Steve McCabe: from island to island

Liam takes on Grandad... and wins again.

At 1,660 ft it's one of Cheshire's highest hills, and it does have an impressive profile. The day we went the weather was miserable, but the walk, and the view, was still impressive. We walked from the car park at Trentabank Reservoir, and it's a steady climb up through the pines on a wide track for the first half hour or so After that, the trail leave the Macclesfield Forest and crosses the open moor. Again, the trail is good, and soon you're walking along flagstones all the way to the top. Despite research, I've still to find out who laid this impressive line of grave-stone size stones all the way to the top. I'm not complaining, it makes the walk easier, especially when I had to carry Liam a way (fortunately, he got off and skipped his way to the top!). But an hour after setting off we made it to the top, and even with the low clouds the view was impressive. We'd have spent longer on the summit but the wind was fierce. Total time: 2 hours. ...

Good article about the Quality Score metric in Google Adwords: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2214161/Why-Quality-Score-is-One-of-the-Least-Important-AdWords-Metrics It shows that QS is a reflection of the reflection of the relationship between keywords and ads, rather than the 'quality' of the landing page. In particular: The Right Way to Improve Quality Score If you have high cholesterol, you probably want to do something about it. And that something, if you’re smart, involves improving your lifestyle. Eating better. Exercising. And so on. Similarly, if you suffer from low quality score, you want to do something about that as well. You want to improve the most important things about your AdWords account: Write compelling ads, that connect tightly to keywords, make the right promises and stand out from the rest of the search results page. Continually test and improve your ad copy so your ad is more likely to earn money from Google than your competitors. Se...

Liam's reading and writing is developing so well he's been moved into an advanced group at school. Which didn't go down well with him. Because he has to sit next to A Girl. "And I don't like Girls".

I like Google Tag Assistant - it tells me when I'm messed up with my Analytics tags. But oh Google, it makes you look, well, stupid. Here's what the Tag Assistant shows for an analytics page. Not just multiple tags (that's a no-no, according to Google), but tags without a property? WTF!

"Liam, what have you done to my Christmas card?" "I've cutting it" "Why?" "But because I love you"

In which Liam, as camel #1, takes centre stage.

Nice to see almost lush green fields so late in October.

After several years 'off island' I've returned, and one change that sticks out: the lack of urban birdlife. Where have all the sparrows gone? Sure there are lots of magpies, and doves (or more probably, pigeons), but sparrows, and starlings too, are just not to be found in cities and towns that used to call them pests.

While you can still get at keyword data via Google Webmaster Tools (or within GA under Search Engine Optimisation) the difference is that GWT related keyword data is only kept for 90 days and is only for the top 2k of queries - not ideal. Of course, if you use Adwords, you still have access to the data, and therein lies the big stink, especially since Google are saying it's been done to protect users' privacy. To get at your GWT keyword data, you'll need to go into the related Adwords account and request the data be linked. Once linked, it's accessible under the Dimensions tab, and will look something like this. Related Links - probably the most useful that I've seen:  http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/59113-Understanding-Google-Keyword-Not-Provided-Data

West Park, Macclesfield

Visitor Flow shows you precisely how people move within your site, and is an awesome report, especially since you can not only select the dimension (answering the question 'When people find my via organic search, how do they move through the site?') but also lets you highlight traffic at a particular point of interaction (answering the question 'what number of people drop-off at page x?'). The Visitor Flow report can be found within the Audience menu.