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SEO Weekend #3

I am really excited about SEO Weekend #3. Analytics is one of the most important tools we have to understand our users and how they find us. At the time we are building our website we draw on our knowledge and experience to create what we think our target audience wants. There has never been a website that I have been involved in that has not throw me a few surprises. That is one of the reasons why SEO can be challenging but also makes it very interesting.

Many of you already have some kind of stat counter or monitor on your site. If you do not have web stats I recommend you install a package like Google Analytics as soon as possible. We should not manage our business blindly, if you do not have robust data it is impossible to make informed decisions. What I would like to accomplish in this post is to install Google Analytics on our AR blogs. I literally did it in a few minutes and can’t wait to see the results.

So here is the plan. We are going to install Google Analytics on our blogs and do a little discovery and discussion on the traffic patterns our blogs generate. I bet there are going to be a number of surprises and I can’t wait! For the next few weeks we can focus on specific aspects of the tool to better understand the data we gather. What we will learn and discuss here can be leveraged in all of your internet properties. Are you with me?

Task #1 – Install Google Analytics on our AR Blog

You will need a Google account to get started, if you don’t have one now is a great time to get stated. Here we go:

Go to: www.google.com/analytics

Click: Add a website Profile

Enter in the URL of your AR Blog

Copy the tracking code provided.

Go to your ActiveRain my settings page

Copy the tracking code into your "Blog Description" text box.

Go back to the Google page and confirm that the code has been installed.

You did it, way to go! It takes about 24 hours for the data to start pouring in.

Let me know how you made out. I look forward to hearing from you.

Related Post: SEO Weekend #2

Posted by IMNJ - Internet Marketing Specialist on 07/11/2008 09:42 PM

Comments (13)

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13 Comments on SEO Weekend #3

JUL

2008

IMNJ - Are we using the URL of our customized AR blog or our activerain.com/blogs/member name

I am guessing we are using activerain.com/blogs/ --- since that is what we are adding the code to

Howard,

I was able to install analytics a few weeks ago. The AR site was more difficult than my website. And it seemed to take some time for the information to show up fully.

It would be good to help present some perspective on the wealth of data available on analytics. There was almost too much for me, initially. It is starting to make more sense, but I would like a bit more information on how to understand the information.

Should each important web page be added to analytics, or is the home page alone enough?

Richard

JUL

2008

Thanks for the information. I will try it soon. I am going to look for the response to the above comment.

The goal of this post is to get the tool installed if you don't already have it. Over the next few weeks we will discuss specifics of the report. I am really look forward to it.

Best wishes!

JUL

2008

When I check my settings, mine is not in the blog description text box (it says html will be stripped). Where do I put the code? Thanks. Joe

Joe - I think my instruction could have been a bit clearer.

Enter code in the "Blog Description" text box not in blog description text. I will update the post to clarify.

Thanks again.

I'd installed analytics on the pages of my web a while back. I've had a web presence for years. At one time I dominated my market area. Hurricane Charlie reset my priorities over the past several years. I'm back attempting to gain my desired placement in google only to find that the rules seem to have changed a bit.

This weekend assignment of placing analytics on a blog instead of on my site has just added conformation that just a couple of years of not paying attention to trends can really put you behind.

Now I'm muddling through the "how can I market myself and my market area using blogging" as well as my website. When I started with my website my mission was simple, provide information to people searching to retire or relocate to southwest flroida. Market my listings. Make sure that I came up number one or at least on the first page of google for the terms I thought people would use. (over simplifing I know)

I know I'm rambling but I'm trying to see how blogging brings customers. The picture is clear if I'm IMNJ, but as a realtor what goals should I be building into my blogging?With blogging goals analytics should help me evaluate my blogging approach right?

O.k. I followed the direction but when I click "check status" on my google analytics page it states that tracking is not installed. I don't know what I did wrong. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts?

Michelle - I get the same error. I thought perhaps it was too new so I waited until just now to check again. Still an error message. I'd also like to know where I went wrong.

Please confirm it was entered into the "Blog Description" portion of your profile. Make sure you did not enter it "description text".

JUL

2008

What url do we use? Is it http://name.activerain.com?

I did install this on my personal website www.realestateinthetriangle.com and I've been able to track hits. My site links to my Outside Blog- is this way I should go? Or should I link directly to AR? As you can see I'm a little confused.

JUL

2008

Nogui -

Use:

http://www.activerain.com/blogs/YOURUSERNAME

Howard,

I've taken your advise to have a blog from my domain as well as here on activerain, and once again what seemed like a little assignment has blown into a mess of work.

First I had to decide on a blog platform, install, configure, and yes add analytics. (ultimate google analytics)

I decided on wordpress, I installed in a directory (I thought about a subdomain but didn't)

I've searched for info on best practices (reading late into the night)

I'm a bit concerned about using the same post on different blog, but don't know how original I can be.

pingback is something I need to do research on, as soon as I started posting I discovered that sites were finding my posts, and I have not even linked my blog from my primary web pages!

Can't wait for this week-end assignment...Could you take it easy on us? I'd like to do some fishin

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