See Actual Results of this Site – via Google Analytics

What is it, a picture is worth a thousand… words?  Anyway, this was supposed to be a short post and the picture make up for words!   I visited the Google Analytics Site today and was really excited to see some progress on the site along with some near record (good) results.  So I decided to make an article– really quick, covering just one of the Analytics screens. I should pre-warn that the results were exciting for me, but are very tiny compared to what a really successful money making website or blog would be.

There is some pretty cool information coming but I wanted to get ONE post out today for the loyal readers. You will find out in the next post tomorrow around 6:00 p.m.  British Summer Time and I used BST on purpose… a hint on the results.    ( Oh, thats 1:00 p.m. Eastern for us Americans if my math is right ).  Let’s just say “The UK Rocks big time yeah”  

The Google Analytics,  Google Ad-Sense,  Google Ad-Words –  A Very Quick Intro

I used to be really fuzzy about AdWords, AdSense and Analytics and am starting to feel like I have a basic handle on them.  Again in my own words here is how I would describe the three at a high level but enough detail that you have a decent grasp on them.  If you are comfortable with these three than I recommend jumping right down to the acutal graph and definition above it. In my mind each of the three cover one aspect of an entire cycle which I’ll call The Ad Life Cycle (or ALC for short). I don’t know if the word exists maybe I just invented it!   The cycle as I see it is iterative, so I’ll call them “parts” of the ALC instead of “steps”.

Ad Life Cycle – Part 1 – AdWords

If the ALC had a true beginning, then I think it starts with a potential Advertiser wanting to promite a site in hopes of generating revenue and/or traffic.  This first step is fully encompassed in AdWords, covering every aspect of account creation,  ad campaigns, ad designs, choosing target markets, assigning ads to keywords, assigning bid value (per click) to keywords/ads that flows into Ad-Sense where the web site owner earns that bid amount if the ad was clicked via an ad impression using the particular keyword.

Ad Life Cycle – Part 2 – AdSense

The second part in the ALC encompasses the website owner, and everything from account approval, to which sites you can advertise on, to ad “template” setup and management.  I like to use the word template because you aren’t making ads per se, but rather creating ad placments that define the size, type, color, or shape of the placement and which advertisers may be included in it.  There are many rules about placing ads and Google is known to be very strict in requiring adherence, rightfully so, they are giving you permission to run ads on behalf of their customers, the advertisers.   So AdSense encompasses a lot and is what people generally associate with making money online via advertisement revenue.  If an ad was shown (impression) on your site and clicked,  then you earn money that simple!  The amount varies wildly depending on which keyword and bid amount the advertiser made when using the AdWords part in the ALC.  In my short time running a blog, and very short time monetizing it have seen pay amounts from .20 to around $3 (usd).  I believe my average is close to $1 per clicked ad.  But it takes me about 120 impressions to get one click!  So a website owner trying to make a fair income will iterate between Ad-Sense and Analytics continually trying to improve Click Through Rate (CTR) and amount earned overall.

Ad Life Cycle – Part 3 – Analytics

Last but not least is Analytics and this one is somewhat self describing.  Basically Analytics is a tool to assist the website owners trying to earn money online by placing ads on their websites and blogs.  It provides a daunting amount of extremely detailed reports and graphs about what their site is doing. The website or blog owner would ideally use the information to continually improve every aspect of their site, which should in turn equate to more satisfaction and cash.  It is actually very fun, I hope that a few readers give it a shot and we can compare notes.  Too bad the income is so low at first.

Finally – The Google Analytics Benchmarking Screen

It is one of millions of possible reports that can be created with Analytics.  It is pre-made by Google and so far one of my favorites.  This section like all is written entirely from my point of view and in my own words.  The results you are looking at are REAL for this website for the dates specified but the last day is a partial having about 60% included at the time I printed the screen.

The basic idea of the Benchmarking to show the differences, and trend of your site (this one) compared to “Sites of similar size” (as shown at near title).  You may notice the grey line going across each graph that is the average “Benchmark” value for the “sites of similar size”.  So ideally I’d beat every benchmark for a site of similar size but life isn’t perfect.  All other graph data on this screen is specific to this site (www.displacedguy.com)

The Six Measurements on Benchmarking Screen

If you click HERE, the image will open in separate window in larger size.

1. Visits

Self describing. Notable, yesterday was a very great day thank you all! Plus the trend is better motivating me to keep trying against all odds. I found it odd the Benchmark is so low.

2. Pageviews

Self describing. Notable, I had a few spikes early that I can’t explain might be due to site being new. Trend is weak, but could be worse. The Benchmark is only 17 so it runs flat along the bottom of the graph.

3. Pages/Vist

Self Desribing. Ideally you’d want a higher number meaning people are sticking around to read more than one page. I think my data is wrong early on due to the site being brand new.

4. Bounce Rate

The way I understand this is that if somone visits your site and leaves quickly (per Google) then it would count as a “bounce”.  Bounces are generally bad but they are dependent on the type of site. The increase is concerning. But positively speaking my average is “within acceptable limits”.

5. Avg. Time on Site

Self describing.  I’m concerned about trend but believe early spikes were because site was new. Notable is the very low benchmark value of just six seconds.  I suppose the low benchmark might be due to lots of junk sites trying to sell you things without providing any value.

6. New Visits

I believe it stands for brand new visitors who have never visited.  I have to be happy with the trend but am below the benchmark overall, probably due to lack of marketing. I’m a programmer by profession so have much to learn.

I welcome all feedback, questions, suggestions or comments.

Sincerely,

Rich (aka DisplacedGuy)

5 Responses

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