NitroMetrics Blog

Firefox is the only browser that allows for 3rd party extensions. This being the case here are the best Firefox tools for SEO and web Analytics

SEO Tools

Pulls useful market research data right into Google’s and Yahoo!’s search results, including the following data near each search result.

• PR: (Google PageRank) an estimated measure of global link authority
• Age: age pulled from Archive.org, shows the first time a page was indexed by Archive.org’s spider. The theory is that if Archive.org found a page so did many of the major search engines.
• Links: (Yahoo! linkdomain) shows a rough estimate of the total number of links pointing at a domain
• .edu Link: (Yahoo! .edu linkdomain ) shows a rough estimate of the total number of .edu links pointing at a domain
• .edu Page Link: (Yahoo! .edu link ) shows a rough estimate of the total number of .edu links pointing at a specific page
• .gov Link: (Yahoo! .gov linkdomain ) shows a rough estimate of the total number of .gov links pointing at a domain
• Page Links: (Yahoo! link) shows a rough estimate of the total number of links pointing at a page
• del.icio.us: number of times a URL has been bookmarked on Del.icio.us. Heavily skewed toward techy / Web 2.0 stuff.
• Technorati: an estimate of the total number of links to a site from blogs
• Alexa: rank based on website traffic . Heavily skewed toward internet marketing and webmaster related resources.
• Cached: (Google site:) shows how many pages from a site are indexed in Google
• dmoz: searches the Google Directory to count the total number of pages from a site that are listed in DMOZ, and the total number of pages listed in DMOZ that reference that URL.
• Bloglines: shows you how many people are subscribed to a particular blog via Bloglines.
• dir.yahoo.com: is a site listed in the Yahoo! Directory or not.
• WhoIs: makes it easy to look up the whois data for any site.

WEB ANALYTICS

WASP is the Web Analytics Solution Profiler, a specialized Firefox extension aimed at web analytics professionals Buy! who want to do quality assurance and understand how their web analytics solution is implemented.


Note: The free version of WASP offers the unrestricted sidebar and statusbar info. Site crawls are limited to 10 pages. To crawl more pages you need to upgrade.

This project may be of some help for the following:

• Help debugging web analytics implementations.
• See which kind of web server the website is using.
• See the cookies set by website and 3rd party adverting partners.

Are there any other ‘must have’ tools that you use regularly? Please leave a comment if you do.

With Google Analytics releasing new features the question is being raised again: What is difference between Omniture and Google Analytics. Comparison between the two is will become more focused as Google adds more features. What is the better choice among the two services. Like any true analyst would say “It depends”.

Google Analytics new features

• Motion charts
• Advanced Segmentation - This is limited to session data
• Custom Reports
• Data Export API

What is still special about Omniture
-Features

• Real-Time Tracking - Most companies wouldn’t benefit from real-time tracking but Omniture has the feature Google doesn’t.
• A hundred custom variables (50 props, 50 eVars) instead of just 1 provided by Google.
• Product classifications (S.A.I.N.T.) - Once classifications are defined you can splice and dice the data with Omniture’s product classifications.
• ActionScript Flash tracking - You can track Flash elements with Google but it requires a hack. Omniture can track Flash with a native solution.
• Custom Metrics - Google only provides standard metrics but it is possible to make a custom metric in a spreadsheet or database if needed.
• Event Tracking - Google doesn’t have a way of tracking changes like Omniture’s event tracking calendar. This can be incredibly helpful when many users are making changes on the site and on their campaigns.
• Alerts - When a metric or KPI hits a certain level Omniture can send an email alerting the person in charge.

-Data

• Google owns your data and some potentially sensitive information about your business. Omniture doesn’t have an inherent conflict of interest with PPC advertising. Google on the hand could increase your PPC bids if they knew how much you made from certain keyterms.

-Customer Service/ Customizations

• Google can do many of the heavy lifting Omniture can perform. The big difference is that Omniture has most of the functionality already built. Tracking call centers, surveys, and other data is part of Omnitures features. With Google there is a lot of extra work and research involve. Basically you are on your own with one exception; Google Analytics has built a community of experts that provide answers. There are bloggers, authors, and Q & A areas that provide much of the needed support. My experience with both tools is that most of the customizations have to be managed by the Web Analyst. There needs to be someone looking over the whole process from start to finish. Customer service and community help can only do so much.

Summary
Knowing the limitations and scope of each tool will help you make an educated decision. If your company is new to web analytics or you don’t require much beyond the standard reports Google Analytics might be for you. If you plan on using your web analytics to drive your entire company’s strategy and have complex requirements Omniture’s customization and power is hard to beat.

How can it be both advanced and simplified at the same time?  Easy, look at the way Google does search.  An input search box and two buttons.  The same simplicity is being applied to Google Analytics.  They’ve added an arsenal of premade filters with the ability to customize even further.  The interface is straightforward and the results are stunning.

Now for the bad news,  it is in private beta (a.k.a. invite only).  If you want an invite Avinash has some suggestions.

Read more here: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/10/google-analytics-releases-advanced-segmentation.html#comments

YSM has been released but it’s only available for their business account holders.   While some say it’s a direct competitor to Google Analytics it is different in one major way - real-time analysis.  More expensive web analytics platform offer real-time reporting for a hefty fee.  Now you can have it for nothing!  The last major addition these free analytics providers need is data warehousing and integrated business intelligence tools. 

Yahoo! may launch their analytics differently than Google.  Instead of having everyone join for free they might have some conditions that must be met.  Conditions like a certain level of adspend on their PPC network or other requirements.

This is an exciting anouncement for web analysts and business owners alike.