Google Analytics
Definition: A service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales. The product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew. It is the most widely used website statistics service.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics
Recommended Article: 5 Things You Shouldn’t Do With Google Analytics
Link: http://padicode.com/blog/analytics/5-things-you-shouldnt-do-with-google-analytics/
Notes: This blog post emphasizes the fact that Google Analytics is a tool that needs to be used and analyzed, not taken at face value. It emphasizes what uses Google Analytics should not be put to, such as not using it to calculate actual time spent on your site. Although Google Analytics seems to be the be-all-end-all of web analysis, this article puts it more in perspective in pointing out areas where you need to find data on your own or keep in mind the data you’re seeing may not be 100% complete or accurate.
Bounce Rate
Definition: Bounce rate is the percentage of visits that go only one page before exiting a site.
Source: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en
Recommended Article: 16 ways to cut your bounce rate
Link: http://www.brafton.com/blog/16-ways-to-cut-your-bounce-rate
Notes: There are about a billion articles on how to cut your bounce rate, so I picked one that looks like easy suggestions (which aren’t necessarily easy to pull off) and those “d’uh” pointers, where it seems obvious and yet some people still don’t do it, like making navigation easy. This is a huge thing for me: I go to a website and can’t find the one thing I’m looking for. I use the website’s search functions, and it takes me to many pages, but still not the one I’m looking for. I hate trying to find a product on a website in order to purchase it, and I have no idea which heading it’s under, it doesn’t show up in search, and I just can’t find it! I usually give up or try somewhere else (or go to the physical store) when this goes on for longer than a minute or two.
Geo-Targeting
Definition: The method of determining the geolocation of a website visitor and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location, such as country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code, organization, IP address, ISP or other criteria.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotargeting
Recommended Article: Google Ad-Words Geo-Targeting: Have We All Been Doing It Wrong?
Link: http://searchengineland.com/adwords-geo-targeting-have-we-all-been-doing-it-wrong-169049
Notes: This article suggests that instead of opting-in to geo-targeting, we should opt out. Specifically, it looked at a Colorado campaign where they wanted to run something specifically for Denver. So they took Denver out of the state-wide campaign and ran a Denver specific one, but this resulted in Denver clicks dropping way down and costs per click going way up. It seems counter-intuitive since the Denver people were seeing Denver-specific ads, so it’s an interesting observation (graphs are included in the article).