New Version of Google Analytics

Google Analytics Real-Time

Google Analytics Real Time
Soon there will be a new version of Google Analytics that will entail a more detailed and specific report with real time data. Pretty exciting. In addition to a redesigned interface that makes it even easier to explore our data, we will also notice some significant new features. Here are a few of their favorites.

Multi Channel Funnels

Multi Channel Functions

We will be able to see which channels our customers interacted with during the 30 days prior to converting or purchasing. Conversion path data includes interactions with many media channels, including clicks from paid and organic searches, affiliates, social networks, and display ads.

Mobile Reporting

Mobile Reporting

More and more, visitors are using mobile devices to browse the web. Mobile reports in the new version of Google Analytics help us understand how mobile visitors are interacting with our website. We can even see which mobile devices our visitors use and optimize for those devices. 

Flow Visualization

Flow Visualization
Flow Visualization is a beautifully designed and highly sophisticated tool for graphically showing how visitors navigate through your site. The GA Team completely re-imagined and redesigned the navigation tools available in the old version of Google Analytics.





Video demo & Usage guides for Visitor Flow, Goal Flow

Over the next few weeks as they make Google Analytics v5 the default for all users, they are simultaneously rolling out the report email scheduler and PDF export.

Need to check something in the old version?
They think we will enjoy all the features of the new version but if you need to refer to the old version, there is a safety latch.  Look in the top right corner of Google Analytics and you’ll see a link for Old Version. Switch back and forth as much as you need, but keep in mind, that the old version will only be available until early next year.

Want help adjusting to the new version?
The Google Analytics Help Center is up to date on all the step by step of how to navigate Analytics using the new version. They have also been running a series on the Google Analytics blog that explores many of the changes and new features. And, there is a section of the Google Analytics Help Forum where you can ask questions and discuss the new version.

To stay up to date on new features, make sure you opt-in to receive Newsletters in your Google Analytics account settings. They are really excited to bring us this new, state-of-the-art Google Analytics.

Our SEO Company is very grateful for the wealth of information provided by the Google Analytics Team.

Get Your Business Online with Google

Today was an exciting day at in Hartford at the “Connecticut Science Center” with Google’s Connecticut Get Your Business Online.

Many essential strategies were discussed and great information on how to promote your business in today’s economy, which by the way is booming in the online world.

You have to ask yourself, are you using Google for search, if YES, You should be engaging your clientele online, which we know 67% of the searches are done in Google.

Today many people got a FREE 3 page Website w/ a Domain for 1 year, by Intuit.

There were seminars on using Google Place to get found by your local customers on Google. It’s great FREE tool that has a user friendly way to create and account and plug in your basic information about your business, these things include, Your address, phone numbers, store hours, video, pictures, and even if you have Coupons and Specials, you can list those as well.

Then they got into teaching how to run your business online, Something Easy, Free and fast.

Customers are definitely online, here’s the question. Can they find YOU?

Here’s a tip 97% of consumers research products & services online before buying, don’t you?

Googles online tools help you get found, attract customers.

These include;
Google Places
Adwords Express
Market Intelligence with Analytics and website optimization
Google Apps
Gmail
Google Docs and Spreadsheets
Google Analytics, Alerts and Insights
Google Adwords & Social Search
The Four Be’s were heavily emphasized for your oinline business, and they are

1.       Be Found

2.       Be Relevant

3.       Be Engaging

4.       Be Accountable

2 options were given for Adwords

1.       Adwords Express

2.       Traditional Adwords

Adwords express is for business owners who don’t have the time or patience to invest in managing their accounts.

Traditional Adwords are for business owners that are more engaged in their online marketing and like to manage their strategies and budget using creative ad writing.

I spoke with Seth Meyerowitz, CEO of UBE, a Certified Google Business Trainer & Adowrds Certified Partner, who gave me some insights on better practices for businesses who are looking  expose their business effectively online.

He does Seminars, Workshops & Training, Web Design, Pay Per Click Management and SEO,  great guy, so Thanks Seth

I also ran into Adela Martinez with Score.org a NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION who offers FREE Small Business Advice to help business owners and those who are looking to start a business.

These practices place your website on the front pages of Google relatively fast.

So the question is, “Is your business online? and are you staying competitive by providing useful information to your potential customer base, and I always go back to say “if you’re not catering to your online community, another business is.

