May blogger meetup

Do you use Google Analytics to learn about how visitors are interacting with your site? Did you install it then forget about it? Do you look at it daily and wonder how to get more traffic?

While most of us don't need to analyze our traffic data as thoroughly as one might for a site selling widgets, analytics can still give us useful insights into our readership. And Google offers more and more data as it improves the service.

Google's new Universal Analytics (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2790010?hl=en) service moved out of Beta this month (http://analytics.blogspot.com/2014/04/universal-analytics-out-of-beta-into.html). This means even more robust features for users who upgrade. I've just installed it on some new sites I'm working on and so far I'm pretty pleased with the new features.

If you aren't a data hound, don't worry. Our discussion will be more about understanding our audience, and won't require technical expertise.

And if the discussion wanders off on a different tangent, that's par for the course, so feel free to bring up any topic you like. And while we're at it we can celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

The location:
The Barking Spider Tavern is in the heart of University Circle behind the Alumni House on Juniper Rd. If the weather is nice we'll sit outside, if not we'll sit in the back room.

Here are a few things to know:

The Spider doesn't sell food, but you can bring your own pizza or snacks (excluding chips and pretzels, which they do sell.)
They offer an array of beverages including beer, wine, pop, juice, coffee, tea, iced-tea and bottle water. Please don't bring your own coffee.

There is a new parking lot on Bellflower behind the Spider. Look at this Google map for parking options (https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210039966437709135344.000462edb2c9a7525d586&msa=0). (You can park in the Coffeehouse lot.)

The Barking Spider is cash only, but they have an ATM in the back room. Wifi is available through Case Western Reserve University using the username and password "caseguest."

We hope to see you there!