Whatz up with Google Analytics reporting???

I am using Google Analytics for tracking visitor behavior. I was checking "Depth of Visits" report under Visitor Loyalty for one of the clients and I got this.. (Check out the image below)





How Google Analytics is tracking less than 1 page visits? Does anyone know how Google Analytics is calculating this? Has anyone came across this kind of a statistic before (I am sure many people must have seen this kind of a stat before)??

Well I am confused. Please share any of your comments & thoughts on this.

REMOVE NOFOLLOW TAG FROM YOUR BLOG BUT DON'T LET SPAMMERS MISUSE THIS

Yesterday I wrote about the nofollow attribute and how it helps to prevent link spamming. The nofollow attribute is by default available in Blogger templates comments section and also in code.

As blogging softwares by default use nofollow tag, many bloggers don't even realize that they are using nofollow tag and if a blogger moderates comments, there is no need for nofollow attribute.

I decided to do some research for removing nofollow attribute from code and comments area and I do found some really good articles about this & I also removed nofollow tag from my blog :). Following is the way by which you can remove nofollow tag from blogger templates comments and main code section:

To remove nofollow tag from blog code:

• Login to Dashboard and click on Layout. Click on edit HTML tab.

• Backup template by clicking on the Download full template link. This will serve as a backup copy for your code.

• Put a check on the Expand Widgets template check box.

• Look for the following code in the template (Use <>

[b:includable id='backlinks' var='post'>
[a name='links'/>[h4>[data:post.backlinksLabel/>[/h4>
[b:if cond='data:post.numBacklinks != 0'>
[dl class='comments-block' id='comments-block'>
[b:loop values='data:post.backlinks' var='backlink'>
[div class='collapsed-backlink backlink-control'>
[dt class='comment-title'>
[span class='backlink-toggle-zippy'> [/span>
[a expr:href='data:backlink.url' rel='nofollow'><[:backlink.title/>[/a]
[b:include data='backlink' name='backlinkDeleteIcon'/>
[/dt>

Remove rel='nofollow' which is colored in the blue in the above given code and save the code. Now Googlebot will follow the backlinks from your posts.

To remove nofollow tag from comments area

You can search for "rel='nofollow'" in the code & remove that or you can look for following code (Use < id="'comments-block'">
[b:loop values='data:post.comments'var='comment'>
[dt class='comment-author'expr:id='"comment-" + data:comment.id'>
[a expr:name='"comment-" +data:comment.id'/>
[b:if cond='data:comment.authorUrl'>
[a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow'>[data:comment.author/>
[b:else/>
[data:comment.author/>
[/b:if>
[data:commentPostedByMsg/>
[/dt>

Again remove the rel='nofollow' which is colored in blue in the above given code and save the code. Now Googlebot will follow the backlinks from your comment section.

As what title of this post says "REMOVE NOFOLLOW TAG BUT DON'T LET SPAMMERS MISUSE THIS", Make sure that you moderate comments on posts and remove unwanted spammers from comments and when you give link juice to someone, make sure you are giving it to a good & spam free website.

PREVENT SPAM WITH NOFOLLOW TAG

Before digging into nofollow attribute, let us first understand what exactly nofollow attribute is:

According to Wikipedia "nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target's ranking in the search engine's index."

In simple words, nofollow attribute is used to tell search engine not to follow a particular link so that target link's ranking doesn't get affected by particular link.

The nofollow attribute is used to reduce linkspamming activities followed by many spammers and this will help in increasing the quality of search engine results. This is an important attribute which is used to reduce link spam.

Example of nofollow attribute:
HTML code: [a href="http://www.google.com" rel="nofollow">Google Search[/a]
(Use <> instead of [] in actual code)

This will result in: Google Search

The resulting link which is still visible to users will not contribute to Google's link popularity, Page rank or Search Engine Ranking.

Nofollow attribute is used to prevent spammers from abusing blogs, forums, guest books and other places where any body can comment. Now Blogging software’s like blogger, wordpress are by default using nofollow tag to stop spamming. Any links or comments posted on these blogs will not pass link authority (You can also remove nofollow tag on blogger & wordpress and I will follow this in my next post.)

Mastering the Leading Search Engine - Google Search Operators

Google is the industry leader in search volume. It is far ahead then other search engines in the industry. As most people search on Google for their search requirements so it is very important to understand Google search operators or options.

