When Analytics Lie

Here we will examine a specific instance where the web analytics lied. Below is a Google Analytics report of the bounce rate for a company website over a three month span:

Looks good, right? Bounce rate is down at 18 %. That’s a pretty good number; it must be indicative that the people who visit the site find it relevant and useful. Except it’s not. It’s lying. After deeper analysis, we made some changes to the site to correct for the problems in the data capture, and the true bounce rate came through. Take a look at the difference:

The true bounce rate is up around 55%, hardly the 18% that we had thought. Had we stopped our analysis at a first glance, without actually looking at the data on a deeper level, we would have been making decisions under the faulty assumption that our site was already well optimized. The truth is, it needs some work.

Deeper Analysis to get the Truth

Let’s take a look at some of the factors that tipped us off that something was wrong. One, a bounce rate of 18% is really, really good – almost too good. That made us suspicious. So we took a look at bounce rates for individual pages – and we found that all of them, with the exception of two, had a bounce rate of about 50%. So why would only two pages have such a low bounce rate, while all others did not?

We took a closer look at the two pages. One was the home page, and one was an iFrame that was embedded on the homepage. What was happening was that when visitors entered on the home page, the javascript from the Google Analytics would fire not only on the homepage, but also on the iFrame. As a result, all of these visitors were almost instantly counted as visiting two pages, turning their bounce rate to almost 0. This was skewing the entire average down to 18%.

A simple change so that the javascript did not fire in the iFrame fixes the problem, so that our data shows us accurate results.

The point is, don’t just settle for a quick glance at the analytics – then you give them the chance to give you wrong assumptions. Dig around in the data and make sure you are getting the truth from your numbers. If you don’t ensure that your analytics are giving you an accurate picture, they may be leading somewhere you don’t want to end up.

The Network Location Metric

Let’s take a look at one of the widest used and free web analytics tools (Google Analytics) and see what it can tell us. This data could, of course, be extracted from other web analytics services as well. Looking specifically at Google Analytics, however, under the ‘Visitors’ tab there is an interesting sub tab called ‘Network Properties,’ and under that sub tab there is another one called ‘Network Location’. That is the metric we are interested in.

When looking at this metric, you are likely to see some network locations such as ‘comcast cable communications inc’ and ‘at&t internet services.’ These represent broad internet providers and are not particularly useful. However, you may notice some that can be helpful to us, perhaps something like ‘3m company’ or ‘dell computer corporation’ or ‘raytheon company executive office.’ These represent actual companies (hence potential clients) crawling you website. Why not use advanced segments to find out what content interests them, how long they spend on certain areas of your site, and whether or not they are completing your site goals? (In Google Analytics, the metric ‘network location’ is under the ’system’ tab the in Dimensions section of advanced segments)

Using This Insight

Knowing what companies are looking at your site and what they are looking at, you can then know who to contact and can form an idea of how to package services for them according to their needs. Why not also contact them to ask how their experience was on the site and get their feedback? You can also potentially connect with all of these companies through social media channels such as Twitter to help them keep interest and let them know what you have to offer them.

Keep in mind as well that these companies may not be potential clients, they may also be competitors. Perhaps you will find competitors you were unaware of, and you will be able to gain insight into their company by what content they look at on your site.

On the other hand, these companies may not be potential clients or competitors, but potentials for business partnerships. The same principles of getting to know where their interests lie are the same.

These are a few simple ideas of what you can do with network location information from your web analytics. What are your ideas?

Installing the Tracking Code

The first thing you need to do is figure out how to access the HTML coding for your blog. Usually there’s a button you can click to show the HTML when you are editing the template. Copy and past the HTML code into a word document and save it (so you have a back-up of your blog in case you accidentally change something you didn’t mean to).

Next, get the tracking code for Google Analytics. This HTML code will be given to you as you are setting up your account. If you’ve already created an account and set up a profile for your blog, you can find the tracking code by following the steps listed in the next section.

