Since the beginning of the internet, a continuing battle ranges between marketing and IT. Marketing wants more tags on websites, while IT has pushed back, saying too much tagging will slow down websites and make us sad.

But one day, tag management came along and has provided marketing and IT with a quick, easy solution to coexist in peace.

Tag management is applying one tag to every page on your website. This tag then references a management console where you can apply multiple tags to your site pages without slowing down, breaking, or bothering IT (and no one wants to bother IT). The console allows you to create tags and rules for specific pages on your site with the click of a button. This solution speeds up marketing initiatives and empowers your agency. (Not to mention keeps IT happy.)

Do I need tag management?

This question is answered simply by taking an inventory of your current and future tagging and marketing initiatives. Do you have one or more of the following tags on your site?

• Google Analytics
• A/B testing tools
• AdWords or other pay per click management tags
• Ad serving floodlight or spotlight tags
• Affiliate marketing tags
• Remarketing tags
• Site survey tags

You probably do. The likelihood of you adding, moving, or removing these tags for specific advertising initiatives is even higher. Tag management lets you add tags to specific pages and gives user permissions to add and remove tags when necessary, without hurting website performance or impact the IT team. The system promotes playing well with others, which is why our analytics team recommends it!

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Bounce rate is a very common metric to measure engagement on your website. It’s defined as someone who entered your site, saw one page, and then left.

Google Analytics has recently released a new “Adjusted Bounce Rate” tracking feature. Does your site or page need this feature? Let’s find out…

Blogs, sites with widgets, and sites with flash or video embeded are notorious for having high bounce rates. This is simply because the content the user was searching for is all on one page and once they received the satisfaction from the page the user left. This goes into the analytics platform as 100% bounce rate. Such a high bounce rate is very problematic for the website owner because we really don’t know if the user consumed everything they needed to consume in the time they were on the website.

This is where the new Adjusted Bounce Rate tracking provides an answer. By placing a piece of code on your page, you can set a timer once each user reaches your page to see if they spent the minimal time on your website. You decide that ideal minimal time a user should stay on your site in the analytics code.

Here are some suggestions for site element times:

Blog:
Time yourself reading halfway through the blog page and use this time. Why? By the time they read halfway through your blog article, they probably have an idea of what site they are on and have seen your logo.

Video:
Give at least 15 seconds for this timer to make sure users at least start the video on your page. Why? Sometimes videos take a moment to buffer.

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Organizations choose to redesign their website for many necessary reasons. One important aspect of a post website redesign is the impact it has on analytics. Here is a quick list of those things in your web analytics platform that will probably look different after your website redesign project.

Content Consumption

Your newly redesigned site content will be read by many new and existing visitors. Changes in navigation, internal linking structure, and content will change the way users perceive your brand and move through the site. You should expect pages that were previously high in page views may drop in views depending on where they were moved in site navigation structure.

You should expect the path through your site from the home page to be different. Using the Google Analytics Visitor Flow Report, you can assess your user’s path through your website. Compare the path of users before and after redesign.

Google Analytics Report Location: Audience > Visitor Flow

Sample Google Analytics Visitor Flow Report

SEO

Navigation changes also affect your site URL structure. Pages that are moved deeper within the website navigation structure can experience a drop in traffic volumes. To account for changes and drops in search volume you will need an SEO plan, or an experienced agency partner. Major search engines must understand where your pages have moved and that the content is the same so your site does not lose relevance on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Depending on your new site navigation structure, URL structure, and changes in content you may experience variation in your natural search keyword volume. You should expect changes to your keyword volumes.

Google Analytics Report Location: Traffic Sources > Search > Organic.

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