Advanced Web Metrics with Google
Analytics by Brian Clifton
Great Book
Are you getting the most out of your website? Google insider and web
metrics expert Brian Clifton reveals the information you need to get a true
picture of your sites impact and stay competitive using Google Analytics
(GA) and the latest web metrics methodologies. Which marketing
campaigns work best? How do you quantify their success? What indicators
should you track? Packed with techniques and insider secrets not
documented elsewhere, this book has the expert guidance you need to
enhance your brand and increase your sites ROI.
Personal Review: Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
by Brian Clifton
I've used WebTrends for some time. Used a very early version of Urchin
circa 2005. Started with Google Analytics in 2008. Google Analytics has
come a long way since Urchin. WebTrends is definitely more potent with a

lot more features. But well .. you're paying for it. Google Analytics is free.
The only shortfall is that it retains data for the last 25 months, so if you
want to compare with the last 4-5 years, that will be difficult. You could pull
out data to your local system and workaround this or use Urchin which has
a more diluted reporting capability.
All that aside. This is a fantastic book. A deserving 5 starrer.
The flow of this book has been well planned. Clifton starts with what
reports can be procured from Google Analytics, giving everyone a quick
insight into what kind of information gathering is possible. A really good
way to tell you how potent this tool can be. The next section deals with the
implementation and how pages can be tracked. Discusses in detail some
of the implementation issues like:
Using the same analytics account to monitor diff websites
How to create a local copy of the analytics info
Also includes Advanced Implementation how-to's for E-Commerce
websites, online campaign tacking, event tracking. There's also a chapter
on hacks. These sections are the most relevant and covers the first 211
pages.
The last section of the books starts with KPI's and discusses the topic in
detail with examples related to e-commerce sites, Marketer's KPI's
webmaster's KPI's and more. The last chapter also discusses Google
Website Optimizer and is a good introduction for newbies.
This book is extremely comprehensive and does a very good job of
introducing Google Analytics to both new users as well as experienced
one. Javasript code shows up at various places and is definitely helpful as
a reference for making quick changes to your website tags.
If you have a website that uses Google Analytics, just go ahead and buy
the book. If you're using other analytic tools, this book is a good
introduction to what Google Analytics has to offer.
A few standout features of Google Analytics:
Two click integration with Google Adwords. (Two reports : Adwords
Campaign, Keyword Positions)
Can be used to track paid search, organic search, links from pdf's, videos,
email campaigns etc
Site overlay report (something like a heat map. WebTrends calls this the
click density report)
Map overlay report (shows which geographies people are coming in from)
Cross referencing (eg how many visitors from california, which keywords
folks from california use)
Site search reporting (From which pages do visitors initiate a search. And
which page do they go to. This needs some setting up.)
Event tracking of video files and load times, interactions in the file etc ..

(About Google Urchin: Urchin is a down loadable tool. Its a hybrid tool
since it tags as well as processes log files. It can provide bandwidth
reports, error page/status code reports, visitor history reports.
Benefits:
Can run behind firewall. Useful for intranets.
Data stored in house, so can be used beyond 25 months.
Google Analytics can analyze a max 5 million pageviews a month. Urchin
doesn't have this restriction.
The Disadvantages pertain to the hardware and manpower needed to set
up a server, maintain and backup.)
Other References
Companion site for the book: http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/
Scripts are at: http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/ga-scripts/
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34674820494
Support: http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/
Advanced topics and methodologies:
http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/
Blog: http://analytics.blogspot.com/
If you want to see pics of what some actual Google Analytics Reports look
like, you can check them on my website Pune360.com:
http://pune360.com/Editorial/2009/01/04/googleanalyticsbookreview/
For More 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price:
Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics by Brian Clifton 5 Star Customer
Reviews and Lowest Price!