Esther C Kane

Here, at Eckweb Designs, Inc. we use Google Analytics for our Internet Marketing clients.  Not only does it allow us to analyze a plethora of information, but it also is very customizable (which we love!).  So, if you haven’t yet used it or you don’t know how to use it, let’s see if we can help!  Here are some tips…

For Beginners – this tutorial at Mahalo.com is excellent.

For those who are a bit more advanced, here are some of our tips…

1) Take advantage of the Goals section.  Create as many different goals as possible to track as many different “campaigns” and “actions” on your website.

Some examples of what to track on your website…

a) number of visitors who fill out your contact form
b) number of visitors who take an action on a website page (like click on the “click here” button)
c) number of visitors who fill out any form on the site (free quote, get an ebook, etc.)
d) number of visitors that come to a certain page and then bounce off
e) number of visitors who come to the website from another specific website

Well, you get the idea.  Pretty much anything can be tracked and the point is, you should know what each page of your website is supposed to do and you should be able to track all of that!

2) Use the keywords section on Google Analytics to give you a list of the long tail keyword phrases that you’re getting customers for.  Find the conversion rate for each of these phrases and the ones that are giving you a decent conversion rate, well, add more to the website about that theme.

The concept is if ONE keyword phrase is bringing in 30 visitors a month and the conversion rate from that 30 is 10%.  Expanding on that theme should bring in more visitors and because it seems to be a “hot” topic, the conversions should then increase as well.

3) Analyze the pages that aren’t doing very well on your site and fix them!  Sure, you may not get it right the first, second, third or even fourth time.  But the point is to keep working on those pages until they bring in a decent amount of traffic.  (Decent being whatever you’re happy with!)

A year or so ago, Google introduced their Personalization format.  Basically, this means that each person’s use of Google on their computer is different.

So,  let’s say Andrew who lives in Denver does a search for a “divorce attorney” and it’s a search he’s done before.  And let’s say that Sarah, who lives in Chicago, does a search for a “divorce attorney” and it’s a search that she’s done before.  Well, the results for Andrew are going to be very different than the results for Sarah.  Not only will Andrews results show Denver based divorce attorney (and Sarah’s will show Chicago based divorce attorneys) but Andrews search results will also show any divorce attorneys that he’s already clicked on before.  (The same for Sarah).

Even if Andrews next door neighbor did a search for “divorce attorney” – his results would be different from Andrews because of what he has searched for and clicked on in the past.  On the same computer, of course.

So, the old concept of tracking where the websites “rank” in the engines doesn’t work anymore.  It’s not a good and valid tracking system to identify if the website pages are succeeding or not on the Internet.

Instead, what every website owner and SEO webmaster should be tracking are Website stats and conversions.  Here are some thoughts on how you can implement this (if you haven’t already).

1) Create actions on your website.  In other words, provide forms for your visitors to fill out.   Forms for contact us, forms for specific quotes or surveys or questionnaires.  Create a specific “thank you” page for each form.

2) Using your stats program, track the number of thank you pages for each action.  You’ll be able to quickly identify what services or actions your website is converting and which ones are not.  In other words, you’ll know what’s working and what’s not.

3) If you use Google Analytics you’ll also be able to identify the exact keyword phrases that were used to convert those folks.  You’ll then know what keyword phrases to create more pages for.   If one page on your website converts 5 visitors all who used one specific keyword phrase, what would 3 or 5 more pages marketing the same phrase or semantic phrase do?

Conversions are the new tracking tool.   Use it!

Years ago I used to send a PDF copy of the Google Analytics report to my clients.   I also sent ranking reports (remember when they were relevant?) – and what I learned was that my clients didn’t understand them.

As a good friend tells me quite often, “Oh, it gives me a headache!”.

So, although all those numbers and graphs are interesting and fascinating for me to read, to my clients, they just give them a headache!

I stopped sending them that information and I started sending them a short analysis of those reports.  That turned out to be better.  At least for my clients.

But, knowing what I know (or maybe I’m just a die hard geek) – I couldn’t get by in my business with that little bit of knowledge about my website statistics.  I want to know what all those numbers and details mean!  So, although I agree that many small businesses just need to know the basic facts, I still think it’s important to have some working knowledge of the terms and information that website analytics can give you.