Google In Hartford, Connecticut

Google and friends are coming to Hartford later this month to get your business online.  Connecticut Get Your Business Online  is a new program from Google  and it’s an easy, free, and fast way to get your business online.

If you don’t have a website or Google Places listing, you’ll find everything you need to get started – web professionals at your side every step of the way. We’ll also provide the computers or a plug-in for your own laptop.

If your business is already online, you’ll find tools and resources to help your business succeed online.

At these events you can:

    Get a free website and Google Places listing
    Get 1:1 advice and tips
    Learn more about online marketing
    Network with your fellow small business owners

Connecticut Get Your Business Online is completely free. Space is limited, so we highly recommend that you pre-register online to reserve your spot.

Date:
October 26th
Connecticut Science Center
250 Columbus Boulevard
Hartford, CT 06103

Doors open
7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Matt Cutts and Panda Version 2.2

Farmer/Panda Google algorithm revision (currently reduced to merely "Panda") was previously again the subject of discussion. Apart from this occassion, the debate was in fact about Panda version 2.2.

Matt Cutts, head of Google's Web spam crew, verified which a brand-new version of Panda (version 2.2) has been authorized in-house, however , hasn't been yet presented. There may be a few speculation that it's been coming out immediately, however no verification from Google has arrived since press time.
You can read more details about farmer/panda here.

Re=Canonical vs 301 Redirects

I answered an interesting rel=canonical question over email today and thought I’d blog about it. If you’re not familiar with rel=canonical read these pages first. Then watch this video about rel=canonical vs. 301s, especially the second half:

Mobile now! Helping businesses succeed in the mobile era

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Register for Google I/O 2011 We've been counting down the days until Google I/O 2011 and hope that you have been, too. With 91 days, 22 hours and 45 minutes to go, we're excited to announce that registration is now open at www.google.com/io. Our largest annual developer conference will take place on May 10-11, 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. The focus of I/O 2011 will be all about the cloud, and feature the latest Google products and technologies including Android, Google Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and Google APIs. There will be many opportunities to meet members of Google's engineering teams and take deep dives into the technologies with more than 100 technical sessions, roundtables and more. The Developer Sandbox, which we introduced at I/O 2009, will be back, featuring developers from more than 100 companies to demo their apps, share their experiences and exchange ideas. If you liked our HTML5 countdown, stay tuned for more surprises. We'll keep you posted on the latest developments for Google I/O 2011 at the website, on Twitter (@Googleio) and Google Buzz. Get your tickets early—last year we sold out in record time! Registration opens with an Early Bird rate of $450, which applies through April 16 ($550 after April 16). Faculty and students can register at the discounted Academia rate of $150, which will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Learn more and register today at www.google.com/io. We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco! Posted by Vic Gundotra, VP Engineering

Mobile now! Helping businesses succeed in the mobile era (Cross-posted on the Mobile Ads Blog) By the end of 2011, an estimated one billion people around the world will be connected to the mobile web and 50% of all Americans will own a smartphone. Because of the explosion of web-enabled mobile devices, mobile usage is now on a hockey-stick trajectory: searches on smartphones and tablets have increased by 4x in the last year, and the world of mobile apps continues to engage mobile users—125 years' worth of Angry Birds are played every day! For people everywhere, the mobile era has begun. Yet most businesses haven't adapted their online strategies—advertising, webpage design, commerce—to mobile. The opportunity for these businesses is huge and we want everyone to be able to take part. On February 10, we're hosting an event at our New York office called "ThinkMobile": Mary Meeker, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, and our own Dennis Woodside, SVP, Americas Operations and Jason Spero, Head of Mobile, Americas, will explore some of the most significant trends in mobile and explain why it's "not too late for businesses to still be early" in this space. We invite you to livestream these talks at 1pm ET/10am PT this Thursday on desktop, or—for the first time from a Google event in the U.S.—on both Android and iOS mobile devices as well. In other words, you can Think Mobile....on mobile! Right now, advertisers engaging on mobile are increasing brand awareness, purchase intent and sales with effective mobile search and display campaigns. Mobile developers and publishers are supporting very profitable businesses with advertising revenue. And consumers are benefiting from relevant and useful ads on their mobile devices. To help all businesses take advantage of the opportunities that mobile advertising presents, we're focusing on three core principles with our mobile ads business: Seamless: We're bringing the best characteristics of desktop advertising to mobile devices. We want to help marketers and developers extend the benefits of their desktop advertising to people on mobile devices, while effectively managing their campaigns and ad space across many channels. Inclusive: It's clear that mobile is about more than just one device, one type of ad format or one style of ad campaign. Our ad solutions span across search, text, display, video, commerce and more, on a wide variety of devices, and enable businesses and consumers to connect in newly relevant and useful ways. Made for mobile: Mobile devices have unique characteristics like location awareness and touch screens (and the ability to make phone calls!) that make it easy for people to engage with information conveniently, and create unique opportunities for businesses as well. Our ad solutions are built to help marketers, developers and publishers take advantage of these mobile-specific characteristics. The power of constant connectivity on mobile is a thrilling new reality, and has already transformed the way people engage with information, businesses and certainly with each other. We're just now scratching the surface of what's possible on mobile. This is an exciting time, and there's much more to come. Posted by Karim Temsamani, Global Head of Mobile

