Jul
22
Written by:
Whereoware Staff
Friday, July 22, 2011 9:03 AM
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Not every person has a good memory. Sometimes it’s hard to remember names or faces, or even where you put your keys in the morning. So it’s no surprise that while juggling the many pieces that go into making a successful ecommerce business, people often tend to forget what their previous moves were.
Google Analytics provides the perfect examples of this, both of the problem and a resolution. We all like seeing positive changes in our data, whether it’s an increase in visits, conversions, time on site, etc. But unless you can figure what happened at that moment in time that may have caused the change, you’ll never be able to replicate it to achieve the same results.
As we’ve discussed before (see: Google analytics tip: comparing past and present data), an unexpected bump in a line graph can mean good things for your company. But it’s much easier to interpret them if you have a handy written reminder. For this reason, Google Analytics offers ‘annotations,’ the ability to make a note at any point on your graph, which will then be permanently visible in your account, no matter which campaign you’re viewing.
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| To do this, first click the dot representing a date point on the graph. This will be the date that you are annotating. |
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| Once selected, a box will pop up showing the date, statistic (in this case, we’re looking at pageviews), and an option to “Create new annotation”. Select the latter. |
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| A drop-down box will appear below the graph, with the date pre-filled and an empty text box for writing any comments. There’s no set format to these comments; it’s up to you to decide what you want to make a note of. You might want to keep track of which AdWords keywords you’ve started or paused on that date, what changes were made to your company website, or (as in this example) to jot down the email newsletter you just sent. You have the option to make this notation shared (with all of those given access to this account) or private to your log-in only. After you’ve clicked “Save,” your annotation will still be visible. (note: the text box will collapse once you navigate off of the screen) |
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On any subsequent visit to your analytics account, these annotations will be represented by the small tabs along the x axis of your graph. When you click on any of the tabs, the annotations will expand below the graph, and you’ll be able to read any that you’d like.
Rather than annotating events after they happen, and running the risk of forgetting, we recommend taking a second to jot a brief note whenever changes are made that might be reflected in Google Analytics. That way, when you see a bump in pageviews later on, you’ll know why.
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