YWA Quick Guides

We’ve just released a new section to our Yahoo! Web Analytics Help Center called Quick Reference Guides.  There you can find our quick guides on installation and custom fields.

Our Quick Install Guide contains some basic information for the newer Yahoo! Web Analytics user so that you can get up and running as soon as possible.  Questions answered include:

• Where do I actually get my tracking code?
• Where do I put the tracking code?
• How do I check the tracking code?

You’ll also find some interesting information on how the tracking code works and what are the best steps for quickly checking how well your code is working.

Our Custom Fields Guide will give you lots of great information on YWA custom fields and how you can use them from set-up to reporting.  We cover what they are, provide some use cases and illustrate the scopes and carry-over options.

If you’re using custom fields or you’ve been in a quandary about how to use them – you need to read this guide!

If you have suggestions for other Quick Reference Guides like these, please do let us know.

v.4 Tracking Code Migration Deadline is Approaching

In 2009 we moved all of our legacy IndexTools accounts to a new data center, additionally we introduced our new v.5 tracking code and updated the v.4 tracking code.  At that time we announced that v.4 would remain fully supported until July 30th, 2010.  Well that migration deadline is fast approaching and we would like to again remind our customers to check their site(s) to ensure that they won’t be impacted.

Please note that when v.4 support ends YWA will continue to track sites utilizing this code but going forward there will be no updates, bug fixes or technical support for that version.

You can still access the original migration guides for Partners/Consultants and end users should you need to switch and our v.5 installation guide is another invaluable resource.  Also, one of our YWACN members, Sally Knows, has put together a free tool called No Tags, No Glory which can scan your site and alert you to any pages that contain legacy tracking code.  You can also contact us if you have any questions or are having issues with the migration.

Please note that this will not affect any users who became customers after May 2009.

Demographic Reporting – The Yahoo! Effect

Yahoo! Web Analytics reached its second birthday last month, and it’s time to reflect upon and celebrate one of the most significant improvements that Yahoo! brought to the product with its purchase of IndexTools – Demographics and Interest Groups.

At the birth of Yahoo! Web Analytics in May 2008, demographic reporting consisted of divining the location of a website visitor from his IP address and inferring his spoken language from his browser preferences (fig. 1).  This information is very important in understanding where your visitors are located, whether there is a gap in your geo-targeting endeavors, whether it’s worth considering broader language support, and so on.
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YWA Training Webinars

We are proud to announce that we have recently completed a series of product training webinars on YWA, which you can find in the Training Section of our YWA Resource Center.

The training sessions were designed to provide new users of the tool with a comprehensive overview of YWA, as well as offer more advanced users refresher sessions on key topics.  The idea of the training sessions is to provide you as much information on YWA as possible and help you to get the most out of the tool.  Please note that the training sessions are focused on the functionality of the tool, rather than how to perform in-depth analysis/take decisions.  However, we aim to give you enough insight into how to use the product so you can focus on getting insight from your data!

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Online Video Analytics – Tracking Embedded YouTube Videos

In part I we described some of the metrics and KPIs that may be useful to content providers who wish to analyze end-user engagement with their online videos. Now we would like to show a real world example of how to use YWA to capture audience behavior while using the internet’s most popular video platform: YouTube.

Many companies now embed YouTube marketing videos directly into their website. Hosting these videos through YouTube reduces bandwidth costs and takes the headache out of setting up a hosted video platform. Companies looking to dive deeper into the performance of these embedded videos can use YWA to analyze the video metrics of value to them.  For our example we are going to measure positive and negative consumption actions determined by the viewers interaction with the slider bar.

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YWA Invitation Process and User Management

One of the responsibilities of being a YWA account administrator is the ability to invite other individuals to access the account.  Invited users will need to create credentials which will allow them log in and then view or create analytics reports.  This invitation process has created confusion among some of our customers as well as prompting questions about what are the end user requirements.

YWA uses Yahoo! IDs (YIDs) to authenticate account logins and this YID is the same one that can be used across all of Yahoo!’s products and properties. So if you have a Yahoo! Mail account then you already have a YID that will allow access to any YWA account you have been invited to join. Yahoo! uses YIDs for the convenience and security of its customers and we call this feature Single Sign-On (SSO) because it requires our customers to only remember one username and password.

The YWA invitation process begins with an administrator (main owner) of the account sending an invitation to whomever they would like to have access to the account. This invite can be sent to ANY email address, it is only later in the process that invitee will need to choose a YID that they will use to login to the account.

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YWA Case Study – First Choice Ski

First Choice Ski, part of the TUI Travel group, has just produced a case study of their web analytics efforts in conjunction with Yahoo! Web Analytics.  You can click here to download the PDF version, but here are the highlights from Simon Rigglesworth and Penelope Bellegarde:

“We can honestly say that the quality and features in YWA easily equal, and in some areas are a lot better than paid-for packages.”

“The homepage experienced an 18% decrease in bounce rate.”

“The number of sales driven by the homepage increased 266%.”

“We think that Yahoo! Web Analytics really puts other vendors to shame.”

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Online Video Analytics – An Introduction

In recent years the Internet has seen an explosion in the use of streaming video. This has simplified the process of getting video to consumers as well as giving content providers the opportunity to measure the consumer’s engagement. Online Video Analytics allows for content providers to quantify user engagement in new ways that should help them measure returns on their video investments.

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Hello World, Hello Internal Campaigns – measuring the effectiveness of on-site promotions

Note: The following is a post by Dennis R. Mortensen, who is the Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! In New York.

Hi everybody. Welcome to the Yahoo! Web Analytics blog, which is, well, a lot of good things, but also an internal campaign – and what better way to start the blog, than to debate how one (us included) measures internal campaigns.

Traditional campaign tracking provides you with the opportunity to relate cause and effect in your marketing efforts [1]. This standard web analytics tool feature and web analyst activity, tends to be where most people start. And that is not a bad choice at all. However, on-site promotions, such as a simple banner on your front page, promoting that Easter free shipping offer, is rarely measured at the beginning of the funnel. Such promotions ends up being measured mid-funnel or actually by the end of the funnel, thus losing out on getting a full understanding of the actual effectiveness of the internal campaign.  I certainly see a lot of people measuring the outcome, such as whether we increased revenue over Easter, now that we did that free shipping thing.

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