no tomorrow. I was exhausted while in Tokyo, exhausted when I got back on Saturday,… Read More

Internet Marketing

I’ve spent 3 days now in a vicodin-induced haze, trying to recover from a kidney stone. Yesterday at about noon, the vicodin stopped working and I spent 6 hours curled up in a ball. Now I know why: The folks at Wappow! stole my vicodin and replaced it with sugar pills. It’s the only possibility,… Read More

Internet Marketing

If you make a living selling stuff to consumers, chances are the next few months are pretty important. Here’s a quick list of things you need to get in order before Hanuchristmakwanzaa: 1: Get to work on local search In case you’ve been under a rock, Google has released a new blended search results page… Read More

PPC

As of Thursday the 14th of October, Google released additional attributes that you and I can use to control and track those products that show up in product extension ads better. And as of Wednesday, October 17th, 2012, Google is moving to an all paid platform, so I’ve updated this post. Each item that has… Read More

Internet Marketing

How’s internet marketing doing these days? I give it a B-. An 80%. The other 20% got lost in the noise. Good stuff Internet marketing is growing up! Marketers with multi-million dollar budgets no longer look at me like a cockroach when I walk into their boardrooms. My relatives no longer think I sell porn… Read More

Random

I’m off to ad:tech Tokyo to participate in the “Search Marketing Strategies: Local vs. Global” panel. I’m very excited – it’s my first ad:tech, and my first time headed to Japan. I may miss a few blog posts here and there, but will try to Tweet/blog sessions as I attend.