Archive for June, 2009

Fun with Google Analytics (Part 1 of Alot)

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Web analytics can be defined as the measurement of data relating to an Internet website. This includes the number of visitors, number of pages viewed, how much time the visitor was on your site, etc. We can use this information to examine and improve your website and its content. It is also very important tool to utilize when you are analyzing internet advertising and Search Engine Marketing campaigns.

There are a number of services out there that provide analytics reports of your website. At Neal Advertising, we are partial to Google Analytics for its accurate reporting, ease of use and the amount of available data. Today we’ll take a look at 3 basic metrics. 

The total amount of web pages that were viewed on your site in a given time period is referred to as page views. If someone visits your site once, but views 15 different pages, your site just generated 15 page views. When using this to analyze your website, you also need to look carefully at the number of pages you have on your site and the content on each page. You can also delve deeper into this by looking at which individual pages garner the most traffic.

An individual or browser that views your site is measured by a unit called a unique visitor.  If an individual visits the site more than once, it is only counted as one unique visitor. This is a great way to measure your websites traffic, giving you an accurate reading on your audience size. 

When Google calculates your time on site, they take the total amount of time that each visitor spends on the site before exiting the website. If you view 2 pages for a total of 10 minutes or 20 pages for a total of 10 minutes, your time on site will be the same. Every website is unique and thus, the amount time a visitor spends on your site gets will vary. When analyzing this metric, it is important to look at the number of pages, content of those pages and your ultimate goal or purpose for the website.

As with any web metric, Google Analytics is not 100% accurate, but it is a great tool to measure the effectiveness and stickiness of your website.

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Posted in Advertising, Tools, Web | 1 Comment »

Print Is Not Dead

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Design!Print is not dead

I hear a lot of people saying that print is dead, and the digital age is taking over. This is something that I disagree with. I am aware that technology is very abundant in advertising, but just because technology has become the new way to advertise doesn’t mean that the art of print design is dying out.

Print design in mainly used in advertising to create products such as posters, billboard, direct mail, magazine ads and much more. What people don’t see is the other side of print design that is needed to make a business run. Business cards are a good example. The design of them is extremely important to a business. That little card that you leave behind is the first impression people get of your company. It gives your company personality and helps support its brand and image.

Let’s take a step back from business cards and think about what is the most important thing for a company to have. A logo. Your company’s logo is what identifies your company. Without it a business is not branded and advertising will not be as beneficial. A logo makes you associate with the brand. That logo will go on anything and everything your company creates throughout print or web.

I am not saying that technology is bad; it is a wonderful tool and I think it has a lot of great benefits. The best way I think of web design and print design, is to see them as two different things. Web design is a new tool to advertise your brand, but the root behind getting web advertisements recognized by consumers goes back to good print design. So while print advertising may be dying, print design itself is not dead.

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Posted in Advertising, Design, Web | No Comments »