A few weeks ago, a SiteCatalyst user asked me whether Omniture products could measure and help optimize internal search engine data—the keywords that users are searching to find products, content, etc. within your site. This was one of those questions that make me smile, because I can answer confidently and affirmatively. It not only can … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 3 responses
•  Web analytics

Previously, I’ve discussed how visit and visitor measurement works in SiteCatalyst. However, there are some nuances that I haven’t mentioned, and which can wreak havoc on an otherwise solid implementation. I have seen numerous cases of good development hampered by minor errors which cause visit and visitor inflation, so I’d like to discuss briefly a … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 0 responses
•  Web analytics

I like blog posts that have solid themes, but sometimes there are questions I’d like to answer that may not be long enough to constitute their own post. In such cases, I’ll use a “potpourri” format similar to the popular Bill Simmons mailbag recurring feature on ESPN.com to hit a bunch of disparate topics in … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 5 responses
•  Marketing Integration, Web analytics

Every December, at the Omniture holiday party, spouses, partners, and dates of employees get a crash course in the value of some of our products, courtesy of a “segmentation game.” Everybody stands up, and the emcee (CTO Brett Error) reads from a list of criteria and instructions, such as, “If you have a five-dollar bill … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 5 responses
•  Web analytics

How should we handle online measurement of rebates, discounts, and coupons? It’s an important question, especially for online retailers implementing SiteCatalyst. Not only do these data factor into your bottom line, but they can provide meaningful insight into your user experience. Let me begin by telling you how not to do it:
Do not do it … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 1 response
•  Web analytics

I love mobile apps. They are my nearly constant companions. At lunch, I can get caught up on the news I missed during the morning. On the drive home from work, I get streaming music from all over the world (and, during the summer, the live Red Sox radio feed I desperately crave). And after … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 0 responses
•  Web analytics, mobile analytics

In a previous post, I described custom link tracking, its various uses, and implementation techniques. Link tracking is awesome because it opens up a wide variety of data points and user experience aspects that can’t always be tracked on page loads. But everything hinges on the s.tl() function, which is part of the SiteCatalyst JavaScript … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 4 responses
•  Web analytics, mobile analytics

One of the most difficult concepts to explain happens to be one of the most frequently asked questions that my colleagues and I receive from SiteCatalyst users. There are several iterations of this question, each with roughly the same answer:

Why doesn’t the sum total of visits from each line item in the Pages report add … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 3 responses
•  Web analytics

Recently, I participated in a great little conversation on Twitter regarding how to handle a very specific reporting need. A user asked how he could tie individual user IDs on his site back to data from the user’s first visit. For example, this user needs to see the original entry page for various users. This … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 4 responses
•  Web analytics

A fellow SiteCatalyst user recently asked me via Twitter how best to manage deployment on multiple sites. Many companies operate several distinct web sites; consider a firm that owns multiple brands. If I own BrandA and BrandB, the odds are that each of these brands will have its own site.
This can become problematic as the … Read more »

• Ben Gaines
• 5 responses
•  Web analytics