Google Search and Search Engine Spam

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• Google search and search engine spam
• Supporting computer science education with CS4HS
• An update from the Chairman
• YouTube Highlights 1/20/11

Google search and search engine spam January brought a spate of stories about Google's search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. The short answer is that according to the evaluation metrics that we've refined over more than a decade, Google's search quality is better than it has ever been in terms of relevance, freshness and comprehensiveness. Today, English-language spam in Google's results is less than half what it was five years ago, and spam in most other languages is even lower than in English. However, we have seen a slight uptick of spam in recent months, and while we've already made progress, we have new efforts underway to continue to improve our search quality. Just as a reminder, webspam is junk you see in search results when websites try to cheat their way into higher positions in search results or otherwise violate search engine quality guidelines. A decade ago, the spam situation was so bad that search engines would regularly return off-topic webspam for many different searches. For the most part, Google has successfully beaten back that type of "pure webspam"—even while some spammers resort to sneakier or even illegal tactics such as hacking websites. As we've increased both our size and freshness in recent months, we've naturally indexed a lot of good content and some spam as well. To respond to that challenge, we recently launched a redesigned document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy on-page content to rank highly. The new classifier is better at detecting spam on individual web pages, e.g., repeated spammy words—the sort of phrases you tend to see in junky, automated, self-promoting blog comments. We've also radically improved our ability to detect hacked sites, which were a major source of spam in 2010. And we're evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others' content and sites with low levels of original content. We'll continue to explore ways to reduce spam, including new ways for users to give more explicit feedback about spammy and low-quality sites. As "pure webspam" has decreased over time, attention has shifted instead to "content farms," which are sites with shallow or low-quality content. In 2010, we launched two major algorithmic changes focused on low-quality sites. Nonetheless, we hear the feedback from the web loud and clear: people are asking for even stronger action on content farms and sites that consist primarily of spammy or low-quality content. We take pride in Google search and strive to make each and every search perfect. The fact is that we're not perfect, and combined with users' skyrocketing expectations of Google, these imperfections get magnified in perception. However, we can and should do better. One misconception that we've seen in the last few weeks is the idea that Google doesn't take as strong action on spammy content in our index if those sites are serving Google ads. To be crystal clear: Google absolutely takes action on sites that violate our quality guidelines regardless of whether they have ads powered by Google; Displaying Google ads does not help a site's rankings in Google; and Buying Google ads does not increase a site's rankings in Google's search results. These principles have always applied, but it's important to affirm they still hold true. People care enough about Google to tell us—sometimes passionately—what they want to see improved. We deeply appreciate this feedback. Combined with our own scientific evaluations, user feedback allows us to explore every opportunity for possible improvements. Please tell us how we can do a better job, and we'll continue to work towards a better Google. Posted by Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer

