Google Analytics Tracking for Adobe Flash

Google Analytics Tracking for Adobe Flash

The Google Analytics Tracking for Adobe Flash component makes it easy for you to implement Google Analytics in your Flash-driven content. This component, developed by Adobe Systems, Inc., contains all of the functionality of the Google Analytics Javascript code. The Flash Tracking component is a compiled tracking object native to ActionScript 3, making Analytics implementation intuitive in Flash, and Flex development environments.

Why Use Flash Tracking?

Without the Google Analytics Tracking for Adobe Flash component, tracking Adobe Flash content with Google Analytics involves a number of technical hurdles. First, you must develop a custom interface to ga.js so that your Flash application can execute the appropriate Analytics method, such as trackPageview() or trackEvent(). In addition, you must also anticipate whether your Flash content will have access to the browser Document Object Model (DOM), since tracking fails for those objects where access to the DOM is denied (typically when your content resides on 3rd party sites). This involves understanding how to use the ExternalInterface call in ActionScript 3 to access the browser DOM and to degrade when access is denied.

The Google Analytics for Adobe Flash component simplifies tracking your Flash content and handles DOM access gracefully. It is useful for a number of common tracking purposes in Flash, such as: :

• An embedded Flash widget on an HTML page


• A standalone Flex application or Flash-only site hosted on an HTML page


• A distributed Flex/Flash game or program where the developer has no control over where the widget will be placed

Keep in mind that tracking applications in Flash has some structural variations from tracking website pages. Familiarity with Analytics Tracking is essential to understanding how this plug-in works. You can also view the Design Documentation for this project for detailed information on how the Analytics Tracking model has been ported over for this component.

Note: Currently, Flash tracking is available for any Flash content embedded in a web page. Tracking of data sent from Adobe Air, Shockwave, or via the Flash IDE (e.g. using Test Movie) is not supported at this time.

Supported Development Environments

You can develop Analytics Tracking for Flash in either Adobe Flash or Adobe Flex environments. Each environment requires a different component, which you can download from http://code.google.com/p/gaforflash/. These components are based on ActionScript 3 and can be set up in one of two ways for each environment:

In Adobe Flash

• Add and configure a simple component in the component inspector and drag it to the stage.


• Import the Flash Tracking libraries directly into your library and start coding.

In Adobe Flex

• Include an MXML component that you configure from am MXML file.


• Import the Flash Tracking libraries into your script tags/AS3 files.

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How Does the Component Work?

In order to use the Flash tracking component in your environment, you either use the visual tools inside Flash, or you set up the tracking object directly in your code. Regardless of whether you are setting up the component visually or via code, you provide the following elements:

• The web property ID--This is also known as the UA number of your tracking code and looks like UA-xxxxx-yy, where the x's and y's are replaced with the numbers that correspond to your account and profile information for the object you are tracking. See Web Property for more information.


• The tracking mode--Choose either bridge mode or AS3 mode. This mode determines how your tracking communicates with the Analytics servers and is described in detail below.


• The debugging mode--No matter which environment or tracking mode you use, you can turn debugging on to validate and test your tracking.

Tracking Modes

Depending upon on how you distribute your Flash content, the Analytics for Flash component communicates to the Analytics servers either by bridging the communication between the Flash content on an existing Analytics tracking installation, or by communicating directly to the Analytics servers. These two modes are called bridge mode and AS3 mode, respectively. Both modes use the same Analytics tracking functionality, and it's easy to switch your Flash application from one mode to the other. In addition to choosing a communication mode for Analytics tracking, you can also use a debug mode to troubleshoot or validate your tracking.

In either mode, allowscriptaccess must equal always in order for campaign tracking to work. This parameter turns on read access to the page's URL and referrer information required by the Flash tracking code. Without allowscriptaccess, the Analytics tracking code degrades gracefully. It still provides most user activity data, but will not confirm to the Google Analytics campaign attribution model.

Bridge Mode

Use this mode if you control both the HTML page and the Flash content. This mode is best if you have already implemented Google Analytics (ga.js) tracking on your website and you want to add tracking to embedded Flash content. The bridge mode simplifies Flash-to-JavaScript communication by providing a unified ActionScript 3 interface to the ga.js code. It provides the connection from the ActionScript 3 calls to the Analytics JavaScript in order to make the tracking work.

