Data visualization is one of the most powerful tools available if you want to explore and understand your data, whether it’s on a small scale or at a scale which qualifies it as “big data.” In this post, I wanted to run through some of the fundamental elements of data visualization and illustrate why these concepts start to reveal insight once combined. I’ll use a very simple set of data with some fairly logical conclusions in order to focus on the effect of different techniques, avoiding adding any unnecessary complexity. A simple scatter plot example For the purpose of this post, let’s consider a scatter plot approach for a modest set of AdWords keyword data. My fictional dataset consists of data for ~700 keywords for a period of one month, with fields reflecting cost, clicks, conversion and revenue metrics. As a starting point, let’s plot the cost per click (CPC) vs. the revenue per click (RPC), represented on the x and y axis respectively: All … [Read more...] about Visual analysis of AdWords data: a primer
Analysis
Search competitor analysis: backlinks, keywords and pages
In my last column here on Search Engine Land, I shared tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years in regard to link prospecting. One process for finding link opportunities that I didn’t cover is competitor backlink analysis. Competitor analysis is fundamental to creating a link-building campaign. You’ll learn which tactics are securing links for the competition, which pages are driving search traffic, anchor text distribution, the competitive landscape and more. Solid competitive analysis provides: niche insight: linking environment, competitive landscape, potential link opportunities; competitor tactics: sponsorships/partnerships, blogger outreach, affiliate marketing, guest posting and so on; and content analysis: competitor strategies, popular topics and formats, content gaps. In this post, I’ll walk through competitor analysis, using a running example to highlight the important information you can learn by checking your competitors’ backlinks, … [Read more...] about Search competitor analysis: backlinks, keywords and pages
Data Analysis Techniques via The Pigeon Algorithm
Phantoms and Pirates, ohhhhh no! Pandas and Penguins, cute! Pigeons…ewww, gross! In the nomenclature of Google filters, algorithms, and updates, the last few years brought symbols we either love or fear. This deep-dive data analysis will look at the local directory industry and why it continues to fly high after Google released the Pigeon update. (Note: There was no official name for the July 24, 2014 update, so the name given by Search Engine Land stuck: “Pigeon is the name we decided on because this is a local search update and pigeons tend to fly back home.” The operative word was “tend,” as Pigeon never came back home for many unlucky websites.) A major cause for introducing Pigeon may have been complaints from Yelp about poor ranking. There is also much to be said for Andrew Shotland’s theory that “Pigeon may just be Google’s way of saying that going to a local business’ website is not the best way to make a decision when you … [Read more...] about Data Analysis Techniques via The Pigeon Algorithm
The 5-Minute Social Media Competitive Analysis
We’ve talked about why you should monitor your competitor’s marketing, and how to set up a monitoring dashboard to do so. But really, all that data you’re collecting on competitors is worthless if you don’t know what to do with it. Smart data needs to lead to smart decisions. And that means doing more than just hoarding competitor mentions in your dashboard. You need to sit down, dig in, and get analytical. Monitoring your competitors isn’t enough—you need to sit down and analyze the data. Whether that’s once a week, once a month, or once a quarter is up to you. But it deep dives need to be done regularly. That is, if you want to improve your brand. Today we’re talking about conducting a social media competitive analysis. What You’ll Learn From Social Analysis By sitting down and dedicating time to look at the data your social media monitoring dashboard has been bringing in, you’ll be able to know exactly where your social … [Read more...] about The 5-Minute Social Media Competitive Analysis
Three of the most important data segmentations for any Google paid search analysis
Just a few years ago, the paid search landscape could adequately be summed up as “text ads on desktop computers.” This simplicity meant analyzing performance didn’t require too much slicing and dicing to get meaningful takeaways from paid search data, and often a simple brand vs. non-brand look would do the trick. With the rise of additional ad formats and devices, however, understanding search performance requires that PPC managers and analysts dissect their data in several specific ways before coming to any conclusions. Here, we delve into the most important of those segmentations and why each is critical in paid search performance analysis. Device segmentation is critical According to Merkle’s Q1 Digital Marketing Report (registration required), the share of paid search traffic coming from desktop computers is now just 47 percent, with 39 percent coming from phones and 14 percent from tablets. For most advertisers, these devices perform very differently from … [Read more...] about Three of the most important data segmentations for any Google paid search analysis