Following are important Google search & advanced search options / operators which can help you master Google search:

• Find web pages that have:
  

• all these words: This will help you in finding web pages that contains all the search terms you type in.
  
  
• exact wording or phrase:
  

• This will help you in finding web pages which contains the exact phrase which you have typed in.
• You can also use this feature in standard search by surrounding your phrase with quotes.
• Example: “Red Hat” will give you those web pages which contain the exact phrase “Red Hat”.
  

• One or More of these words:
  

• This will help you in finding web pages that contains at least one of the words you type in.
• You can also use this feature in standard search by using [OR] between your words.
• Example: online OR offline. This will give you those web pages which contains either online or offline or both.
  
  
• Don’t show pages that have:
  

• This will display only those pages that don’t contain the words you type in.
• This can also be used in standard search by adding a – (minus sign) to the beginning of the word which you don’t want.
• Example: Sport Shoes –Nike. This term will display results for sports shoes but will not display any pages which contain term Nike.
• Important: There should be no space between the – (minus sign) and word. See the above example.
  
  
• Results per Page: This will help you in setting the number of results which you want to view per page.
  
  
• Language: This will help you in specifying the language in which you want to see your results.
  
  
• File Type:
  
  
• This will help you in specifying the file format for your results. You can choose any format to see results in any file format.
• This can also be used in standard search by specifying type of file with [filetype:] query.
• Example: filetype:pdf. BY using this will only show results which are in PDF format.
• The supported file types are .pdf, .ps, .dwf, .kml, .kmz, .xls, .ppt, .doc, .rtf, .swf.
  
  
• Search within a site or domain:
  
  
• You can use this to search within a website or domain.
• You can also use this in standard search by using [site:] operator.
• Example: site:www.example.com shoes. This will search for shoes within website www.example.com.
• Important: There is no space between [site:] and the webpage url

• Where do you want keywords on page:
  
  
• You can specify where do you want your keywords to show i.e. anywhere on the page, in the title of the page, in the URL of the page, in the text of the page, in links to the page.
• You can also use allintitle, allinbody, allinurl, allinanchor tags in standard search for searching keywords in title of the page, in url of the page, in text on the page & in links to the page.
• Example: allintitle: Sport Shoes will display results which have sport shoes in title of the page
  
  
• Numeric Range:
  
  
• You can specify a numeric range in which you want results to be.
• The can also be used in standard search by specifying [..] in between numeric range.
• For example: 1000..1500 will display results that contain numbers within 1000 to 1500.
  
  
• Finding similar pages:
  
  
• You can find similar pages by using related query.
• Example: related:www.google.com will display results of websites which are related to google.com.
• Important: There is no space between [related:] and the webpage url.
  
  
• Finding Inbound links:
  
  
• You can find inbound links to a page or website by using [link:] query.
• Example: link:www.example.com will show inbound links which are coming to www.example.com
• Important: There is no space between [link:] and the webpage url
  
  
• Finding Cache Page:
  
  
• You can find cache page of any website or web page by using [cache:] query.
• Example: cache:www.example.com will show Google cache of that page and also the day and time on which it was cached.
• Important: There is no space between [Cache:] and the webpage url.
  
  
• Finding information about a webpage:
  
  
• Use [info:] to find information Google has about a webpage.
• Example: info:www.example.com will show info about www.example.com.
• Important: There is no space between [info:] and the webpage url.
  
  
• To find definition about a term:
  
  
• Use [define:] to find definition about a term gathered from various sources.
• Example: define:router will show definitions of router from around the web.
  
  
• intitle and inurl query:
  
  
• If you include [intitle:] or [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title or url.
• Example: intitle:computer search will return documents that mention the word "computer" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no).
  inurl:computer search will return documents that mention the word "computer" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no).
• Important: There is no space between [intitle:], [inurl:] and the webpage url.
  
  
• Search for Synonyms:
  
  
• Use [~] if you want to search fro synonyms.
• Example: ~auto will return results for auto and its synonyms cars, trucks etc.
  
  
• [*] Asterisk:
  
  
• The [*] asterisk represents a missing word.
• Example: black * white will display results which includes black, [missing word] and white like black VS white, black red white etc.
  
