Answering Bloggers' Web Analytics Questions

I run into people all the time that don't use web analytics tools like Google Analytics to measure their blogging efforts. To me, the idea seems absurd. If there was a way to let your audience tell you how to create a more engaging, richer experience for them, why wouldn't you? If there was a way to put you on a straighter path towards your version of success, why wouldn't you explore it?

Ask Anything About Blogging and Web Analytics

I strongly believe that most bloggers don't employ web analytics tools because they have too many questions about where to begin:

How do I install web analytics? Is there one tool that's better than the rest? Should I pay for web analytics? What should I be looking at? How do I make sense of it all? How do I translate what I see in these reports to the goals I set for my business?

Have you ever had these or other questions about web analytics for your blog? Well, you're in luck. On January 14th I'll be presenting about using Google Analytics for blogging at the Minnesota Blogger Conference's first Mini Conference at CoCo in St. Paul. I hope you can make it, but could also use your help to finalize the content for the presentation.

Right below this paragraph is a text box from FormSpring, the web-based conversation Q&A tool. Ask me a question, any question about web analytics and how to use it on your blog. If you didn't get a chance to nab one of the tickets before they evaporated, all the more reason to ask via FormSpring.

More Web Analytics for Bloggers

It's win-win. You get an answer to a burning web analytics question. I get fantastic insights on how to make my presentation rock. Help me create the best resource possible by submitting your question via the FormSpring form above or by leaving your question in the comments below. 

New Squarespace Site Resources on Our Anniversary

Today marks the one year anniversary of Big Picture Web's move to Squarespace as a blogging platform. It seems like just yesterday I was importing my blog posts from my old Drupal site during the free two week trial. And now here I am with a seasoned Squarespace site, fifty-some blog posts, two designs and one year later. To celebrate, today Big Picture Web is rolling out two new Squarespace resources for your site to thank the awesome blogging/website platform for a year of solid service.

Free Internet Marketing Tutorials for Your Squarespace Site

The first new resource for Squarespace sites is a list of Internet marketing Squarespace tutorials. Over the last year, I've written over a half dozen blog posts that cover specific aspects of Internet marketing from the perspective of a Squarespace website owner. Install Google Analytics on your Squarespace site. Learn about Squarespace and SEO. Compare Wordpress vs. Squarespace as you evaluate and select a platform for your web projects. Big Picture Web exists in part to help people build better Squarespace sites. Let these tutorials be your guide to better Internet marketing on Squarespace.

The Complete Guide to Blogging with Squarespace

After many months of researching, writing and editing, Big Picture Web is proud to announce its very first Squarespace Blogs eBook: The Complete Guide to Blogging with Squarespace. Learn both the strategy and tactics for getting a blog up and running on your Squarespace site with over thirty pages full of Squarespace Internet marketing goodness. As a blogger, SEO and Internet marketer, I've really enjoyed using Squarespace for my site over the last year. Download the free eBook and see what it can do for your Squarespace site/blog.Download the Complete Guide to Blogging With Squarespace

Looking Ahead to a Squarespace Future

It's been nearly a year since giving my first review of Squarespace and in that time they've added 301 redirects, social widgets, HTML snippets and more. In addition, Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena's update on the product roadmap last week demonstrates the company's ability to concentrate their resources on the best opportunities to advance the platform. I'm inspired as both a Squarespace site owner and a marketer.

Keep it up, Squarespace. The new tutorials page and blogging eBook are just my way of saying thanks and paying it forward to the Squarespace community.

What would you like to see in an eBook or tutorial? Much like Squarespace, I value your opinion so I can continue to improve upon the quality of Big Picture Web. Drop me a line, leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter and let me know what you think.

Four Tips for Overcoming Blogging Writer's Block

Big Picture Web doesn't really have what you'd consider a rigid editorial calendar. Something usually piques my interest at some point during the week. Sundays I sit down and write about the most exciting topic. This week was incredibly busy and I found myself sitting down to blog without a concrete blogging topic. Not only that, I had writer's block. This week we take a look at the importance of overcoming writer's block and four tools and tips for overcoming it.

