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Is Your Website Working?
You update your business website religiously. You include web links wherever you can. Is it working? How do you know?
  
Google Analytics is the minimum website analysis tool you should be using. 56% of businesses rely on this tool alone, (Econsultancy). It's good and it's free!
 
You’ll have to dance around the changes – which fuel arguments about the validity of keywords – but this remains an insightful tool. 
 
As a minimum, you see straight away:
  • How many visitors you attracted (new and returning)
  • How long people stayed on your site (average)
  • How many pages they viewed (did you successfully encourage them to browse beyond the first page?)
  • Bounce rate (what percentage of people clicked away from your site after viewing just one page, typically within 30 seconds) 


Is your website really making a difference to your business?

 


It’s difficult to say from the top level information. However drill a little deeper and you’ll find the quality details you need. You can do this without any further registration or Analytics tools. We believe in keeping life simple.
 
Time is tight. Read our top three Analytics nuggets – quick, easy, valuable:

 

1. Where is your traffic coming from?


'Acquisition’ is a major menu option. Select ‘All Traffic’. You’ll see the top places which are successfully referring visitors to your website. There should be a mix of ‘organic’ (natural search results), ‘direct’ (your full address – url – was entered) and referral channels.
 
Do your social media channels, networking groups and directories show here? This is your chance to streamline your efforts and maximise impact. You’ll also see whether people are using mobile or desktop versions of social media… whilst your website should cope with both (responsive), it’s a useful insight as to how people will view your information.
 


2. Which search terms are relevant to you?



Google no longer provides the details of the top performing key word within Analytics… but there are ways around this. For now, select ‘Acquisition’ and ‘Keywords – Organic’.  You’ll see the search terms that people have used in finding your website online. It’s interesting to note what’s there – and what isn't.
 
How does this affect you? Target people to a specific landing page (website entry page) – it doesn’t have to be your Home page. Use just two or three very different keywords to integrate into this page’s search engine optimisation. You’ll see from the pages accessed – and when – if these keywords are attracting visitors, even though the ‘keywords report’ may not show them.

 

3. How are people moving around your website? 


Getting people to your site is clearly vital. But – it’s what they do when they’re there that counts.
 
This is fascinating! Choose ‘Behaviour’ and then ‘Behaviour Flow’. You’ll see which pages people accessed first when they reached your site. You could argue that the top keywords would tell you that. But – what happened next?
 
This section of Google Analytics shows what people did next after entering your site. How did they flow through your information. This will tell you if your internal web links and directional wording are working. Have they seen enough details to make them want to access your prices details, or your background. These are positive signs.
 
You’ll also see how people leave your site: from which page and after how many page views. Are people behaving as you want them to? How can you influence them? Are your special offers or headline events creating interest?
 
To summarise:
  • Google Analytics is a free tool and you don't need lots of time to benefit from it. 
  • Not using it yet? You can get the code you need to install it from Google.
  • Use the insight it gives to help shape your internet marketing
Make sure that your website works after you’ve done the hard work of driving people to it. 

If you’d like to know more about analysing your website, contact us. From a quick look at your Analytics to a website review, we’re here to help.
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Web Pages that Generate Leads
Generally, your digital marketing tools will be designed to drive traffic to website pages. ​Each initial landing page should be relevant to your marketing content within other activities.

With most websites offering a content management system, you can easily 
tailor copy and optimisation to amplify your marketing message.  

All landing pages should contain key components to help generate leads from digital marketing campaigns. The points below describe recommended components. 

1.    This includes reinforcing a definite, core marketing message.

2.    To reassure the visitor, the ‘what’s in it for me?’ question should be clearly answered with offers, USP and endorsements. 

3.    If sales are offline so the ‘call to action’ should lead visitors to service information (e.g. first marketing meeting free), clear navigation and minimal clicks

4.    To progress the sales process, the webpage must encourage engagement with directional copy and clickable buttons.

5.    Social media connection and sharing encourages future engagement and lead generation.

6.    Action is encouraged via ‘call to action’ words (e.g. signup, download) with short, direct messages or persuasive copy directly above the ‘call to action’ words or button. Copywriting should incorporate key words and phrases, with clear engaging headlines (H1, H2).

7.    Clearly visible contact information should be on every page, (variety of methods).

Essential for Decisions Marketing is a ‘sign up’ button, gaining ‘opt in’ information for future communication. ‘Terms and privacy’ statements offer reassurance and engagement about providing details.  These are ideal for engagement and lead generation.

Is your website working for you? We offer a website review which assesses the design, wording, optimisation and conversion potential of your current site. Ask us for more details… we’re here to help.
 
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The Google Hummingbird Affect

What is Google's Hummingbird?



Hummingbird is a completely new search algorithm, or process. It affects 90% of all searches. It was launched a month ago but only announced recently as part of Google’s 15th birthday. In fact, it’s the first completely new algorithm since 2001.

It’s aimed at making Google better at gathering information. It’s more user-focussed, indexing websites more often (identifying changes) and identifying spammy content, (‘keyword stuffing’ has long been ill-advised… even more so now). It coincides with Google Analytic’s encrypting of keyword data, which had rendered ‘Organic Traffic Sources’ almost useless – another nudge in the ‘don’t rely on keywords’ direction.


How will Hummingbird help?



It’s all about the user…  Google wants to be better at understanding what searchers really want and providing them with better answers. This new search process allows Google to understand user intent more closely. Understanding people will prepare Google for a future dominated by voice and mobile search.

Quite simply, we’re entering more conversational queries such as ‘how do I’ or 'where can I find’ rather than a string of key terms. Hummingbird will allow Goggle to provide us with more relevant results to our queries rather than simply a long list of relevant (hopefully) web links.
 

How will Hummingbird affect my website?


Anticipate the questions which people will ask. They are usually ‘open’ questions, starting with ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘where’, when’, ‘who’ and ‘what’. Then use these phrases together with relevant keywords within your site. Try this post as an example.

In marketing, the customer is king and relevant, helpful content is the way to gain favour. This ‘best practice’ approach has always meant creating a more advisory than ‘salesy’ style to information and messages you want to promote. This is ideal for Hummingbird! It also offers harmony between copywriting and optimisation for websites - at last!

Remember - always keep your aims in mind before jumping on the latest seo bandwagon. Hummingbird is perfect for guides, downloads and advisory wording. How will you ensure that this transfers into the original goals you have for your website?  

If you'd like to discuss this further, please contact us.
 
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