The folks over at WebTrends created an excellent alphabetized glossary of all website analytics terms and their definitions.  So, without further ado, here’s the list of Website Statistics Terminology.

http://www.webtrends.com/Education/Glossary.aspx

One of the most underused methods, I think, of website optimization is the act of analyzing competitor websites.  There’s alot of talk about keyword research, optimizing meta tags and website pages, H1 tags, etc.  But not much about analyzing the competition.  So, here are some things that I do for my clients to identify what they’re up against in the Internet world.

1) Have a list of keyword phrases your website is marketing.  Knowing what your website is marketing is important.  Believe me, not many website owners know!

2) Create a list of keyword phrases your website is getting traffic for.  You might say, well, isn’t this the same as #1?  The short answer is, NO.  You might be marketing your website for the phrase “divorce attorney in Denver”, but you may be getting traffic, or more traffic, for the phrase “divorce lawyer in Denver”.  The point is, know what you’re trying to get traffic for and what you’re actually getting traffic for.

3) Armed with these two lists, you can now identify who your competition is.  A few months ago I got a phone call from a client and he asked me, how do you get these competitors you’re giving me on my report?  I don’t know them.  Well, my client may not know these companies, but they are ranking in the top 3 for some of the keyword phrases he wants to rank for!

4) So, type in each keyword phrase into Google and make a list (yes, lots of lists in this process) of the top 5 competitors.  After repeating this process with all your keyword phrases, you’ll be able to look at your list and see which website kept coming up time and time again for many of the same phrases that you’re marketing.  Pick the top 3 and you’ve got your list of your top competitors.

Now that you’ve identified your competition, you can begin the process of analyzing these sites.  Here’s how I do it.

1) Go to Google and do a site search.  Basically, you want to find out how many pages has Google indexed from each website?  To do this, you simply go to Google and in the search box type in “site:www.domain.com” – you do this without the quotes and of course, “domain” is replaced with the website you’re researching.  So, now you should have the number of pages that Google has indexed from your website as well as the top 3 competitors.

2) Next, you want to find out how much “talk” is out there about this domain?  This can be done through many program but I like www.howsociable.com.  Type in the domain name and you’ll not only get a number of mentions but you’ll also see where they are mentioned in the world of social media.  Again, do this for every domain, including yours.

3) Next, you’ll want to have an idea of the amount of traffic each website gets.  You know, it’s not always true that the number of pages reflect the amount of traffic.  So, just because another website may be larger, doesn’t mean it gets more traffic.  Anyway, I like to use www.compete.com for this research.  The free version is fine, and it can quickly give you an idea of the amount of traffic to a website.  (Of course, it’s not accurate, but it’s a good estimate).

4) Then, you want to know how many incoming links are coming in to each website.  To Google, incoming links is still a high priority in the game of ranking.  I like to use the tool at http://www.seomoz.org/linkscape – it’s quick, easy and gives me the information I need.

5) Lastly, I want to know what keyword phrases are bringing in traffic to each website.  That information can be taken from www.semrush.com.  Now, I have a subscription to that program (it’s great and absolutely worth every penny) so I’m not sure if the free version gives you this data but you can give it a try.  Knowing what keyword phrases are bringing in the most traffic can help you identify where to place your focus on your own website.

So, that’s how I analyze websites for my clients.  It’s not difficult, just time consuming and it takes a little bit of “analyzing” but it’s worth it.  Knowing what others are doing and more important, what’s working for others, is a great way to keep up with your competitors and with your target audience!

There are a few tools available for collecting and breaking down website statistics.  Some are free, some are not but each have their own pros and cons.

Free Website Analytics Tools

Google Analytics
By far one of the most (if not THE most) popular website analytics tools around.  It’s powerful, it’s full of great features which are constantly being upgraded and added to.  It’s fairly easy to read and it can’t be beat for FREE!

Webalizer
Many hosting companies offer webalizer as part of their hosting package.  This free tool is great for anyone who is interested in some stats and information about their website but I don’t recommend it for any business website.  It simply doesn’t give as much information as you really need to make decisions affecting your business site.

Awstats
Another website analytics tool that many website hosting companies offer.  This tool has more information than webalizer, is easier to read and a really nice looking interface.  Again, although it gives you more information, it’s just not as much as what you would get from Google Analytics so I don’t recommend this for a business website.

