Bruno Mertins is now Google Analytics Certified

Finally after some really busy past weeks, I managed to pass the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) test with an incredible score of 91!. You may have a look at my official Google test results here. As you may know Web analytics has become the “backbone” of any successful website, Google Analytics provides us with very powerful features than will help us to quickly and easily identify actionable insights and trends. With the correct and professional use of Google Analytics we can increase our website’s traffic and marketing effectiveness, specially if you are tracking Adwords PPC Campaigns combined with E-commerce conversions.

If you are interested in knowing more about the test you can find a detail explanation about it at Google’s Conversion University. The best way to prepare for the test is to apply and experiment with some of its advanced features after going thru all of the lessons. I particularly found very interesting the E-commerce Tracking, Advanced Segmentation and the Regex Lessons. If you have used extensively other Web Analytics Software such as Webtrends or Urchin you will have no problems and difficulties completing the test. You have about an hour and a half to answer all 70 questions you can pause the test whenever you want but you will have to finish it within 120 hours.

After completing successfully the test you will receive a certificate of achievement in .PDF, Google also maintains a publicly searchable database of people who have passed the Google Analytics test and obtained the certificate. This means that starting from today I can be be search for and contacted through Google’s database!

Microsoft Tag Beta for Marketing

I have used mobile tags for a few marketing projects and used both the QRCode and Datamatrix code tags to link to some of my online content via mobile. If you haven’t heard about Mobile barcodes or tags here’s a very nice summary that might help. I’ve been following the development of these technologies through the years, this is why I was very curious about Microsoft’s mobile Tagging format and began to fool around with its beta version to try to find out if they had any advantages over the competition.

To start, I was very impressed by their administration platform which helps you order and manage all of the tags you create, you can even divide them by categories and makes them very easy to manage and edit.

It was very easy to create my very own Microsoft High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) within minutes I managed to have the tag up and running. Here’s how my HCCB Barcode looks like:

If you scan it with your mobile camara, it will redirect to my website although you will need to download this Microsoft scanning software into your mobile.

The “Custom HCCB Barcode Option” lets you add your logo to the barcode’s background. As I am marketing guy, I found this option to be very useful, although this feature is also available by other mobile tagging solutions like Beetaggs or Trillcode. The advantage of adding images to your barcodes or tags is that it might suggest and increase the intent of user to scan your barcode and access additional information online.

Adding your Brand or Logo to tags becomes a very powerful marketing tool, especially if you are commercializing products and want a bit more interaction with your website’s content. Catchy graphics in your barcodes and might encourage your potential customers to visit and investigate your products with their mobile and increase their purchasing intent on the spot. Check out my custom made tag like above it will redirect to my website if you scan it with your mobile, you need to download this Microsoft scanning software into your mobile:

Compared to other scanning software the app performs solidly and feels very robust even if your mobile photos shift a little or the photo is not focused, another nice advantage over the competition.

But for me, the most important feature of Microsoft’s Tags is its analytics features which help us create various reports to analyze the performance of categories and tags. With the help of these reports, we can track the progress of your categories and tags within a specified time span. We can even find out the localities where our tags and categories are receiving more scans. This will definitely help us marketers manage more efficiently our campaigns and promotions.

So what are the disadvantages, well the biggest one unfortunately is like most of other Microsoft products they have chosen the proprietary route, this gives other mobile tag solution providers with more open platforms to have an advantage. There is high number of companies, as mentioned before, who have been on the mobile tagging market for many years, who are looking for innovative ways to add value to their services like for example Semacode who are now integrating their mobile tags with social media networks, they currently only have Facebook integration but they will be adding support for other social networks soon.

In short, if you are already using Windows Mobile applications this tagging format will fit like a glove with some applications and it is highly recommended for other users who want to track the performance of their tags, its report capabilities are ideal for campaign performance evaluation and other marketing purposes, thumbs up Microsoft!

Hans Mertins: Art Deco in Guatemala

I’ve just received a copy of a book about my grandfather’s work “Hans Mertins: Art Deco in Guatemala” written by Aníbal Chajón a publication from the Center for Folklore Studies of the University of San Carlos in Guatemala.


