The webteam have written a discussion paper about the use of Google Analytics versus our current analytics software. Following research, consultation with our users and 'trial and error', we have come to the conclusion that it would be beneficial to the University to use Google Analytics as our primary analytics tool. The main reasons for this were, no cost and better usability.
We deemed the risk of the service from Google being unavailable minor enough to be acceptable and would varify its accuracy by comparing the results to our own server logs on a regular basis.
We were pleased when our 'Web Steering Group', the overarching group that makes decisions about the University's online development, accepted the paper.
Yes, like many, we too are selling our soul to the Google empire.
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Friday, November 28, 2008
Personalise your search with SearchWiki
If you are a Google user, and let's face it, most of us are, and you have a Google Account, you will be able to take advantage of Google's newest invention, the SearchWiki which was released on 11th November.
SearchWiki is a cool new feature that lets you customise your Google search results. You can add, remove and rearrange your search results as well as comment on them. Every time you do a search when you are logged into your Google account, you'll see your customised search results.
So how does it work?
Let's say you search for a holiday home in Spain, and you get "Results 1 - 10 of about 726,000 for holiday home in spain. (0.31 seconds)". Well the next step is to browse your search results. Inevitably, you will stumble upon pages that through clever techniques have received top rankings in major search engines, but are pretty much useless, or so cluttered and unusable that you immediately press the browser back button to get back to your search results. So you do not have to come across these pages again, you can delete them from your search results.
Similarly, if you really like the web page and think that you might find it useful in any future searches, you can promote the search result to the top of the page. You may also leave a note on individual search results. Every time you are logged into Google using your Google account, you can refer back to those comments and promoted and deleted search results.
Remember, your alterations and comments are not visible to anyone else. Only you, when you are logged on, can see the alterations that you have made.
Why would I do it?
You do have to ask yourself, "what's the point". Normally people use Google to find pages that they have not come across before. It is very unlikely that I'd need to search for the same thing again and again. I'd normally save important pages in my Internet Explorer bookmarks or del.icio.us for that matter. And if I'm searching for something different, for example another product, I'd go back to web sites that have proven to focus on products and product searches such as Amazon, eBay and the like.
What is the purpose of showing how other people have voted on a search result and their comments after you have voted and commented? By setting it up this way, Google doesn’t bias your own decision, but does Google provide the information after you have voted simply as a point of interest? Or to get you to possibly reconsider your decision?
Web development questions.
The real question for us web developers is: "How does that affect my daily efforts to optimise the site for search engines?" How can we guarantee that your department pages, your courses, and the University still receive high ranking positions on Google? Well, it would only affect the user that has deleted the canterbury.ac.uk search results from their list. So, would this affect accidental hits to our site and therefore improve the bounce rate?
Google's SearchWiki must be an interim step towards something else. Something bigger. It is gathering your valuable information of your search preferences and behaviours. Google would not just waste these data.
Has Google found the answer to providing an intelligent way of searching?
SearchWiki is a cool new feature that lets you customise your Google search results. You can add, remove and rearrange your search results as well as comment on them. Every time you do a search when you are logged into your Google account, you'll see your customised search results.
So how does it work?
Let's say you search for a holiday home in Spain, and you get "Results 1 - 10 of about 726,000 for holiday home in spain. (0.31 seconds)". Well the next step is to browse your search results. Inevitably, you will stumble upon pages that through clever techniques have received top rankings in major search engines, but are pretty much useless, or so cluttered and unusable that you immediately press the browser back button to get back to your search results. So you do not have to come across these pages again, you can delete them from your search results.
Similarly, if you really like the web page and think that you might find it useful in any future searches, you can promote the search result to the top of the page. You may also leave a note on individual search results. Every time you are logged into Google using your Google account, you can refer back to those comments and promoted and deleted search results.
Remember, your alterations and comments are not visible to anyone else. Only you, when you are logged on, can see the alterations that you have made.
Why would I do it?
You do have to ask yourself, "what's the point". Normally people use Google to find pages that they have not come across before. It is very unlikely that I'd need to search for the same thing again and again. I'd normally save important pages in my Internet Explorer bookmarks or del.icio.us for that matter. And if I'm searching for something different, for example another product, I'd go back to web sites that have proven to focus on products and product searches such as Amazon, eBay and the like.
What is the purpose of showing how other people have voted on a search result and their comments after you have voted and commented? By setting it up this way, Google doesn’t bias your own decision, but does Google provide the information after you have voted simply as a point of interest? Or to get you to possibly reconsider your decision?
Web development questions.
The real question for us web developers is: "How does that affect my daily efforts to optimise the site for search engines?" How can we guarantee that your department pages, your courses, and the University still receive high ranking positions on Google? Well, it would only affect the user that has deleted the canterbury.ac.uk search results from their list. So, would this affect accidental hits to our site and therefore improve the bounce rate?
Google's SearchWiki must be an interim step towards something else. Something bigger. It is gathering your valuable information of your search preferences and behaviours. Google would not just waste these data.
Has Google found the answer to providing an intelligent way of searching?
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