« Beauty & The Geek Night | Home | Fab New Features In Google Analytics »
Like many webmasters and online marketers around the world we work with Google Analytics on a daily basis however the system does have some short falls. These shortfalls often spark ideas in ones mind and recently I came up with an idea which I think would be very useful. You may have noticed the recent introduction of annotations in YouTube, well I think a similar system could be used in analytics. Sounds strange I know but hear me out.
I was thinking that the ability to plot points or add little descriptions to dates on analytics graphs would be ideal as it would allow people to track changes that they have implemented. So for example if you have recently acquired five new authority links then you could mark this point on the graph and then in the coming months see how the new links have affected your traffic levels. If you think how often we make changes to a strategy or campaign. Being able to monitor everything in one place would be idea. Anyway I would love to hear your ideas on this one or if you have come up with any other ideas.
I asked the guys in the office and they had some other interesting ideas. The ability to view rankings against the keywords driving traffic to your site was a particularly nice one. This would not be a difficult thing for Google to implement considering some of their other services. Another good one was being able to see conversions as an actual number rather than percentages. It’s often difficult to relate to a percentage.
Topics: Clever Stuff, Google, Organic Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Web Analytics | 8 Comments »
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I don’t like the idea. Google use 200 indicators to rank pages. Having annotations like this over simplifies the process. You run the risk of thinking too narrow. Imagine trying to annotate for everything that could impact on your traffic. You’d need a big screen, psychic powers and a lot of time. Chances are you’d still get it wrong at the end too.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:54 am
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the comment. I see the concept as more of a reminder service. To remind you when you have made key changes to the site and run a big advertising campaign. I doubt people would use it to note everything. I dont really see it as an in depth feature, just something i thought people might find useful.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[...] Analytics Annotations [...]
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Hi Mark
Thats my point exactly, if you just put on big milestones then something happens to your traffic, you are going to be more inclined to believe it was something to do with the key changes not the 101 other things that could have affected it.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Nice idea Mark.
However, I can’t see Google allowing anything to do with the ranking of keywords into their analytics package. Especially with regard to link acquisition!
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Annotation would be a great addition to Google Analytics, and I seriously hope they add it soon. How each person using it ‘interprets’ their own annotations is besides the point.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:11 am
[...] October 2008 I wrote a post about analytics annotations and my desire to have a notes feature included within Google Analytics. The post generated some [...]
December 11th, 2009 at 11:11 am
[...] have been banging on about this feature for quite a while (you may remember my post last year on annotations) and after some late night reading i found the news i have been waiting for. On the 7th Google [...]