Website Analytics Tools That Cost

Of course, like everything else on the Internet, there are some really costly analytics tools and then there are cheaper ones.  But if your business budget can accomodate an additional analytics tool, then go for it.  Some that I recommend are:

ClickTracks
Simply stated, the clicktracks program is an advanced version of Google Analytics.  What I mean is that clicktracks gives you even more customization.  For example, you can create multiple dashboards, you can get near-time reporting, you can import outside data, you can set up very detailed metrics to track and calculate.  In my opinion, for larger companies that can afford the $99.00/month fee (I believe that’s the fee – I could only find a mention) – then it’s worth it.

CrazyEgg
Okay, I know, it’s a funny name and although it’s not exactly an analytics tool – it’s the one thing that Google Analytics is really missing.  A true “heatmap” report of your website.  Basically, this little tool shows you exactly what parts of each website page are getting clicked on.  The price for CrazyEgg ranges from $9.00/month to $99.00/month.  There are 4 packages to choose from and it can be a very useful tool.

Website Analytics tools are an extremely important way to help you to change and grow your website.  In addition, they’re great tools to help you identify what’s working (and what’s not) on your website.  Don’t ignore this valuable aspect of Internet marketing.

Vanessa Fox from SearchEngineLand reports that “Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithims in 2009″.   So, whatever Google’s rules were on January 1, 2009 for ranking websites, they were quite different December 31, 2009!

What’s a site owner or SEO webmaster to do?

Well, stick with the basics for one and of course, keep adding and tweaking the site not only for the search engines but for the target audience as well.

Here’s a list of the basics that I follow when optimizing websites…

1) Keyword research is the key – assign 1 keyword phrase per website page and don’t forget to use the semantic phrases as well.

2) Make sure that keyword phrase is where it’s supposed to be.  Meta tags, header tags, bold, at the beginning, in the middle, at the end and within links.

3) Silo the website architecture and use breadcrumbs and smart menu navigation throughout.

4) Spread the word via articles, social media and social bookmarking.

5) Monitor each page of the website.  Find out what’s working, what’s not working and then make your changes.  Internet marketing is a constant tweaking process.  Don’t kid yourself to thinking that it’s a one time deal.

So, the lesson here is don’t get too caught up about the rankings of your website.  Look at the specific stats your website is telling you.  Fix the pages that aren’t working.  Change the keyword phrases that aren’t bringing in good traffic.    Believe me, you’ll get to the top!

Many website owners focus on their website traffic report as their Main Report of how the website is doing.  But the traffic report is really just the result of all that is being done on the website.  It doesn’t give you information on what needs to be done to get those great traffic reports.

As the owner of an Internet Marketing firm that focuses on small business websites, we WANT our clients to engage in the Internet marketing process.  But in order for them to do that, they must know what’s going on, they need the information in order to make the best decision.  That’s where our monthly marketing reports come to play.  So, let me share with you what we focus on.

Keywords Report

One factor many website owners forget about is the continuous change that is the Internet.  Here’s a little tip I can give you.  Go to Code Monitor and sign up.  It’s free.  Enter in a competitor’s website and just wait.  In your email you’ll receive a notice every time that competitor makes a change on his website.  If that competitor’s website is in the top 3 on a Google search result, I can pretty much guarantee that they are changing their website often.  At least once a week.

Our Keywords Report helps you to add new data to your website by giving you 3 new keyword phrases that your website can market.  The idea is to keep adding, changing and upgrading your website.

Competition Report

Knowing what your competition is doing (and what they’re not doing) is a key factor in Internet marketing.  But what do you need to know?  Well, you need to know how many pages their website is marketing, how large is their social media marketing, what kind of traffic is that website bringing them, how many incoming links do they have and what keywords are they getting traffic for?

But you also need to know who your competition is.  Don’t get caught up in the thought that the store down the street is your competition.  On the Internet, your competition are the websites that are coming up for the keyword phrases you are marketing.  So, go to Google, type in a keyword phrase your website is marketing and hopefully you’re in the top 3.  If you’re not, who are?  Those are your competitors.  Find out what they’re doing and you’ll have a better idea of how to plan your Internet marketing campaign.

Your Website Pages

A few months ago Google changed many of their ranking rules (algorithims) and basically, they’re placing more emphasis on individual pages.  So, this forced us to place more emphasis on individual pages.  Everything from the links in and out, the page speed, cache dates and much more.