Whether your blog is personal or professional, blogging does many things to improve the strength of your online brand. Writer's block is a death knell for many blogs whose authors decide to give up and stop producing content. Once you stop, it's as if your business stops. It's important to fight through writer's block and consistently find something meaningful talk about.  You can't be creating new relationships and connecting with your audience if you're not creating new content. Let's take a look at a few tips and tools for overcoming writer's block as a blogger.

1. Other Blogs - I regularly follow scores of blogs organized within iGoogle tabs. For example, open a new iGoogle Tab and explore this SEO and Web Analytics iGoogle Tab. Reading other blogs is often what gives me ideas for my own blog posts. In fact, the difference this week compared to others is that I didn't have as much time as I typically do to devote to catching up on my favorite industry blogs. 
2. Twitter - Reach out to your social networks for blogging ideas. You probably write about things you're relatively good at. Maybe you have a Twitter follower that has a burning question that only you can answer. At the very least you can get some ideas to get the old creative juices flowing.Thanks for the idea today, @grandciel and @Springboard SEO. And don't worry, @jblaska, I'm still working on my camel blog post.
3. My Google Analytics Keyword Report revealed a few new Squarespace keywords and some other ideas I could write about.Your Keyword Report - Crack open the Keywords Report in the Traffic Sources section of your Google Analytics account to see search terms driving traffic to your site. Are there searches for which no real good content exists on your site? Search engine users are trying hard to help you overcome writer's block. Use the Keywords report to listen to their requests for new blog content.
4. Google Reader - You can use Google Reader to organize the blogs you follow as well as iGoogle, but I prefer to use it as a Search/Twitter listening station. Use Advanced Twitter Search  -- or any search interface with an RSS output -- to create and export RSS feeds which can then be managed in Google Reader.Every blog writer could benefit from a Google Reader listening station.

Writer's block sucks, but fortunately there are tools that can help generate new ideas select a topic. What do you do to overcome writer's block? Is there a specific tool you like to use like the ones I referenced in this post? Or perhaps you have a favorite writing exercise that helps get the creative juices flowing. Overcome your own writer's block and leave a comment below.

Using Google Analytics to Measure Your Contact Form

A blog can be an excellent source of new business. But if you don't have a measurement tool in place, it can be difficult, if not impossible to know which topics are bringing in leads or sales. Did you know you can easily set up a Google Analytics goal funnel to measure your contact form? Today you'll find out which blog posts are creating new business as we look at creating a goal funnel to measure your contact form.

If you're not using goals in Google Analytics, you're not using the powerful web analytics tool effectively at all. Sure, visitors, pageviews and tweets are important measures of engagement, but what about conversion? If there's a business aspect to your blog, a lead or a sale is what brings in money. We should be just as, if not more interested in measuring these things, too.

Measuring Your Contact Form: Getting Started

Setting up goals on Google Analytics is a simple process that should take you no more than five minutes on most blogging platforms. We're going to cover how set up a contact form goal on a Squarespace blog specifically, but the general process is the same for nearly every blogging platform. Before we get started, please note that you must have Google Analytics installed and you must have Administrator access to your Google Analytics profile.

Ok, let's do this. Log in to your Google Analytics account and choose your active website account.

Go to the Analytics Settings page and select the Edit option from the Actions column that corresponds to the website profile you want to measure.

Once you're into your website's profile settings, scroll down to the Goals section and select the Add goal options from the right side of the page.

Google Analytics Goal Information

The first step of the Google Analytics goal setup form is entering information about your goal. Give you goal a name, make it active and position it within your profile. Be sure to select URL Destination as your Goal Type.

Google Analytics Goal Details

Most websites' contact forms behave in a very similar fashion. The web page someone visits directly after submitting the contact form is typically a simple variation of the contact form's URL containing the word Success or True or something like that. Submit a contact form on your own site to determine the specific URL seen after someone submits a contact form. Make note of the URL of this page. This is your destination, or Goal URL. 

