Feras Alhlou, president and principal consultant of E-Nor, a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant, will be conducting a Google Analytics workshop at SMX West on March 5, called "Using Google Analytics to Improve Your Online Marketing & Business." Register here and get 10% off with this discount code: GA@SMX

Many organizations, large and small, struggle to go beyond basic web metrics of visitor counts and pageview volumes. In this workshop, senior consultant Feras Alhlou will walk you through what you need in order to drive your online marketing strategy ahead of your competition. I've had the pleasure of sitting in on Feras' workshops in the past, and it was the one of the main reasons we were so proud when E-Nor in the Bay Area joined our Google Analytics Authorized Consultant network. His clear, engaging and energetic teaching style will make the day fly by as you learn. It's time well spent.

Workshop Agenda

Morning Session – Marketer/Business Focus – Strategy & Planning

• Web Analytics Strategy – approach, opportunities and limitations
• How It Works – overview, accuracy and privacy implications, integrating with other data
• Practical – understanding the user interface
• Advanced Features Overview – clever stuff you can do with Google Analytics

Afternoon Session – Webmaster/Technical Focus – Implementation

• Accounts & Profiles, Filters & Goals – structure your data properly
• External Campaign Tracking – measure performance of search, email, banner campaigns
• Reporting – dashboards & insights
• Advanced Segmentation & Custom Reports – powerful ways to find insights

The Google Analytics team will also be at SMX West, and we'll blog about that in the near future. Hope to see you there.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

We're always looking for ways to improve Google Analytics - not just the product itself, but also the ways in which we provide information about the product. So help us help you - take a minute to fill out this quick survey on our Help Center, and let us know what we can improve!

Posted by the Google Analytics Writing Team

This is the fifth installment in our Web Analytics TV series in which you share your most burning questions via the Google Analytics Google Moderator site and we answer them.

Here is the list of this week's questions. You all are keeping us on our toes!

In this episode we discuss:

• Tracking online conversions and success for small, local, businesses
• Tracking the number of times a visitor converts in one visit
• How the e-commerce conversion rate can be greater than 100%
• How you can change the duration of Google Analytics campaigns
• How you can differentiate between paid and organic search in Google Analytics
• What is the recommended % balance between branded and category terms
• Why is time spent 0 for visits with 1 page/visit
• Why unique visitor numbers are higher than visits
• How visits and unique pageviews are calculated
• Would survey and qualitative help measure "engagement" ?
• How to best track mailto: links on your site
• What are the best practices for using virtual pageviews, event tracking and custom variables?
• How to see dimensions and metrics by location
• Where to find custom variables reports Google Analytics
  
  
  

Here are links to resources we discussed in the video:

• You can change how long Google Analytics attributes visits to a referral source by using the _setCampaignCookieTimout() javscript tracking method. When you set this to 0, the cookies becomes a session cookie and will be deleted once the user leaves the site. Using this method will make Google Analytics attribute only the first click of a campaign to a visit.
  
• How to link your Google Analytics and AdWords campaigns to differentiate between paid and organic search
  
• Help Center article: How do I link my Google Analytics account to my AdWords account?
  
• Help Center article: What is Autotagging?
  
• Help Center article: How to manually tag your referrals.
• Avinash's Blog: How to Monetize The Value of The Long Tail.
• Avinash's Blog: Calculating Time on Site & Time on Page.
• Caleb's Dimensionator plugin that exposes DMA and other data in your Google Analytics reports.
  

We hope you found episode helpful, and we'd love to hear your comments and have your questions. Please use the comment form below.

In case you missed them, here are our previous videos:

Episode #1
Episode #2
Episode #3
Episode #4

If you have a question you would like us to answer, please submit a question or vote for your favorite question in our public Google Moderator site. Avinash and I will answer your latest questions in a couple of weeks with another video. We can't wait!

Please add your thoughts about the Q&A via comments below. Thanks!

Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics Team

Today, Google Analytics is available in 6 more languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Greek, Lithuanian, Slovak and Vietnamese, bringing the total to 31 languages. It's a large cross-functional effort to localize the product, and we're so proud to welcome these new languages and users!

