On 01/16/2013, Google updated their Analytics Interface. The updates changed some navigation interfaces, added new functionality, and made certain areas easier to access. The Swenson Book Development Google Analytics for Author blogs written before this update have been updated to reflect these changes. If anything has been noticeably altered in the blogs, it will be clearly marked to reflect the update. Luckily, many of the changes only affect analytics users with more than one website – if you are only managing your author website, there isn’t a lot that is going to affect you. The New Google Analytics Left-Hand Navigation At first glance, the left-hand navigation looks completely different. However, it is virtually identical to the previous version with the exception of three new tabs under the search box. Dashboards allows you to create a dashboard with all the tools and widgets you regularly use in one easily accessible place Shortcuts creates links to your most-accesed sections if you have Google Web Developer Tools enabled. Intelligence Events lists automatic and custom-created alerts for the entered date range. Intelligence event alerts are triggered when something out of the ordinary happens on your web page. This can be a good event (like a sudden influx of traffic when a blog post goes viral, or bad one (like if your blog goes offline). In addition to this automatic alert system, you can also create custom alerts. For example, you can now get an email if you reach a certain number of visitors in…
If you’ve been following this blog the past month as you build your new author website, you’re almost ready to launch! Now that you’ve uploaded your text and images into your new Pages, you can see what each one will look like when it goes live if you click on the Preview button as you are customizing the Page. When you are satisfied, hit the… [Read More]
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Have you completed the steps I’ve outlined in the last four blog posts? 1) Picked your official author name and purchased the domain? 2) Decided on your internet service provider and webhosting, and ready to install WordPress? 3) Put together a list of your design preferences? 4) Prepared the text and images for the pages on your new site? If so, then it’s time to… [Read More]
Before you get lost in the design details of a WordPress website, it’s important to keep in mind what type of site you want to build. For most of our clients, we recommend a site that says “successful, professional author.” But beyond this vague aesthetic, what will your site actually look like? What will it say about you and your writing? What message are you… [Read More]
The past two weeks I’ve described how to determine your author name, purchasing your domain name, finding an internet service provider, determining who will host your site, and what web-site building software you will use. You may recall I strongly recommended WordPress to build your site. One of the reasons I like WordPress for author sites is because it IS possible to Do-It-Yourself with their… [Read More]
Last week I wrote about deciding upon your author name to determine your domain name. Once you have purchased your domain, the next step is stake out your own real estate on the internet. Before you build your author website, you will need to answer three questions. (1) Who will provide you with internet service? Internet service providers (ISPs) are those who bring the… [Read More]