If you want to know about search analytics then listen to someone who knows their stuff. One acclaimed authority on the topic is Avinash Kaushik (author, blogger and all-round analytics evangelist), who was speaking recently at the Search Engine Strategies New York 2010 conference.

Kaushik delivered a speech: “Be Awesome: Ideas for Approaching Search Analytics Differently.” Here’s a little of what he had to say.

* It’s important to use a number of different search analytics tools for your e-commerce site, including Google Analytics, Yahoo Web Analytics, Juice Analytic, and Wordle.

* The key is to then reduce a massive amount of data to something manageable – and then to identify useful keywords and trends, before then “focusing efforts on where you will have the highest ROI”.

* But this doesn’t mean that businesses should ignore all but a couple of data points.  Kaushik recommends thinking about the “long tail”.  For example, half of his site’s visitors come from search engines via 26,000 keywords.

* He suggests using the “margin-based decay attribution model”, which gives the bulk of the credit to the last click and then decreasing amounts to previous ones.

* Finally, Kaushik recommends running experiments to find out what mix of media produces the best return, all the while keeping an eye on bounce rates.

With credit crunch woe all around it’s good to know that you can do something positive for your business that is FREE.

Using the right keywords in your search engine marketing campaigns will obviously lead to better results – but how do you know which are the best keywords?

By using the Google Analytics Blog, that’s how. Here you’ll find tips (for free) on how to expand your keyword lists to improve your SEO.

First up is the Google Analytics Keyword Report. Use this to find out the best performing keywords.

Secondly, use the Search-based Keyword tool. This offers keyword ideas based on actual Google search queries. It matches specific pages of your site with your ad and search share.

Thirdly, there’s the Google Insights for Search tool, which allows  for comparisons of search volume patterns across specific regions categories (eg geographic) and time frames (eg seasonal).

In order to maximise the returns from your website, it is essential you know how visitors are interacting with your site. At the very least this will mean tracking the numbers of visitors and which pages they visit. From our earlier article, you’ll also be tracking the Conversion Rate of customers whether in Sales or Enquiries, but if these fail to materialise at the expected rate then you’ll need some options to improve performance.

Firstly, carry out a non-technical sense check. Ask some basic questions such as:

‘Are visitors making enquiries / sales via another medium ( direct e-mail, phone calls) and are you counting these correctly?’
‘Are there any direct comparisons with the Rate of Return versus other media?’
‘Are all obstacles to conversion removed, are you asking for only the minimum of information?’

If you are satisfied that the fundamentals for these are in place then the next step is to dive in further to some of the visitor data. There are many advanced statistics packages, but one of the best Free packages is Google Analytics. Using these packages you can view items such as Bounce Rate (how many visitors leave your site as soon as they arrive) , Time Spent on Page and even where customers drop out during your sales process.

By analysing these items you can identify which pages are underperforming and address these issues, maybe by rewriting copy or making the next steps move obvious.

Finally you should ensure that you are gathering customer feedback at all levels. Try to include a feedback form or contact detail on every page and actively encourage feedback using appropriate incentives. This feedback can be invaluable in optimising your site for visitors and can often throw up some interesting input that slipped by in the design process.

Once you’ve been through these processes you’ll be approaching a fully-effective website, but don’t sit back. Keep trying new ideas, keep monitoring and you’ll always be one step ahead of the competition.