JavaScript and jQuery are a web analytics implementer’s best friend. However, there’s a lot of valuable code out there which has been minified, or optimized, for fast download/execution, which leaves the code pretty much unreadable. For these blocks of code, an online tool called jsBeautifier.org is a huge help! Besides expanding minified code into neatly indented code blocks, there’s a ton of useful links on this site. Enjoy!
Blog
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Adobe Tag Manager: Debug without CDN delay
One particularly attractive benefit of using Adobe Tag Manager is that it comes with a worldwide content distribution network (CDN) so you don’t have to worry about cache or load speed issues as you develop your custom tagging. However, when you’re in debug mode you might not enjoy waiting on the CDN to propagate your latest tagging updates before restarting your test process.
The good news is that you don’t have to wait. You can take out the code and host it locally for debugging purposes and quick turnaround. Like the idea? Follow the instructions at this Tag Manager post on Adobe’s blog to speed up the debug process, then paste your newly tested code back into ATM and deploy!
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Three week course: Google Analytics / Digital Analytics Fundamentals
Google Analytics Academy is offering a three-week course hosted by Justin Cutroni starting October 8th. Take a look at the mini-site with all the details. The course is all online, and should take 4-6 hours to complete. It will help you prepare for the GA IQ certification test (not included, of course!).
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Deploying Adobe Tag Manager for SiteCatalyst / Adobe Analytics
If you’re looking to get started with Adobe Tag Manager, this quick start video will give you some insight. Adobe has mentioned that ATM may go away by the end of 2014, but ATM is still super-useful for the time being, especially if you’re migrating away from implementing SiteCatalyst the ‘old fashioned way’.
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Hummingbird Surprise
This hummingbird isn’t your average beija flor; it’s Google’s latest update and it might have rocked your world back in August and you might not have noticed until recently. Now those disturbances you sensed in the Force over the past few weeks make a little more sense following Google’s announcements of 9/26/13. All joking aside, these changes in Google’s algorithms can drastically affect traffic to your website. As always, Google tells us basically that if we create websites which have good content for humans, and well-formed html, there’s nothing to worry about. However many sites continue to run on old infrastucture which is tough to upgrade in a short time, etc., etc. (excuses). Owners of those sites may have the most to worry about when these changes occur.
Here are some links for you to review and get up to speed quickly on these changes. Review your Google and Bing Webmaster Tools data, your web analytics data, and pick up the pieces following this change. Learn from the data you churn: improve your website content and infrastructure, monitor your rankings and your traffic.
FAQ: All About The New Google “Hummingbird” Algorithm (SearchEngineLand)
Google Algorithm Change History (Moz)
Follow search engine changes on a daily basis:
Daily forecast at mozcast.com (weather forecast analogy)
SERPs volatility at serps.com (lots of other useful free tools here as well) -
Free Google Analytics training from the source
The topic of this post is no secret, but lots of Google Analytics users don’t know about this free online Google Analytics Certification and Training. Take a few moments to watch the tutorials and you’ll learn something useful, guaranteed! If you’re feeling good about what you’ve learned, there’s a testing site as well, where you can pony up $50 to take a 90-minute certification test. Good luck, and good learning!
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Adobe announces Dynamic Tag Management; first for Adobe Analytics, for other WA programs soon
So now we know the end result of Adobe’s recent purchase of Satellite, and we know much sooner than I’d expected. What an exciting time to be involved in web analytics implementation! Tag Management has totally changed the way we think about tagging a site for website visitor experience tracking.
It’s not a perfect world yet. Despite Adobe’s promise that IT assistance won’t be required for implementing new website tracking, on the lead documentation page is an invitation to engage their consulting services or to use one of their partners. Wait, I thought you said, “now it is easy”!?!
Of course now it’s easier, but not yet easy. A web analytics implementation which results in reports from which marketers gain valuable insights still requires careful planning and implementation. So with this new innovation, folks on the implementation side simply have more (effective) tools now. Honestly, I’ve enjoyed using the “legacy” Adobe Tag Manager, which I’ve read will be supported through the end of 2014. So things really are moving fast since ATM 2.0 was released only earlier in 2013.
For ADTM documentation, check out this link: http://microsite.omniture.com/t2/help/en_US/dtm/#Frequently_Asked_Questions,
And check out the brief YouTube intro.Of all the news today, the best to me was the announcement that ADTM is included at no additional charge for Adobe Marketing Cloud customers. Considering the competition in the WA arena, that’s a great move on Adobe’s part to retain customers.
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Custom Dimensions available in Google (Universal) Analytics
Custom Dimensions have been available using one name or another in paid web analytics products for years. In Omniture (Adobe) SiteCatalyst (Analytics) their called eVars. Webtrends has offer custom dimensions since the early/mid-2000s.
Google Analytics offered five “custom variables” at first, then this Universal Analytics notion came along and now we can have 20 custom dimensions now. (I’m grateful!)
These variables can be used to track visitor interactions in a truly customized manner tailored to your website. They allow you to count what you want, not what everyone else using standard Google Analytics is counting. Combine custom dimensions with custom events and Google Analytics will be custom for your site forever more! Take a look at this blog post at analytics-ninja and learn more. See also this reference entry on Google’s Developer site which explains Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics in a way developers will appreciate.
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Tag Management opens a new world for flexible web analytics
Wow – what a whirlwind couple months as I took the plunge using Adobe Tag Manager for a recent SiteCatalyst (now Adobe Analytics) implementation. First, I owe Kevin Rogers a big thanks for his help along the way. I’ll post more about my ATM experience going forward.
What I wanted to write about today was this writeup I found which explains how to verify a site for Google Webmaster Tools using Google Tag Manager. What a great idea… the fun part is we’re only getting started with Tag Managers – they’re rocking the web analytics world.
Tag on!
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Another way of achieving the Universal Tag concept for web analytics
At this link, Akin Arikan puts forth some great discussion of the Data Layer / Analytics Layer / Universal Variable concept for passing data between the web server and web analytics tags served through a Content Distribution Network (CDN) also known as a Tag Manager. Besides the paid Tag Manager tools such as Tealium, there is the free but proprietary Adobe Tag Manager (for Adobe customers only, so far) and the free Google Tag Manager offering open to anyone. Many installations have implemented Google Tag Manager with SiteCatalyst, Webtrends and other web analytics tags.
Anyway, the gist of Akin’s article is that there is some movement in the industry towards a standardization of the Data Layer data elements. The Data Layer is a key/value JavaScript Object variable. Some tools (such as GTM) have libraries to help developers make standard calls to get data into the data layer for the Tag Manager to pick up and inject the data elements into various tags as they ‘fire’.
More to come on Tag Manager tools…. it’s an interesting time!