The connection to the Google Analytics Tracking Code can be configured through the web property ID parameter in one of two ways:

• Most common method. The Google Analytics Tracking Code object already exists on your page with its own name, such as pageTracker. In this case, you provide the full DOM reference to the tracking object. For example, if your object is called pageTracker, you would reference that object in your code as window.pageTracker. For example, the following code snippet illustrates how this would be configured using the Adobe Flex environment with ActionScript 3:
  
  
  
  

  tracker = new GATracker( this, "window.pageTracker", "Bridge", false );

  
  


• Alternate method. If you have not created a page tracking object on your page, you can simply pass in your web property ID, and a JavaScript tracking code object will be created for you. With this method, reference to the base ga.js javascript source file is still required on your HTML page. The following code snippet illustrates how this would be configured using the Adobe Flex environment with ActionScript 3:
  
  
  
  

  tracker = new GATracker( this, "UA-12345-22", "Bridge", false );

  
  

In order for bridge mode to function correctly, ExternalInterface.available must be set to true in your ActionScript 3 code. This also means that allowScriptAccess should be set to always in the HTML page that embeds the Flash content. The following example illustrates HTML code configured for bridge mode:

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AS3 Mode

Use this mode if you control the Adobe Flash ActionScript 3 code, but you do not control the hosting environment of your Adobe Flash application. For example, if you are developing Flash content for distribution across many sites, then you would use AS3 mode. AS3 mode is completely independent from the ga.js tracking code and contains all the Analytics tracking functionality. There is no need for a separate ga.js tracking installation with this mode. In addition, AS3 mode uses the Flash storage mechanism to track session information for the visitor.

For certain DOM parameters such as language, the AS3 component tries to retrieve the values from the browser. If the values are not present, the component either uses the Flash equivalent value or defaults to no.

Troubleshooting and Validation

The Google Analytics Tracking for Adobe Flash component provides a debug mode to simplify validation and troubleshooting. When enabled, all tracking data is intercepted and directed to a screen in a text box instead of the Analytics servers. In this mode, you can see real-time the data that otherwise would be collected by the server. This feature also helps keep test data outside of your production data. You can enable the troubleshooting feature can by setting the visualDebug option to true in the component inspector.

Source: Google Analytics Tracking for Adobe Flash

7 Simple Geo Targeting Tips for Your Site.

7 Simple Geo Targeting Tips for Your Site.

How do they do this?

By looking at a number of factors, such as:.

• Country-specific domain name - eg. .com or .com.au or .co.uk etc. etc.


• Where your site is hosted - be careful with this as a lot of hosting providers may have their offices in one country, but use servers and equipment based overseas.


• Language used in your website content - even things like UK English vs. US English can make a difference due to spelling and colloquialisms.Inbound Links to your site - are they mainly from other Australian websites, US sites, UK sites etc.


• Listing of your address / location / phone number on your website.


• Location of people who look at your site - if your site has more traffic from Australian visitors it is likely to rank better in Google.com.au than it would in Google.com.

Knowing the above information makes it a lot easier to perform a Geo Targeting audit on your site. Here are the things I would do:

1. If you run an Australian website and your main customers / clients are other Australians, spend the few extra dollars and buy a .com.au domain name. If you’re targeting clients in the UK, buy a .co.uk. etc. etc.


2. Apply the same logic (as above) to the web hosting - spend a few extra dollars to have your website hosted in the country that you are targeting.
   Be sure to check that your hosting provider uses equipment based in your country too. If you still aren’t certain you can check their IP’s using SEOmoz’s IP Location Tool.


3. Take the time to check your spelling and use the type of wording your clients will understand and are familiar with.
   For example the term swimwear, swimsuit, beachwear, cozzies, bathers and togs all mean the same thing but people in Queensland, Australia (where I’m from) rarely use the term bathers or cozzies - we wear ‘togs’.


4. An inbound link is like a personal referral or testimonial for your website. Having links from other relevant local sites will be far more valuable with Geo Targeting than having lots of inbound links from overseas sites.


5. Submit your site to local business and local search directories - this can often be one of the easiest methods of attracting local links and local traffic.
   As a rule-of-thumb, just make sure the directory presents well and that you are comfortable being listed amongst the other sites that are in the directory. If you think the directory isn’t great quality, you’re probably right and it should be avoided.


6. Mention your address, location and contact details in the footer of each page - this is one of the easiest things to do which can help tell your clients and the search engines that you are a local business.
   The only time this doesn’t really help is if you have offices in multiple locations. Mentioning a dozen countries / cities in the footer won’t do much for your local profile in each of those places. If this is the case you should build separate sites (or at the very least separate pages) for each location.


