Verifying multiple ‘owners’ of a website in Google Webmaster Tools has just got a lot easier.
Up until now, you had two methods to verify you had the right to see data available in Google Webmaster Tools for a specific website:
Whichever method you chose, it proved to Google that you had FTP access to the site either directly or, at least, through somebody who did.
Sometimes, it's just safer.
There I was minding my own business, just checking out my email and then wham! I lose 1hr of my working day trying to sort out what Google Buzz is all about.
It’s my own fault: if there’s something new to be added or downloaded I just can’t resist it. And there it was. The “Add Google Buzz to your Google Mail?” opt-in, or words to that effect (I accepted it so quickly I didn’t read it for too long).
Suddenly I was thrown into a world I didn’t understand and compelled to immerse myself in a privacy controversy I didn’t want to understand on a Thursday morning at 08:30 am!
Advanced segments versus profile & filtersOne of the first things I do when configuring Google Analytics for a client is to make sure they are able to analyse segments rather than some homogeneous blob of traffic which provides little insight into the performance of their website.
To do this, I’ll create multiple filter & profile combinations – and lots of them! Effectively, my profiles are the segments I’m most interested in for ongoing analysis and for optimisation of traffic and conversions.
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Google First-Click-Free. Why the Fuss?
With all the recent column inches in the media surrounding Google’s First-Click-Free (FCF) programme, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was some new service that Google is offering to keep publishers happy. A way to stop Google’s search users from accessing premium content for free via the back-door. Not quite.
So what is FCF, why do publishers need it and what’s the announcement about?
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Chrome OS - Just Like a TV?
Yesterday’s live-webcast ‘launch’ of Google Chrome OS, their new operating system, wasn’t a real launch, rather a release of the code and design documentation to the open source community (so don’t expect to pop into your local PC dealer to pick up a copy).
Nevertheless, it looks impressive and Joe Public should be able to get its hands on it before Christmas 2010 according to Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management, the key speaker at the webcast.
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But is it Fairtrade?
So caffeine is bad for you. Google Caffeine that is. Certainly if judged by the lost productivity in the SEO and Webmaster communities that I reckon has happened since the announcement of its impending roll-out.
Back in August 09, Google formally unveiled its new search infrastructure code-named ‘Caffeine’ and, since then, jungle drums have been pounding; not too loud at first but in the past few weeks they’ve reached fever pitch.
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FUD Factor 10
Sometimes I come across SEO/PPC agencies that have turned completely to the dark side, while others have business practices that make them more like Jar Jar Binks, you know, just irritating and hard to understand.
Recently, a number of these Pay-Per-Click agencies have approached some of my clients using FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt) as their sales weapon of choice – the “We notice that your PPC campaign is being poorly managed and costing you too much…let us take over for free for 30-days’ tactic.
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Google’s roll-out of product enhancements is both exciting and frustrating in equal measure. Exciting because they offer something new to play with (aka in-depth testing) and frustrating because their product teams obviously come from the stealth-school of marketing.
A case in point: back in May ’09, they blogged about the upcoming addition of pivot tables in Google Analytics. Great stuff even if you’re not a spreadsheet geek, sorry, I mean ‘power-user’. So when can you get your hands on them? Well, they’ve been staring at you for some time now but you probably didn’t see them. No one I speak to seems to have noticed them, so if you’ve missed them, you’re not alone.
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So who owns your Google AdWords account if you have an agency or consultant that manages it on your behalf? You or them?
I’d never given this much thought until I pitched to someone looking to switch over the management of their AdWords account from their current agency. The agency had been managing the account for a couple of years but the client was concerned that the relationship and the performance of the PPC campaign had gone into decline. So time to move on.
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Are you drowning in Google Analytics data?
Sometimes you just want cut through the detail and get the big picture. Are visits up or down? How are sign-ups for the new whitepaper doing? Which countries are top of the conversion league table?
If you want to pull this data from Google Analytics for just one website it’s straighforward. But what if you have seperate websites for different parts of the business or localised ones serving each major European country?
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