Colorado Web Solutions

Start Using Yahoo Web Analytics

Posted on August 17th, 2011 by Brent Carey

Very often upon completion of a new store design our clients will ask us to install Google Analytics (GA). While GA is likely the most popular analytics tool available – and it can certainly assist store owners with detailed reporting, many Yahoo store owners don’t realize or utilize one of the more functional tools available through their Store Manager.
Yahoo Web Analytics is a powerful data collection tool that all Yahoo store owners with a Standard or Professional store automatically have at their disposal. A few years ago Yahoo made an incredibly astute move by acquiring an advanced analytic tool from a company called Index Tools. Yahoo then integrated that tool into their store platform and made the tool available to virtually the entire Yahoo store community. What we find interesting is that even now, a few years after the tool was launched, many of our clients don’t take advantage of a built-in tool that exceeds or at least rivals GA in features and functionality. 
A very important component to successful online marketing and sales is knowing how you customer base thinks and what tactics they respond to. Without detailed knowledge of your customers buying habits, selling products without analytical justification is like shooting in the dark. That’s where Yahoo Web Analytics comes in. With literally hundreds of reporting options, visitor segmentation and advanced tracking features, Yahoo store owners can be assured of a gaining a better understanding of their customers and how they can better relate to them.
Yahoo Web Analytics is somewhat unique in that it provides real-time reporting. Many analytic tools rely on historical data, which is certainly better than nothing. However Yahoo Web Analytics takes data collection one step further and delivers reports instantly giving store owners real-time information. This is extremely beneficial in that owners can see if a particular coupon just implemented is having the desired effect or if that new item is really generating the buzz they were hoping for. If not, changes can be made right then – rather then after a critical buying cycle has ended. 
Owners will also have the ability to filter and segment customer data via a uniquely customizable dashboard. Based on an owners specific business needs – that store owner can create dashboards that show only what they need or want to see. Metrics can be displayed which show specific visitor patterns, precise geographical locations, important referrers or results of that latest marketing effort.
While we would be the first to admit that the feature set available within Yahoo Web Analytics is so vast that it will take some time to become comfortable with its usage – the tremendous benefit gained from using this tool far outweigh the somewhat extensive learning curve. We highly recommend that every Yahoo store owner takes advantage of this powerful feature, in the end you’ll be thankful for taking the time getting to know this great analytic tool.

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Use Google Alerts to help understand your Yahoo! Store

Posted on June 22nd, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

If you’re not using Google Alerts yet – you should be.

Google Alerts is a content monitoring service offered by Google. If you’re a Yahoo store owner – this service can be invaluable for keeping track of your competitors, your site’s performance and any related content that you feel would be helpful in tracking your products and your industry. Track product lines, track your competitions newest pages that have been indexed, and follow your own indexing. If you are actively blogging – Google Alerts can also be a great way to determine how quickly your posts are being picked up by google and indexed. Once you’ve signed up and selected  your various alert matches and preferences, you’ll be notified automatically, once a day or once a week if those terms are served via web content, blogs or video’s.

Currently the following alert types are available:

• Comprehensive
• News
• Web
• Blogs
• Video
• Groups

It’s very easy to sign up. Here’s what you’ll do:

Be sure you are logged into your google account. Head to: http://www.google.com/alerts . You will see a text box where you can enter various terms you’re interested in. You’ll then need to enter in the following:

Search Terms
Type of Alert you Want
When you would like to be Alerted (Daily, Weekly or Automatically)
Your Email Address

To start off with we would suggest the following search:

Search term: YourDomainName.com (change it to your Yahoo Stores domain)
Type: Everything
How Often: As It Happens
Number: Up to you
Email: Up to you

This will provide you with an email every single time google indexes a new page within your site. An invaluable resource to understand and see.

Once you’ve completed those steps you’re finished. You can set up as many alerts as like. Get Creative, you can always delete them if the content isn’t what you were expecting. It’s worth the time and effort to track terms related to your industry. Knowing is half the battle and Google Alerts is a great step in gathering detailed information pertaining directly to your site and products.

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Cyber Monday Tip: Last Minute Details for your Yahoo Store

Posted on November 28th, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Part 14 of our month long Cyber Monday Prep Tips Series. Every day, we have been giving you one small piece of advice to check, fix or confirm within your Yahoo Store in preparation for Cyber Monday 2009. View Past Yahoo! Store Tips.

Weekend Edition: Cyber Monday Yahoo Store Preparation Tip #14: Checking the last Minute Details

Hi everyone, I know it’s the weekend and I typically only post for you on weekdays, but Cyber Monday is in just two days, so I think this is a good time to give you a few last minute things to consider. These should all be fairly simple ideas so you should be able to take care of all of them in just a few minutes.

1. Make sure that your Yahoo Store Analytics are turned on and collecting data. Read more about this here.
2. Double check the credit card you are using for Google Adwords payments. Has it been paid down enough to avoid getting declined and thus shutting off your ads this weekend?
3. Be sure to import your current customers from previous orders into your email campaign program before you send out your next promotional email.
4. Post something about your store on your Twitter page. Do the same for Facebook. Encourage people to click the link they see.

