Comments on: Google Analytics: Worst Titles Ever

By: rachel

rachel — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:41:44 +0000

My favorite worst title currently is from the GA Help.
“How do I create a duplicate profile in my account?

“A duplicate is supposed to be an exact replica. I think this language gives people a false sense of security, thinking that if they made a new profile they will still have access to all previous data. Perhaps a â€œbranchâ€ profile would be betterâ€¦.Thanks for all your tips, Rachel

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:12:38 +0000

You’re right. Two menu items are: “Top Content” and “Content by Title”.

An improvement would be, “Content by URL” and “Content by Page Title”.

By: Robbin

Robbin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:09:01 +0000

Tim - that is such a great idea. I should have a translation chart - “What They Say” and “What They Mean.” Rebecca, I think my real problem is that I haven’t figured out who the right people are at GA for this sort of stuff… but I hope you are right about them coming around. I should definitely make it my next crusade. And David — no, it really isn’t just you!!

By: David Miller

David Miller — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:56:22 +0000

I thought it was just me!

I consider myself to know analytics pretty well. But I don’t use GA every day. Every time I do, I have to take a step back and think.

Well done for for another great post Robbin. I too hope GA are listening.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:09:13 +0000

As always, great insights! Keep up the proselytizing. GA will come around!

By: Tim Leighton-Boyce

Tim Leighton-Boyce — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:13:45 +0000

You’re so right. It’s very easy for regular users (and developers?) to forget this.

I find that it’s only when I’m working with someone and they stop and read out one of the menu items and ask what it’s about that I actually think about the words. And then I usually end up almost apologising.

These days, when I have to introduce someone new to GA I tend to make them a customised mind map printout highlighting the reports I think are relevant to them and explaining why and what they do. It seemed like overkill at first, but the menus names are not very helpful.

I don’t think the situation improved as dramatically as it might have done with V2, which seems like a missed opportunity. So good luck with this campaign.

By: Robbin

Robbin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:42:17 +0000

Hi Daniel! And John - great point. I see that problem you pointed out when working with content sites, where they have fewer visitors relative to the visits (i.e. strong repeat rate) so they get that curve showing addicted users and often, a big 201+ bar….

By: John Whiteside

John Whiteside — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:40:05 +0000

What a great summary - I just walked a client through Google Analytics the other day & had to explain many of these things.

on the “most people visited” item - it also can be factually incorrect, because most-frequently occurring number of visits is less than the sum of all the other frequencies - which is quite possible if you have a wider distribution of frequencies - then in fact most people DIDN’T visit that many times.

By: Daniel Waisberg

Daniel Waisberg — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:23:25 +0000

Hilarious post Robbin!

I think Google should hire Lunametrics for consultancy, your tips are so good. Or maybe we could have an email chain on the Web Analytics community with a petition…

Thanks for the post, it is very informative too.