Take the tracking code (the whole thing) and paste it just above the tag in your blog’s template HTML code. There should only be one tag. Use the search function (control F in most browsers) to find it. Make sure you save the template.

Finding the Tracking Code

If you have already set up an account with Google Analytics and added your site, you can find the existing tracking code. On your login page, you will see a list of all your accounts. Click on the name of the account you wish to find the tracking code for.

Google Analytics Account Overview

That will take you to the website profile. Click “Edit.”

Website Profile Screenshot

You will be taken to detailed information about the site profile. Click “Check Status.”

Check Status Screenshot

If the tracking code hasn’t yet been installed, you will see the HTML coding on this page. You just need to select it all (control A) and copy it (control C) so you can paste is above the tag as described above.

Confirming Code Installation

After you’ve pasted the code in the HTML for your blog, just follow the same steps as you would to find the tracking code (explained above). When you click “Check Status,” look at the “Tracking Status Information” table (the first table at the top of the page). If you correctly pasted the tracking code in the HTML template, you should see the words “Waiting for Data” next to the “Tracking Status.”

After 24 hours, your analytics will be collecting data and giving you insights. Let us know if this post was helpful to you or if you would like further information. We may do a post on how to effectively drive traffic to your blog based on analytics, if enough people are interested.

Thanks for reading!

*For further reading, check out this post: http://www.eblogtemplates.com/how-to-install-google-analytics-on-blogger/

A lot of our friends on Twitter have recently asked us several questions regarding Google Analytics problems. This post will walk you through the steps to solve the following common questions/problems with sharing or moving Google Analytics data/profiles:

• How do I install Google Analytics on my website?
• How do I share my site analytics with another user?
• I want to transfer my site profile to another account. How do I do that?
• When I try to transfer my Google Analytics profile to another account, the new account doesn’t have any of the historical data. Why?
• How do I install Google Analytics on my blog? (See our next post for this answer)

Step 1: Sign up for Google Analytics and Install Tracking Code

Sign up for GA:
• Go to the Google Analytics site: http://www.google.com/analytics
• Sign in with your Google account
• Follow the set-up instructions

Install tracking code:
• Google will give you the html text to paste before the body tag on your site
• If you are not the site administrator, email the code to the person who can update the site.

Step 2: Adding or Transferring Profile Data

After you have installed the tracking code, you will see the following table on your Google Analytics page:

Google Analytics account overview

Click the name of the account you wish to share with other users. In the picture above, I would click on the blue “My Web Site.” You are taken to a page with detailed information about your site. At the bottom of the page, there are three columns. Click on “User Managers.”

Adding Viewers to Google Analytics

Click the “Add User” button.

Add User Page

Enter the Google email address of the user you want to share access with. Specify the access type (viewer or administrator). If you just want to share the analytics with someone, give them “View Reports Only.” If you are transferring the site profile to a different Google account or want to give someone access to analyze your site data, give the new user “Account Administrator” status.

The next part is often overlooked, causing problems. Make sure you select the profile you wish to share and click “Add.”

Giving Viewers Access to Site Analytics

When the new user logs in, they will see the website on their Account Overview page.

Step 3: Removing the Site Profile from an Old Account

You must have first added the site profile to a new Google Analytics account. Next, you follow the instructions in step 2 to get to the User Manager page for the site profile you are managing. You will see the following table:

Delete a User Account

Simply click “delete” next to the user you wish to remove.

Following the steps above takes care of the last question: When I try to transfer my Google Analytics profile to another account, the new account doesn’t have any of the historical data. Why?

That error occurs when the new user isn’t added properly. It happens when you create a new Google Analytics account with a separate tracking code. By following the outlined steps above, you will maintain your historical data.

This answers the most common questions we have received on Twitter. If you have other questions, feel free to contact us or send an @ message on Twitter. We appreciate your feedback!