Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Blogging Could Be More Effective Than You Thought - Google Analytics & Etsy Minis

Brain in a Jar by YourOrganGrinder

After noticing that views from my blog were lower than they should have been in my Google Analytics stats for my Etsy store, I began to do some investigating and realized that clicks on Etsy minis show up within Google Anayltics as visits from within Etsy, rather than visits from a blog or website.

This means that some of the traffic coming from your blog or website (when people click on your Etsy mini) won't be identified as having come from that traffic source (yourblog.blogspot.com), which may lead people to underestimate the effectiveness of blogging as a promotional tool.


Fortunately it is possible to find out how many views have come through Etsy minis, and also whether people have clicked on the link in the mini that leads to your shop or a specific item.


Instructions for assessing visits via Etsy minis:

Step 1. Go to the dashboard in the left panel within Google Analytics. Click on 'Content'. Next, click on 'Top Content'.

Step 2. Go to the bottom of the page where you will find a search box with the option to 'Filter page containing:'.

Step 3. The code for traffic from etsy minis is 'em', so type 'ref=em' into the search box and click 'Go'. This will then show you the visits to your store that have come via etsy minis (and the item numbers if they clicked on a particular item in the mini).
Don't forget to show more rows of results if necessary (that option is also found on the bottom panel where the search box is located).

As well as etsy minis on your blog, some of these visits may have come from other people's minis if they have featured your item as a favorite, or from 'related items' in a Storque article, as the code is used for that as well (thank you to Ferrolux for providing that insight).

Thank you to http://bloghandmade.blogspot.com for the em coding. Other codes are also available from the code list on the bloghandmade blog.

53 percent of Statistics are made up Cuff Links by Jamie Riley Be Moso

21 comments:

vadjutka said...

thanks for this useful info!

Maiden Jane said...

Thanks! I'm going to head on over to check it out.

avisiontoremember said...

Very nice I can totally use this information

Absolutely Small said...

Thanks so much for posting this! Very simple to use...just how I need it. ^-^

Rula Twal said...

Thanks for this information, it is very helpful.

Burnt Mill Candles and Soap said...

great tip!

Carla said...

Great tip! I am always looking for help on using my GA more effectively! Thank you!

Chrisy said...

Really useful and easy to follow info...ta!

Anonymous said...

Great info! Thank you so much for the post & for taking the time to explain how we can check the stats.

Madeleine said...

Gonna try this! Thanks for the info :)

KayzKreationz said...

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check mine out and make the change. I like to know if my blog is doing any good.
http://KayzKreationz.blogspot.com
http://KayKreationz.etsy.com

Colleen MacDonald said...

Thank-You so much; this is very helpful.

Anonymous said...

LOVE the 53% quote....when I took statistics....many moons ago...we pretty much learned that you could prove anything with statistics....too funny!

SleightGirl said...

Oh thank you so much for writing this. I'll have to go and check it out now.

CJ Grand said...

Interesting and useful article, thanks. I also wanted to let you know that I have nominated the blog for a Sunshine Award. You can check out the details on my blog.
http://cjgrand.blogspot.com/2010/02/sunshine-award.html

Aunt Karen's Creations said...

I know now that I simply must drop in here more often! Thank you for the heads up on GA and Etsy minis!

Tania Pelletier said...

Wow, that's great information, thank you!

Tania

Anonymous said...

thanks for this info. i have been trying to figure out how to analyze this!
189

Anonymous said...

thanks so much for that info. It really helps. I don't fully understand Google Analytics. I see all the numbers but don't have enough time to figure them all out.
So it's helpful when someone can!!

http://www.paperflora2.blogspot.com/

Nauli said...

Thanks for this very usefull blogpost!

Manecoarse said...

Adding this to my favorites. Thank you.