331–340 of 401 posts
It's your own analytics, of your own site, seriously people.
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Out-of-the-box, no. With custom work, yes. The amount of effort is not large, and there are off-the-shelf solutions available. The name commonly used is "engagement timer." By default, GA only sends one hit on page load. If there's no second hit, there's no way to tell if someone was looking at the page for a second or a minute or an hour.
How do they handle it? A keep-alive style ping, or something like a beforeunload event hook?
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You get an idea how long someone has the page open yes.
But only if the user goes on to visit another page. You don't see how much time they spent on last page they visited, even if they only visit one page, by default.
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It's really not that useful for Apple to collect analytics because they make physical products, where the potential of analytics is limited. When it comes to a SaaS or a web page, the possibilities of analytics are much greater. And yet, Macs will still send usage and performance data to Apple so they can incorporate that information into future product versions and find out about system software issues.
We're pretty deep in a single thread here, but the original article isn't saying "don't use analytics", it's saying "don't use Google Analytics". Your SaaS or webpage probably gathers 80% of what Google Analytics does in your log files. It could without doubt provide deeper insights that GA is capable of by adding your own behaviour tracking code (which can be written with the understanding of your specific problem d…
> Nobody is suggesting we shouldn't collect usage and performance data
This thread degenerated into an argument because somebody stated outright:
> Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product.
That’s what people in this thread are arguing against – don’t use analytics at all – not the subject of the article, don’t use Google Analytics.
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And both > one of them.
But then surely, adding a prayer to St. Isidore of Seville [0] before every release will be better than just the both of them, so three > both > one. I've recently interacted with a startup where the amount of resources they spend on trying to get them both, is making them blind to the power of one. It's not a pretty sight when all the numbers are tracked, plotted and planned on, yet nothing seems to work. [0] https:…
Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…
I could use the access logs from the webserver. Can anyone recommend a tool that post-processes those logs in a "analytics" like way?
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What you're suggesting is analytics.
Yes but it’s not necessarily Google analytics.
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One sentence has decimated my digital marketing career and I honestly couldn't agree more. I think this has something to do with more than just Google itself though and good old capitalism. There are heaps of SaaS platforms out there (from my last point of reference there were 2000+ MarTech companies, I would guess double that now) that focuses on; A/B testing, email marketing automation, customer success tools, heat…
Focusing so hardcore on metrics can also lead to the loss of a curated product's edge. If you just keep following what the lemmings do you would end up falling off a cliff eventually, it often takes domain knowledge and experience to make educated opinions about how a product should move forward. Selfishly, I hope you do stay in digital marketing, and be the change I want to see. Ad-tech needs some sanity and reality…
The issue with me being the reality checker is that I am considered 'negative', 2 years down the line after I'm long gone and reality bites, I look like some sort of messiah. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
Doing my SEO volunteer work with small shop owners in the UK during lockdown opened my eyes. As you said the average business is hammered with SEO, PPC, growth tips (snake oil) to the point you have to try it. But they don't have the time so it's half baked mostly and they feel disheartened. Honestly, ad-tech is nothing more than going to the casino and thinking you can win against the house.
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One sentence has decimated my digital marketing career and I honestly couldn't agree more. I think this has something to do with more than just Google itself though and good old capitalism. There are heaps of SaaS platforms out there (from my last point of reference there were 2000+ MarTech companies, I would guess double that now) that focuses on; A/B testing, email marketing automation, customer success tools, heat…
Focusing so hardcore on metrics can also lead to the loss of a curated product's edge. If you just keep following what the lemmings do you would end up falling off a cliff eventually, it often takes domain knowledge and experience to make educated opinions about how a product should move forward. Selfishly, I hope you do stay in digital marketing, and be the change I want to see. Ad-tech needs some sanity and reality…
This is something I will ponder on as it can potentially lead me down the path of improving digital marketing without banging my head against a wall! Less talking more doing as they say.