Search Engine Strategies, a leading Web industry conference and exhibition is fast approaching. Website Magazine will be there in full force so we thought we'd do some preliminary interviews about what attendees and exhibitors can expect from the conference. Our first interview is with Matt Bailey, a Web consultant at SiteLogic who will be sitting in on a few panels at the trade show. Our own correspondent Dante Monteverde conducted an email interview with Matt and we'd thought we'd share that here on the
[Dante]: Is there one primary analytics tool you could not live without, which analytics tool(s) are you currently using and recommend?
[Matt]: I could not live without ClickTracks. It's my primary tool, and it offers the best method of segmentation and data discovery.
[Dante]: On that same topic do you recommend the use of multiple analytics tools?
[Matt] To most clients, yes. It really does depend on the goals of the site.
[Dante]: How do you reconcile the differences between what Adwords conversion tracking displays and what analytics tools show?
[Matt] I use another company, ClearSaleing , for all of my AdWords campaigns. They have great tools for conversion tracking, and I use the combination of ClickTracks, which defaults to the initial impression, and their tool, which takes all impressions into the measurement.
[Dante]: How long do you recommend tracking a campaign (or how many clicks do you think are necessary) before the numbers are statistically significant enough to base making changes to the campaign on?
[Matt] I started out asking for 30 days of information, I've since gone to 90 days. But the more information, the better. If a client has at least 2 years of data available, I am in data geek heaven. I believe that you should have comparable numbers in accounting for seasonal trends.
[Dante]: Are there any recommended blogs or other authority sites you would recommend to people wanting to learn more about analytics and SEO?
[Matt] Well, you can't talk about analytics without mentioning Avinash Kaushik's blog. Also, the Web Analytics Association has a lot of people that understand SEO and have great information about Analytics.
[Dante]: What are the most common mistake people do when people set up their analytics? Specifically when trying to optimize their pages for search?
[Matt] The main problem I run up against, especially in page tagging, is that the tags are not set up correctly on all pages, which leads to missing large chunks of data. The second problem is that they try to focus on too few keywords. By limiting the keywords that they believe are effective, they can also miss a large part of the market.
[Dante]: Anything else you would like to include?
[Matt] Thanks, Dante. I simply hope to inspire people with the "Data into Action. So many people believe that analytics are difficult, or that they don't know what to track, or what is important. The goal of the session is to clarify the information that is important and how to get at it. I love seeing people get excited about analytics, and that's what happens when people get past the assumptions that are typically in the way.
I'll also be sharing on Website Architecture on Tuesday afternoon, SEO and Usability on Thursday morning and a Site Clinic Thursday afternoon, those are always very loose and very fun. I plan on hitting the sessions on international marketing and mobile search. Mobile has been promising a lot, but it seems slow to realize. I'll definitely be attending Gordon McCleod's keynote on Wednesday morning as well.