Web Analytics Association Meetings in Scotland

I joined the Web Analytics Association (WAA) back in 2006 after attending a couple of meetings of the Scottish branch (ish). I found the meetings really useful when I knew practically nothing about web analytics and I have learnt plenty through the WAA since. Unfortunately we are quite a small group of people in Scotland and it would be good to meet up to discuss common issues and learn from each other. May be up the profile of the profession as well. We are involved in such a fast moving industry that there are so many innovative things going on. Things like voice of customer to Google Website Optimizer and I have spoken to number of web analytics experts and some vendors and I am sure we can attract some good speakers to Scotland.

So - wouldn't it be great to re-start WAA meetings in Scotland. I am thinking of an event in either Edinburgh or Glasgow sometime in the New Year and would welcome any feedback.

Several Wednesdays have been pencilled in around March time 2009 and we are now looking for ideas on venues, meeting format and suggest topics. If you have any ideas then comment or contact us at JU2 Web Analytics

Using Google Analytics with Adobe Flash?

One of the most common implementation challenges with Google Analytics has been tracking Flash content. In the past, Flash tracking was not provided out of the box, and every implementation had to be customized. Moreover, there was a lack of standards, and new developers who tracked Flash had to create their own processes to get it working.

At the Adobe MAX Conference in San Francisco, in a joint collaboration with Adobe and third party developers, Google announced a simplified solution for tracking Flash content called Google Analytics Tracking For Adobe Flash.

This feature is a translation of the current Google Analytics tracking code into the ActionScript 3 programming language that dramatically simplifies the ability to track Flash, Flex and AS3 content. This new Flash tracking code provides all the features of the current JavaScript-based version, including campaign, pageview and event tracking and can be used to track Flash content such as embedded videos, branded microsites and distributed widgets, such as online games.

More information on tracking Google Analytics with Flash here.

Expert web analytics advice here

Advanced Segmentation on Google Analytics

One feature that I always thought Google Analytics lacked was the ability to properly segment site visitors. So I was pleased to notice that as part of the recent Google Analytics update not only is the interface refreshed but Google have launched a new set of features including:

• AdSense now integrated into Google AdWords.
• Motion Charts!
• Custom Reports!
• The Google Analytics API.
• Advanced Segmentation.

Although analytics already had some segmentation functionality I found it difficult to implement and use. With advanced segmentation its now really easy to create intra session segments. There are a number of default segments and then ability to set up custom segments

Custom segments are created using an easy to use wizard which allows you to drag and drop dimensions (such as Visitors, Traffic Sources and Content) and metrics ( Site Usage, E-Commerce and Goals) into the segmentation tool. For instance you can segement on frequent visitors by dragging Count of Visits into the tool and defining the number of visits.

Segments can be combined by adding AND/OR statements and tested using the Test Segment function.

Once you've set your segments up you can apply them to reports by selecting multiple segments from the Advanced Segments drop down menu in the top right of the Google Analytics interface.

The real strength of Advanced Segmentation is that multiple segments can be compared side by side as above. For more information on this subject I refer you to an excellent post from Avinash Kaushik at Occam's Razor