Search the Google Analytics site!

This weekend, we added a search box to the Google Analytics site. We rarely blog site changes, but this small enhancement to the site will help in two important ways to create a better visitor experience. First, it lets you, our visitors, quickly find the information you're looking for. Second, thanks to the recent addition of Site Search reporting to Google Analytics, we'll have a better understanding of how we can make the site more useful and relevant to our visitors' needs.

You can add search to your site too. Providing a search box on your site on your site and tracking how people use it is one of the best ways we know of to understand visitor intent. Read this article if you want to learn more about how to leverage the information you get from Google Analytics Site Search reporting. Or, watch this video.

If you are looking for a search box to put on your site, you might consider using the Google Custom Search Engine (both free and paid versions are available).

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

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SMX West 2008 Discount Coupon

Feeling bummed that you missed the Early Bird rate for the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) in Santa Clara next month? Cheer up, we have some good news. Using the ID Code GOOG@SMX you can receive $100 off the current rate of $1,395 for an all access pass. Please note that this code is case sensitive and will expire on 2/25/08. Our own Brett Crosby will be a panelist at the Web Analytics Roundtable on February 28th, and all three days (February 26-28) have packed agendas.

For those not familiar with the event, SMX is an educational conference series for search marketing professionals put on by Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman.

Posted by Laura Melahn, Google Analytics Team

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Announcing the new ConversionUniversity.com

I'm excited to announce that we've just launched an updated version of ConversionUniversity.com, now available in all 25 Google Analytics supported languages. From help on optimizing your AdWords ROI to Google Website Optimizer testing strategies, Conversion University's mission is to offer tips and best practices designed to help you improve your online results.

The latest article by Avinash Kaushik, Five Questions to Ask of Your Site Search Data, is an excellent primer on one of the best ways to understand visitor intent. Conversion University also has pointers to our latest video content on the YouTube Google Conversion University playlist, including full presentations from our Conversion University events. So, go ahead and click a link. It's like talking to an industry guru, one on one!

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

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No time like the present!

Google Analytics is hoping to grab a spot on your list of New Year's resolutions. If you've been intending to use analytics to add clarity to your online marketing and web design decisions, now is a great time to start because there is a live online training course starting this Thursday, January 10 about all things Google Analytics offered by one of our Google Analytics Authorized Consultants, ROI Revolution. The course takes place every Thursday for 6 weeks, starting at 1:30pm ET and lasting less than 2 hours. It covers everything from basic implementation to tracking e-commerce data to general quantitative marketing techniques and is intended for beginning to intermediate users of Google Analytics. The course will include sections on:

• configuring goals and conversion events
• tracking PPC campaigns
• tracking email and banner campaigns
• measuring visitor trends on your site

According to ROI Revolution: "We focus on guiding our students with clear, specific instructions using the setup process we use with clients every day so that you’ll know when your Google Analytics account is configured properly for accurate measurement. We'll introduce you to the reports in Google Analytics, then show you how to use the special analysis options (including the report dashboards) and finally focus on how to use Google Analytics to increase the traffic to your website, improve your conversion rate and find out what parts of your pay per click advertising are making you the most money."

Each training session lasts from 60-75 minutes and is followed by a 30 minute live, interactive question and answer session. As an added bonus, while the presentation is in progress, instructors are standing by to answer your questions in real-time via interactive chat.

Visit the course site for more details.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

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