That should be enough for you today. It’s a busy weekend, but be sure to check all those items off as soon as you can.

I’ll see you all on Monday. It’s time. :)

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Trim the Fat in your Yahoo! Store’s Ad Budget with Analytics

Posted on September 9th, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

I could go on and on about the utmost importance of using analytics in your Yahoo! Store. And I’m not talking about Google Analytics, I’m talking about  real analytics, the Yahoo! Web Analytics that come free with Yahoo! Stores (minus the basic package). Yahoo! Web Analytics is extremely powerful and, in my opinion, much more useful than Google Analytics. [read more about that here]

Today I’m going to highlight one simple case study regarding Analytics.

Before I get too deep into this, I want to remind Yahoo! Store owners again to ACTIVATE YOUR ANALYTICS! If you have not yet activated your analytics, you’re not collecting data, so please do that ASAP, even if you don’t know what to look for in your reports. Start collecting Data now. [Learn More Here]

Once you have activated your account you will be collecting data which is critically important. To take advantage of what I’m going to write about below, you will need to take your analytics account one step further and start tracking your specific marketing campaigns (Google Adwords, Yahoo Search, etc) If you are not familiar with how to do this, please contact Colorado Web Solutions and we can get your account set up to track campaigns and provide you with all the necessary instructions for only $100.

Ok, now it’s time for the details.

Last week we were doing some work with a client and the goal of the meeting was to try to reduce the expense of Google Adwords without sacrificing sales. It was a common goal that we hear time and time again.

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Yahoo! Web Analytics more exclusive than Google?

Posted on May 5th, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Good afternoon everyone! I just came across this article about Yahoo! Web Analytics and how they are taking a completely different approach to their tool than Google does. Google wants the whole world to run Google Analytics (Imagine the master data they have!), but Yahoo! Web Analytics is a higher end analytics tool that is being reserved for exclusive clients, Mid to High end Yahoo! Stores and other invited users.

My point in saying this is that for those of you that are Yahoo! Store owners, you should really take advantage of the analytics Yahoo! has provided for you. They provide incredible insight to your business, your web store and more importantly, your customers minds. In case you missed the first article about turning your analytics on, you can read it here. Enjoy the article!

Matt Sampson
CEO
Colorado Web Solutions
http://www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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Are you using the Yahoo! Store Web Analytics?

Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

When most savvy web users think of analytics, they think of Google Analytics. It’s free, easy to use, fairly intuitive and did I mention that it’s free? While Google Analytics provides good top level data for websites, you do get what you pay for.  The Google Analytics data provides you a great summary of some critical aspects of your site’s traffic, but it falls short (especially with Yahoo! Stores) at having reliable data to drill down and analyze. In addition, the Google Analytics code that is provided to you from Google itself does not function completely with Yahoo! Stores, so you either have to sacrifice some sales data, or you have to pay someone to write an additional script to make Google Analytics work on Yahoo! Stores.

But it’s free! Yes it is, and we don’t discourage use of Google Analytics (we use it!), but we do discourage the use of ONLY Google Analytics. If you are a Yahoo! Store owner and do not have the base level package, you have access to some of the best analytics software available right from within your store. And you’re already paying for it, so start using it!

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What can you do with Yahoo! Web Analytics?

Posted on October 13th, 2008 by Colorado Web Solutions - Yahoo Store Developers and Designers

This is a re-print of the announcement from Yahoo! Small Business.
http://ystoreblog.com/blog/2008/10/what-can-you-do-with-yahoo-web-analytics/

We announced on Wednesday that Merchant Solutions Standard, Professional, and Yahoo! Store merchants will soon have access to our beta release of Yahoo! Web Analytics, and that these stores will be enabled in stages. Today, we’d like to give you a preview of what you can look forward to when the “Get Started” link appears in Store Manager. We think you’ll agree that enabling Yahoo! Web Analytics can open up a world of profit potential for your store — great news at any time, and especially so right now as we look toward the holiday shopping season.

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Yahoo! Web Analytics coming to a Store near you!

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by Colorado Web Solutions - Yahoo Store Developers and Designers

Colorado Web Solutions is pleased to announce that Yahoo! Merchant Solutions is launching the Beta release of their newly acquired Web Analytics platform Yahoo! Web Analytics. The Yahoo! Web Analytics platform was purchased from a company called IndexTools.com and Colorado Web Solutions and Index Tools have been partners for years. We know this platform inside and out and we’ve also been to the Yahoo! Campus to attend in-depth trainings on the newly enhanced service. We’re very excited to see it in action for all of our clients.

In the coming weeks, we will be announcing Analytics packages covering training, implementation and advanced functionality. We’ll send out an announcement as soon as that is finalized.

In the mean time, here is the Official announcement from Yahoo! Small Business.

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