Supporting computer science education with CS4HS Recent statistics have shown a decline in the number of U.S. students taking computer science AP classes, which also leads to a decline in students declaring computer science as their majors—a concerning trend in the U.S. as we try to remain competitive in the global economy. With programs like Computer Science for High School (CS4HS), we hope to increase the number of CS majors —and therefore the number of people entering into careers in CS—by promoting computer science curriculum at the high school level. For the fourth consecutive year, we're funding CS4HS to invest in the next generation of computer scientists and engineers. CS4HS is a workshop for high school and middle school computer science teachers that introduces new and emerging concepts in computing and provides tips, tools and guidance on how to teach them. The ultimate goals are to "train the trainer," develop a thriving community of high school CS teachers and spread the word about the awe and beauty of computing. In 2011 we're expanding the program considerably and hope to double the number of schools we funded in 2010. If you're a university, community college, or technical School in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Middle East or Africa and are interested in hosting a workshop at your institution, please visit www.cs4hs.com to submit an application for grant funding. Applications will be accepted between January 18, 2011 and February 18, 2011. In addition to submitting your application, on the CS4HS website you'll find info on how to organize a workshop, as well as websites and agendas from last year's participants to give you an idea of how the workshops were structured in the past. There's also a collection of CS4HS curriculum modules that previous participating schools have shared for future organizers to use in their own program. Previous organizers have told us that teachers have left their workshops excited about the new materials they learned and the innovative ideas they've discussed with other teachers. We're hopeful that they'll pass on to their students not only the skills that they learned but also that passion. Posted by Terry Ednacot, Education Program Manager

An update from the Chairman When I joined Google in 2001 I never imagined—even in my wildest dreams—that we would get as far, as fast as we have today. Search has quite literally changed people's lives—increasing the collective sum of the world's knowledge and revolutionizing advertising in the process. And our emerging businesses—display, Android, YouTube and Chrome—are on fire. Of course, like any successful organization we've had our fair share of good luck, but the entire team—now over 24,000 Googlers globally—deserves most of the credit. And as our results today show, the outlook is bright. But as Google has grown, managing the business has become more complicated. So Larry, Sergey and I have been talking for a long time about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making—and over the holidays we decided now was the right moment to make some changes to the way we are structured. For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there's clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company. Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google's Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google's technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead. Sergey has decided to devote his time and energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. His title will be Co-Founder. He's an innovator and entrepreneur to the core, and this role suits him perfectly. As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google's global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey. From left to right - Eric, Larry and Sergey in a self-driving car in a photo taken earlier today We are confident that this focus will serve Google and our users well in the future. Larry, Sergey and I have worked exceptionally closely together for over a decade—and we anticipate working together for a long time to come. As friends, co-workers and computer scientists we have a lot in common, most important of all a profound belief in the potential for technology to make the world a better place. We love Google—our people, our products and most of all the opportunity we have to improve the lives of millions of people around the world. Posted by Eric Schmidt

YouTube Highlights 1/20/11 This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label "YouTube Highlights" and subscribe to the series. – Ed. Since our last update, we've featured new music programs, brought you closer to what's going on in government and highlighted some of the best ads of 2010. Music videos now on YouTube app for Android We've welcomed VEVO's extensive library of official music videos from artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kanye West and U2 onto the YouTube 2.0 app for Android, available for mobile phones running Android 2.2 (Froyo). Enjoy! Broken Social Scene goes live on YouTube Earlier this week, Canada's indie rock collective Broken Social Scene kicked off their Winter 2011 tour with a live performance at NYC's Terminal 5. You can still catch the show on http://www.youtube.com/bowerypresents. Your window into the 112th U.S. Congress John Boehner, the new Speaker of the United States House, and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa are making the activities of the House of Representatives more accessible to U.S. citizens via YouTube. Starting in this 112th Congress, all committee hearings of the House Oversight committee will be available on YouTube, on a new channel called HouseResourceOrg. This was made possible via a Google Project 10^100 grant made to Carl Malamud at PublicResource.org, who will be working with the House to access and upload all of the hearings that the Oversight Committee holds. Meet the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 The new members of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 have been selected: 101 people from more than 30 countries around the world are heading to Sydney Opera House to rehearse together for the first time under the conductorship of Michael Tilson Thomas. Come meet the winners and stay tuned for the final performance on Sunday, March 20, which will be streamed live to the world on YouTube. A sneak peek at "Life in a Day" In anticipation of the world premiere of "Life in a Day," at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival next week, we're releasing a series of clips between now and then. Life in a Day is a documentary film directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald, produced by Ridley Scott, and filmed on July 24, 2010 by thousands of YouTube users around the world. Watch the first teaser below. Looking back at the best YouTube ads of 2010 2010 was a breakout year for online video advertising. Earning people's attention has become ever more challenging—but that's only making advertising more fun. Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" was ranked number one among YouTube ads in an informal poll of the YouTube advertising team and reporters in the industry. Find out what other ads topped last year's list. Until next time, visit the YouTube Blog for news and updates. Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team