Google Analytics uses data from your Website to prepare a neat looking application where you can explore your data and answer what I consider your first-level questions. First-level questions are the most basic things you might want to know, such as How many? What Time Period? It is the second- and third-level questions where the analysis and action plans come into play. After all, it’s not enough to know how many people visited the site – you need to know what segment attracted them and how do you keep them coming back for more. [More articles about Google Analytics here] Reviewing the Google Analytics Dashboard In the Google Analytics site from the Home tab, you can design a dashboard to review what you consider key measurements for your site. This dashboard is easy to use and works great for checking daily traffic. However, these measurements answer your basic questions, such as the counts. It’s more difficult to use the information for in-depth discovery. For instance, in the following figure I am comparing month over month traffic for the site using the Dashboard. This number indicates the total visits for each month. So, what can I learn from these metrics? Traffic […]
Tag: data
SAS Enterprise Guide: Quick Tip for Selecting Text in Columns
Earlier in the week I discussed how I used Google Analytics to help me discover topics of the most interest. SAS Enterprise Guide was a popular topic, so here’s a quick tip that I like to use when working with text in columns. Moving Text around in SAS Enterprise Guide When it comes to data entry, I can assure you that I put the “Z” in lazzzzzzzzzzzzzy. Blech, I hate it more than pie charts. It’s the first thing I’ll have my home robot do when they finally become as normal as a refrigerator. So here’s a tip to save you some keystrokes. When you copy text in SAS EG, you generally have to copy entire rows, but sometimes you just need a list of variable names or the variable values. When you need to copy a column of data, do the following: Hold the ALT key while clicking and dragging to select the column. The column turns blue so you know it works. Press Ctrl+C to copy the column. Click where you want to place the text and press Ctrl+V to paste it. Then you can make any edits you desire. Applying this Trick Other Areas You can […]
SAS Web Report Studio: Chart Makeover – Before and After Shots!
SAS Web Report Studio has some features that help can improve the overall appearance or just shake things up a little. You can change the template for individual reports in cases where you need to better highlight an idea. Tip! Check out the Information is Beautiful site for some inspirational ideas about presenting data. Of course, Stephen Few’s Now Your See It book I keep on my desk as a reference for presenting data. Changing the SAS Web Report Studio Template Colors In the Before shot, the Applied filters text is black, which I think is a little distracting, and the green line disappears slightly into the blue bar. In the After chart, the line is red so there is more contrast between the line and bar. Note: This change will update the template and change the color from green to red everywhere. Make sure that is what you want to do. To change the chart, do this: From the File menu, select Properties. From the Format pane, select the Use customized colors radio button. Select the second color box on the top row, which controls the line color. From the color drop-down box, select a new color. Bonus Ideas […]
Simple Python Scrapper for Daytum
I use one of the major running sites to keep track of my running log but unfortunately there’s no public API. The underlying html is a mess and would be utterly complicated to scrape. For this training cycle, I’ve been keeping a second log using Daytum since their iPhone app makes updating it way easy. […]
Impact Analysis – “Hawk Eyes” of SAS Data Integration Studio
As we have observed majorly in large enterprises, particularly the Banking and Finance sectors, there is always a huge amount of data building up every day. Moreover, one cannot ignore the fact that every observation in the database is linked up or imp…
BI Supporting Information: Need presentation fodder?
I love to read and when I’m researching a subject, I go through books like a kid in a candy store. Recently I started reading some of the general Business Intelligence books. What I find is that you need these books when you are preparing pre…
SAS BI: Sample Data for Facial Recognition and UFOs
Oh my goodness … Christmas has come early children! You must have been extra good this year because look what all I have found! A few times before I have discussed where to find SAS sample data sources and even how to create your own sample …
Info Map: Use SAS Functions to get dates – oh yeah
You can use the Expression Editor and some SAS functions to create new data items from existing data items. Here’s how to create some common Date data items. SAS functions make it easy to perform actions and all you need is a variable and som…