  
• Mathematical Operators:
  
  
• [+]: Will add items. Example: 50+50+80 will return 180.
• [-]: Will subtract items. Example: 50 - 30 will return 20.
• [*]: will multiply items. Example: 10*100 will return 1000.
• [/]: will divide two items. Example: 100/10 will return 10.
• [%]: [10%100] or [10 mod 100] will return 10. You can use [%] or [mod] to calculate percentage.
• [^]: This will raise a number to the power of other. Example: 2^5 will return 32.

These are some of the major Google search operators or options which you need to keep in your mind while searching. This will make your search more effective and it will deliver more efficient results.

Third party ads now available on Google Content network

Now qualified third Part Vendors can display ads on Google Content Network. Right now, these ads are only available in English. The following are the certifies third party vendors:

North America: Ad servers

• DoubleClick DFA (www.doubleclick.com)
• Mediaplex/ValueClick (www.mediaplex.com)

North America: Rich media

• DoubleClick Rich Media (www.doubleclick.com)
• Eyeblaster (www.eyeblaster.com)
• EyeWonder (www.eyewonder.com)
• Interpolls (www.interpolls.com)
• Pointroll (www.pointroll.com)
• Unicast (www.unicast.com)

North America: Research

• Dynamic Logic/Safecount (www.safecount.net)
• Factor TG (www.factortg.com)
• IAG (www.iagr.com)
• InsightExpress (www.insightexpress.com)

You can allow third party ads to display on your website by Opt into image ads as thirds party ads are only available in image or flash so they don't appear in text-only ad units.

If you choose to allow third-party ads on your site, please update your privacy policy to inform your visitors that third-party vendors may serve ads on your site. Please also provide links to these vendor websites and inform your users that they may opt out of cookies (if the vendor offers this capability).

More Information available at: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/05/introducing-third-party-ads-on-google.html

YouTube - Google Business Channel

Google has announced Google Business YouTube channel on which you can watch videos and webinars on Google's business solutions. You can watch videos on Google Analytics, Website optimizer and Google Adwords. You can get different AdWords tips on how to improve your account performance and return on investment.

On Google Business YouTube channel, you can watch different Google product experts discuss conversion tracking and bid management, learn the basics of ad quality, receive tips on how to brainstorm negative keywords, or view a webinar on the AdWords Conversion Optimizer.

The videos are currently organized into different playlists by product and by topic.

More information available at: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/02/introducing-google-business-youtube.html

Ask.com - Skin feature (Awesome)

Ask.com has launched a skins feature. This feature will help you personalizing ask.com homepage. You can choose this feature from the different skins given by ask.com or you can upload your any image from your computer.

To access this feature, click on the skins button which is just below the search box.



Now you choose from the available skins or you can upload a new skin by choosing upload your own option.

If you choose "upload your own" option, a new window will appear which will ask you to browse an image from your computer or you can add an image from web by giving its url.




After clicking I agree, the next window will ask for the name of the image and you can also align your picture according to your preferences. Click next and you skin will be ready to upload.

You can use the uploaded image as skin or you can save it for later use.



Well if you would like to make some changes you can always go back & edit it or upload a new one.

You can save your skin preferences by signing into Mystuff account. This is a way to make your own ask.com home page.

Updated conversionuniversity.com

Google Analytics blog has recently launched an an updated version of ConversionUniversity.com.

For those who don't know what Conversion university is, Conversion university offers tips and best practices designed to help you improve your online results.

It is now available in all 25 Google Analytics supported languages. It can give you help on different internet marketing topics like Adwords targeting, Adwords tracking, SEM strategy, Optimizing Adwords ROI and may more.

It also contains videos which includes full presentations from Conversion University events. The following video explains how to establish context for your data and empower stakeholders to take action by Avinash Kaushik.

Google Docs - customizable headers and footers

Google docs has recently announced customizable headers and footers features for printed documents. This feature has been announced to improve the printing features in Google Docs.

You can insert a header or footer by selecting header or footer from the "insert" tab. A box surrounded by dashed lines will appear and whatever is placed in that box will be repeated on each page of printed document.

More information available at: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/01/headers-and-footers.html

Launch of Adsense Newbie Central

Adsense has launched Newbie Central where new adsense account holders can find a walk-through of the initial steps getting started, from familiarizing yourself with your account to placing ads on your site to receiving your very first payment. There are also brief guides available about various features, policies, and tools.

There is a Earnings and Expectations section available, which provide insight into how much you can expect to earn and you can do to influence your earnings.

More information available at: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/01/ring-in-new-year-with-newbie-central.html