Contact Form URL:

Example Squarespace Goal URL:

Now, take your goal URL and strip out your domain name.

Place this relative URL in the Goal URL field within the Goal Details section of the goal setup process. Also, make sure you've selected Exact Match as the Match Type.

You also have the chance to use a Goal Value. If you know your average lead or sales value, use that dollar figure here. If in doubt, just use an arbitrary number at first so you can at least see the relative performance of your website content until you know an exact average goal value.

Google Analytics Goal Funnel

Now let's set up a goal funnel for your goal. With a goal funnel, you can specify the sequence of web pages involved in a goal (e.g., Shopping Cart -> Checkout -> Payment Details -> Order Confirmation). Your goal funnel for your contact form process starts on your contact page and finishes on your Goal Url page. Simple right?

Enter the relative URL and a label for your contact page in the Step 1 row. Make sure to select the Required step checkbox. Save your goal.

Congratulations! You've just unlocked the real power of Google Analytics. You now have a goldmine of data pouring into the Goals section of your Google Analytics account.

Which Blog Post Lead to Contact Form Submissions?

Now that your goal is set up, you can start to collect data on which blog posts are converting into contacts. Looking in the Goals section of Google Analytics, you can see which blog posts are getting people to reach out and ask you for more information. You can also create and email custom reports to yourself that tell you exactly how you did each month.

What we've seen today is the step-by-step process on how to set up a Google Analytics goal funnel for a contact form submission on a Squarespace website. Although the steps may vary slightly on your specific website, the general process is the same regardless of what you use to publish your blog or webiste. Find your start and destination URLs and then carefully configure them in your Google Analytics account's goal setup interface.

Spending some time to set up goal funnels like this on your blog/website is the best way to use Google Analytics to its fullest potential. Set up your contact form goal funnel on your site. I bet you'll be surprised by what content is driving new business.

What goals do you have for your website? Could you use the steps described in this blog post to set up a funnel on your site? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Calling all Squarespace Designers

Do you know any excellent Squarespace designers? Perhaps you yourself design websites on the Squarespace web publishing platform. If so, then today's the day to share your gift with the fine people of the Internet. Today I invite you to join our upcoming Squarespace Designers Directory and help Big Picture Web let the world know how to benefit from your mad Squarespace design skills.

By trade and passion, I'm more of a search engine marketer and web analytics geek than I am a designer. Sure, I can build a Squarespace website and share information on usability and web design books and resources, but to really make a website sparkle is another skill set altogether. Candidly, it's one I'm not sure I have.

I have an undying respect for great web design. In fact, web designers, especially the really great ones, mystify me. That's why I wanted to put together the Squarespace Designers Directory. I figured, if you can't beat them, create a means to highlight them! Adding a catalog of Squarespace design experts to Big Picture Web's ever-growing collection of Squarespace marketing tips and resources is the most meaningful way I can think to help out Squarespacers in a design capacity.

Join the Squarespace Designers Directory

If you'd like to be a part of Big Picture Web's Squarespace Designers Directory, there's just a few easy steps to complete:

• Fill out the official application form here
• Share this blog post with your fans and followers on social networks. Ask them to leave their support for you and tell us why you should be included in the directory in the the comments area below.
• For extra special consideration, write a blog post on your blog explaining why you should be in the directory. Include the Big Picture Web logo and a link to this blog post: http://bit.ly/bID7yR.

In a few weeks, I'll roll out the Squarespace Designers Directory featuring your work and contact information, which will be front-and-center for all of the thousands of monthly Big Picture Web visitors to see. And once live, I'll continue taking new applicants and adding new designers to the directory as time goes on to ensure that it builds value for the Squarespace community over time.

If you're a brilliant Squarespace website designer, here's your chance at a little free press. That's right. At least for now, listings for Squarespace designers will be free. If you or someone you know designs Squarespace websites, now is the time to act.

Join Big Picture Web in building a helpful directory for the Squarespace community that will feature the skills and contact information of the best and brightest Squarespace designers.