We also now have over 150 Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAACs), from every major region (US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific) and over 35 countries! Chances are, there's one near you.

GAACs are our partners; each has been vetted by an internal team here at Google. They are experienced Google Analytics experts (and often, also SEM, SEO and testing specialists) who are available for anything from hourly consultations to training to advanced implementation and analysis.

It's been amazing to see the growth in the analytics industry over the past few years, and as usage and the analytics dialogue scales internationally, our product, team and ecosystem are scaling right along with it.

Posted by Dai Pham and Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

In December, we announced the phased roll out of Annotations. It's now available in all accounts! Thanks for your patience and enjoy!

Here's a fantastic video on Annotations. You've asked for it for so long, and we hope you'll use it to great effect to better work in concert in your company, using phrases like, "Add it to annotations," or, "It's in annotations." If anything of note happens, log it there. Go tribal with your knowledge.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Since the Google Analytics IQ launch, people from all over the world have taken the online course and test. Web analytics is increasingly important to all kinds of organizations. Online retailers, agencies, large consumer brands and non-profits are just a few of the many kinds of organizations that rely on people who are trained in Google Analytics. So, we've decided to raise the bar on what it means to be Google Analytics qualified and increase the minimum passing score from 75% to 80%.

If you're already Google Analytics qualified, but you received a score less than 80%, don't worry. This change doesn't affect your current qualification. But be sure to review the online course when it's time to renew your qualification (18 months after you initially qualified). At that time, you'll be expected to score at least 80%.

For details or to start the course, visit ConversionUniversity.com. There's a FAQ with details and a link to the Google Analytics IQ test. Best of luck to everyone!

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

Australia in summer - white sand, warm nights, occasional sun burn and Google Seminars for Success!

For the first time, the Seminars include new Google Website Optimizer days. Learn how to conduct landing page tests to increase visitor engagement and conversions on your website. Also, the Google Analytics Seminars have been updated to include all the latest Google Analytics features; Analytics Intelligence, Custom Alerts, Annotations and much, much more.

Here's a quote from a past attendee - this says it all:

Whilst I've been using GA for years and have also run AdWords campaigns I was becoming increasingly frustrated that there was newer functionality which I didn't have either the knowledge, skill or confidence to leverage in full. Above all, I've left the course hugely inspired, with a range of ideas which I'm keen to implement ASAP. This course has given many of the agencies we've dealt with a 'run for their money' and provided me with the confidence to not only demand, but do a lot more!

- Sumi Triggs Olsen, eMarketing Executive, CPA Australia

Google Analytics - Introduction and User Training
Melbourne, Australia: Thursday, 25 February 2010

or

Sydney, Australia: Thursday, 11 March 2010

This introduction provides a complete overview of Google Analytics and available reports. Learn to identify the best reports for your role and make decisions that deliver results. Topics include:

• Introduction to Web Analytics
• Google Analytics Interface Features
• Sharing and Customizing Reports
• Understanding Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content and Goals
• And Much, Much More...

Google Analytics - Advanced Technical Implementation
Melbourne, Australia: Friday, 26 February 2010

or
Sydney, Australia: Friday, 12 March 2010

The advanced day will show you how to use the full range of advanced features and reports within Google Analytics. Learn how to get the most out of Google Analytics with tips, tricks and technical setup options. Day 2 topics include:

• Best Practices for Setup and Configuration
• Using and Creating Filters
• Setting and Configuring Goals and Funnels
• E-commerce, Site Search, Event Tracking, Custom Reports and Advanced Segments
• And Much, Much More...

Google Website Optimizer - Landing Page Testing
Melbourne, Australia: Monday, 1 March 2010

or
Sydney, Australia: Monday, 15 March 2010

Learn how to conduct landing page testing with Google Website Optimizer to identify, measure and improve key design elements and calls to action on your website to increase engagement and conversions. See how you can continually increase your conversion rates with testing by setting up and running A/B and multivariate tests.

• Introduction to Landing Page Testing
• Best Practices for Increasing Conversions
• How to Run an Experiment
• Understanding the Data and Running Follow-up Experiments
• And Much, Much More...

Seats are limited, so register today!

Register for Sydney Seminars for Success
Register for Melbourne Seminars for Success

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team