The book contains a compilation of all of his works, from his scenery creations for silent movies in the Golden age of Hollywood, to his jewelry designs, architectural, and sculptural art deco creations. His work was characterized by his fusion of traditional Mayan aesthetics with Art Deco style, quite unique for the time.

There will be an official presentation of the book by its author Anibal Chajon, the University will be giving away a hundred copies of his book for free for the first 100 people that show up, please send me an email if you are interested in attending or if you want a copy of the book.

Trying out Google Base

Google Base is a new Google service currently on beta that helps you publish any product or any kind of information. Your products might then appear on Google Product Search and in the Google search results. It is a very nice tool to promote your products and put them out there fast and easy. The interface is very user friendly I uploaded about 6 items in about 15 min, you can also upload your items via data feed which might help you upload items in bulk.

They also have a Performance Tab to keep track of the products you’ve submitted, with key metrics such as clicks and impressions. Here’s a pic of the interface:

You can also connect your Google Base items to your Adwords campaigns and the Google Base Store which enables eBay, Yahoo!, and osCommerce store owners to connect their store information to Google Base.

Google Base is only available for the American, Canadian and UK markets but hopefully it will be available in many other markets soon. Additional information about Google Base.

Canonicalization issues?

Once again “Canonicalization” has become a hot topic within the SEO community given the recent addition and standardization of the “canonical tag” by all of the search engines. Recently I have been working on projects focused on the hispanic community and I have stumbled into a lot of websites with “Canonicalization Issues” that’s why I have written a much longer post regarding this on my “Spanish” section.

In the Anglo community these problems seem to be a bit more difficult to come cross, given that much more information is out there. For that reason below I have gathered some really nice articles regarding “Canonicalization”, the “Canonical Tag” issues and “other Canonical conflicts”.

What is “Canonicalization”?
Jane and Robot
Bruce Clay
Sugar Rae

What is the “Canonical Tag”?
Seo Gadget
Search Engine Land

Other issues regarding the use of the “Canonical Tag”
Google Webmaster
Matt Cutts
Helen Moverland

Hope these links can help you clear your doubts regarding the use of canonical tags and canonicalization. I’ll be adding more, if I stumble into more.

Google Searchology Conference 2009

As a search engine enthusiast it was great to see the new Google Features displayed on this years Searcheology Conference.

I was playing around a bit with them before going to sleep, I really liked the Wonder Wheel wheel feature which lets you visualize related search phrases through wheel like graphs bringing more interactivity to the SERP’s.

I also found very useful the additional Forums and Reviews features great for Reputation Monitoring and for additional information if you are doing some research, the time line option can also be helpful for searching relevant information if dates are of your priority.

Google also pointed out that they will be using “Rich Snippets”, if you are not familiar with the concept, I found a great post regarding this, with all you need to know about Google’s Semantic Web (Thanks for sharing this CJ).

Ohh, I forgot to mention that all of these new features are not yet available in Spanish speaking countries or in German, although I hope to see them soon out there. You can also find some more detailed information about the new features here.

Kill Your Timid Notion

Had the opportunity to attend some incredible performances during The Kill Your Timid Notion 2008 (KYTN) Experimental Film and Music Festival. Featured performances by Bruce McClure, Paul Sharits and Andrew Lampert all of them were extremely interesting, vibrant and unusual.

The first screening was by Andrew with a bizarre mixture of acting, strange dialogue and weird 70’s images. He looked like a mad man playing around with projectors, screens, dialogue and the audience. It was undoubtably a very unique performance!

Bruce McClure gave us a stunning performance with a troop of modified 16mm projectors blasting B & W loops that creating abstract forms that slowly transformed into a circle with a 3D effect created by overlapping projections. The music was superb, brutal sounds and loud white noises that made my right ear numb. Well, after all Bruce used to play chess with John Cage, he must have picked something back then.

Next came Paul Sharits with “Shutter Interface”, a piece created by using two projectors that blended together twittering frames that seemed to dance into a perfect palette of colours. Together with the chaotic beeps and sounds it took me through a hypnotic visual journey of memories and ideas.

The festival was organized by Arika known for their experimental music, film and art events and festivals they are based in Scotland. Hope to see more of their great events and festivals in the near future!

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