7. Build your brand locally as you will usually rank well for your business name before you’ll start ranking for more competitive terms.
   Ensure you promote your site through off-line advertising methods, which can be as simple as including your website on your business cards, letterheads and other corporate stationary.
   This will help you gain local search traffic and as mentioned above, if your site has more traffic from Australian visitors it is likely to rank better in Google.com.au than it would in Google.com.

GEO-targeting Analysis.

GEO-targeting SEO doesn’t end at SEO-targeting promotion. To fully understand visitor behaviors of each GEO market, try using geographic Meta data for accurate results. Several Boston Internet marketing companies have used Web analytic software and IP databases that provide a range of locations for specific requirement when a version of a web site or advertisements need to reach only a specific city within the states.

GEO-targeting Design.

Websites targeting multiple GEO regions may have a few versions of the site. And each version targets one particular language. For the same version, the page may be configured according to the location automatically. It’s a common practice to use IP address to identify the geo region of a visitor. For design of each version, make sure to work closely with the designers who really know about that market. The design of the website should suit the style and taste of the local users. A website targeting US market has much better chance of success if a Boston web design company is involved, instead of a web design firm from India. Geo-targeting depends on the user's settings. As an example, an English web site may display different versions according to the user's location, whether Canada, Australia or the United Kingdom, since Geo-targeting identifies the user's keyword settings, language and location.

GEO-targeting Promotion.

All major search engines serve the search results based on both what users are looking for (the quires) and where they come from (location). In fact, major search engines Google, Yahoo Search!, and Microsoft’s Live search all have a different version of the main search engine for either major language or a country. A searcher from UK will see the different search results than a searcher from Australia even though they use the same search engine and search for the same term. Search engines rank pages according to what kind of links a site is pointed and where the links are from. If a website site gets most of links from UK, the site will rank well when UK users look for information in a search engine. If you’re not located in the GEO market you target, work with a local SEO firm is productive and rewarding. A Boston internet marketing company that really knows about Boston SEO will do a much better job for acquiring links from either US sites or Boston local websites.

Courtesy: SEO-NEWS

5 Sure Fire Ways To Win Your SEO Clients’ Hearts

5 Sure Fire Ways To Win Your SEO Clients’ Hearts

You just snagged a deal with a client. Everything seems to flow smoothly and according to plan. You’re able to deliver the goods, but somewhere along the way, you client become restless and starts playing hardball.

And you wonder what could you be possibly doing wrong? Why is the deal running not so smoothly, where in fact you’re doing everything that you promised to do. How can you re-establish rapport with your client especially when your SEO deal is still ongoing?

Here are five easy ways of improving your relationship with SEO clients.

1. Check if you’re bringing the goods you promised

If you set a deadline to achieve first page SERPs ranking for you client’s site, check whether you have achieved it. If not and you’re already nearing the deadline, explain to your client your progress. And assure him that you’re going to achieve the agreed target.

If you think that you won’t be able to achieve the set target, explain to your clients the reason why you’re not going to meet the deadline and if possible ask for a reconsideration or extension. Then work doubly hard to make sure that you achieve the target the next time as earlier as you can.

2. Explain intangible SEO results/achievements

Use all the available analytics tools to explain to your client what your SEO work has achieved so far for the client’s website. Present site traffic trending, traffic spikes and downturns and site related statistics in the simpler terms that can be understood by your client. These results/achievements may not be fully understood by your client so much so that the client may think that you are not doing anything. So, it is of utmost important that the client understand the nature of SEO work.

3. Listen to client’s follow-up requirements

If in case your client demands some extra output from you, gladly listen and find out whether what is being asked for is achievable and within reason. Avoid replying in a negative way, unless you want to lose your client’s trust. If what the client is asking for is not achievable, explain the prerequisites to achieve it and negotiate whether the client is amenable to amending your SEO contract to reflect the changes in the client’s requirements.

4. Explain what you are doing in the simplest layman’s terms possible

We got to admit that the SEO field is full of technical jargons that only we SEO workers can understand. Hence to improve your relations with your clients, it is a must that the two of you are in the same level of understanding in terms of general knowledge about SEO terminologies.

5. Establish a personal relationship

Many people will tend to disagree with this point. And there’s nothing wrong with that since SEO is still a business endeavor and so client relationship must remain at the business level. But then, the SEO field is still an informal industry characterized by workers who go against the norms if those norms are not technically related. So there’s nothing really wrong about establishing a good relations with client. And to achieve “good client relations” that relationship may or can extend to a more personal level.

Being friendly towards another still works, no matter how old of a business trick it is.

Courtesy: Seroi