SmallBusinessNewz

An Equation for Improving Your Forms and Conversions

The other day, we discussed the importance of not wasting you customers' time when trying to get them to buy from your site. In essence, people do not want to spend more time than they have to during the buying process, so the more you can do to make that process quicker, the more likely you are to actually get a conversion. I'm guessing most of you agree with this, and we got some good reader comments on the subject:

Many Marketers Have Issues with Web Analytics

eMarketer compiled some data, citing results from a survey conducted by Unica about Web Analytics, and the problems marketers face when using analytics tools. Web analytics are a critical part of succeeding on the web, but marketers are continuing to struggle with actually using the tools they have. Here are some problems cited by respondents of the survey:

7 Steps for PPC Keyword Analytics

If you advertise using pay-per-click, and AdWords in particular, you may use web analytics (or Google Analytics) to track the performance of keywords, and identify ones that perform well. If you don't, you probably should.

The Analytics of Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty can be a crucial part of business, and there are many ways to keep customers coming back. It starts with providing a good experience for customers the first time around, but on the web, that isn't always enough, simply due to the incredible variety of competitors available at the customers' fingertips.

Google Provides Valuable Data to Local Businesses

Google has launched a new dashboard feature for Local Business Center that lets businesses get greater insight into how customers are finding their local business listings. Best of all, it's free to use. Your local business listing on Google looks something like this:

4 Steps for Setting Up Google Analytics Goals

Goals in Google Analytics are designed to let you measure business objectives for your site. They must correspond to a measurable action performed by visitors to that site. Google has a useful post on setting up Goals. In that post, they detail the four steps of setting up a Goal and Funnel. They are: 1. Define your Goal Funnel 2. Configure Goal Settings for Each Profile 3. Define your Goal Funnel

Emailing Google Analytics Reports

Web analytics are a crucial element to the success of online business. If you can't analyze your data and adjust your site and marketing messages to improve it, your sales are likely to be stagnant. That's why it is quite useful when Google shares valuable tips for using its analytics platform, which has been widely adopted among businesses on the web. A recent tip this week discusses emailing reports.

Catch Customers Before They Leave Your Site

Have you heard of the conversion funnel? This is the process in which customers get to your site and go through a number of steps that ultimately lead them (hopefully) to the checkout.

Tips for Getting Your Online Video Marketing to Work

Whether you like it or not, more people are watching online video than ever, and more people are uploading it. Obviously YouTube is a big destination for both. Some business owners remain skeptical about the benefits of incorporating online video into their marketing strategies, and that's ok, but I'd like to take this opportunity to shed a little light on some ways you can get more out of your efforts, should you choose to travel down that path.

PPC and Web Analytics Mismatches

Microsoft has an informative post up on its adCenter blog looking at why PPC numbers and web analytics reports don't always match. While the post is written with Microsoft adCenter in mind, even author Charles Thrasher notes that variables apply to other search engines. Common reasons number don't match include:- Missing or improperly configured tracking URLs- Missing landing page tags- Clicks versus cookies