In this report, we outline each individual website page along with information about the keyword phrases it’s marketing, how it’s doing as far as bringing in traffic, it’s cache date and soon we’ll be adding page speed information as well.  The point is to give the website owner the information they need to make a decision on if and what type of changes a website page may need.

Recommendations Report

There isn’t one single day that goes by that something new isn’t introduced for website owners.  It can be a new social media site, a new method of communicating with visitors, a new form of video or audio, etc.  Just check out Killer Start Ups – you’ll see how creative folks are getting!

This report is our way of letting our customers know what new technology they may find useful for their website.  We try to cover everything that is the latest in Internet marketing.  (Did you know that Facebook is growing faster than Google?)  We want our clients to know that.  It’s to their benefit to take advantage of this information.  And to be honest, if the client does well with their website marketing, then we do well.

If your SEO firm is not providing you with this kind of information, ask them if they can or just call us at Eckweb Designs, Inc. We will help you to succeed.

Okay, so I was reading my list of blogs the other night and I came across this interesting new concept.

http://www.mapenvelope.com/

Basically, you type in your office address and it prints it onto a template which you can then print, fold into an envelope and send it out to your clients.

It’s an interesting concept but how could you really use it?  I suppose it would be great for events (like parties, etc.)  Would it also be good for special sales at your place of business?

Hmm – what else?  Let me know if you have any ideas.

Alas, that is the question many business website owners are asking themselves these days.

Here’s a great article by Moore Design Solutions that may inspire you and help you with your decision. 

Mobile Browsing: Get on Board or Stay Behind

The Days of Being Tethered to a Desktop Computer are Gone.

Desktop Version of a Website is Not Suitable For Mobile Devices

Every business should consider a mobile version of their company website. The full desktop version of a website is intended for large monitors and is definitely necessary for an online presence, however it is too large for handheld devices.

Catch Them If You Can

People are on the go and using their mobile devices more and more to access the web for services and products. To make sure to capture the traffic from mobile devices, businesses should have a mobile version of their company website.

In addition, people are using their mobile browser more often than their desktop PC to read and respond to their email messages. In fact, communication via social media communities like Facebook instead of using the traditional email method is clearly on the rise. Social networking is a big factor in driving the growth of mobile browsing.

They Don’t Leave Home Without It

Check out these statistics:

• 82% of Americans never leave home without bringing their mobile device.
  – Synovate, September 2009
• The number of smartphone subscribers increased 72% quarter-over-quarter, growing from 15 million subscribers in Q2 2008 to 26 million in Q2 2009
  – NielsenWire, September 2009
• Smartphone users are expected to increase four-fold by 2013
  – In-Stat, March 2009

People of all ages using mobile browsing to find services and purchase products via a mobile device are expected to double in 2010.

Bottom line: Every business should have a mobile version of their main website to capture the ever increasing traffic via mobile browsing.

It’s true that many website designers are not SEO webmasters and vice versa.  I never call myself a website designer.  Although I know how to take websites apart and put them back together.  Those skills do not make me a designer.

But, if you’re a website designer, there is no reason why you shouldn’t, or couldn’t create websites for your customers that can eventually be marketed on the Internet.  Not only will your customers reap the rewards of a website that works FOR them, but you will also reap the rewards of referrals from your customers as well as additional work from your customers!  Can’t get more win-win than that!

One of my favourite blogs, SEO Design Solutions came up with 10 tips on how to build a website with SEO in mind…

1. Start with a theme (meaning your market and the top level keywords).
2. Use Keyword Research to build that theme into the site navigation, internal links, tags and naming conventions.
3. Determine what the tipping point is for the top 5 competitors and exceed them using time-released content.
4. Leverage internal links to select preferred landing pages.
5. Build a stable base of off page links from trusted sources first, and then ensure a fresh supply of relevant ongoing links.
6. Build pages properly the first time “optimal” using a pliable CMS system which does all the SEO / heavy lifting by default.
7. Use keyword research to integrate less competitive keywords (branches of the root phrase) into supporting posts, pages and off page content (then go back to point #3).
8. Keep site architecture flat and make sure to link to a sitemap for that segment of the site (if you use categories).
9. Make changes to older / trusted pages – If ranking priorities change, go back and edit and add additional links and content to leverage pages 4 months or older to link to new pages with supporting keywords.
10. Measure the results and rinse and repeat.

Granted, some of these are the responsibility of the SEO webmaster, but as a designer you should be aware of what will be happening with the website you created.