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The future of our industry, any industry for that matter,
has become information analysis.
And being that a strong online presence is taking first position in today's business marketing strategies, you must analyze your website aggressively to understand it's contribution to current and future profit generation.
Maximum online profit generation can only occur if you
take an analytical approach
There are a number of full website traffic statistics and analytical systems available, but are you using any of them? And aside from Web Analytics, there are also comparison resources and performance metrics that should be considered. Do you know what paths visitors are using to gain access to your website? What is the ratio of new vs. returning visitors? Which keywords are drawing visitors to your sites? Which Search Engines? What is your bounce rate? Where are most of your inquiries coming from? Is your Home Page customer-focused? How do you compare to your competition?
What exactly will keep your spa mojo running?
Take a look at our Top 5 Web Analytics resources. Some offer better information than others for user behaviors, and some are stronger when it comes to facts and figures. With your research and once you have done your own needs analysis, it should become clear to you, which will suit your situation the best. Enjoy!
1. Google Analytics - Provides full website analysis.
http://www.google.com/analytics/ It is currently a free service, but it requires that you have an account with Google and that you meet specific online criteria. Once your account has been set up, Google begins to gather data on your site(s), and reports it back to you via pages and pages of graphs, maps and stats. Everything from the number of visitors to your site; to new visits vs. repeat visit ratios; average time on site; top traffic sources; top pages; keywords; and so much more, this program is a must. My two favorites have to be the map and site overlays. The map overlay tells you exactly how many visitors are coming from each area in the world; and the site overlay pops up percentages onto each link on your home page, to show where visitors are clicking. This is definitely worth the investment in time that it takes to get set up.
2. Google Trends - Compares key words and phrases.
http://www.google.com/trends We all know the importance of key words and key word phrases. Here you can input two or more key words or phrases to evaluate and compare their effectiveness against each other, with the results displayed on a graph. You can drill down further to uncover results on specific target locations, and more. This is a very useful tool to help you choose the appropriate word content within your web pages, to ultimately boost your exposure and organic ranking.
3. Compete - Identifies competitive strategies.
http://www.compete.com/about/ Compete is an online competitive service that combines intelligent site and search analytics to help you improve your online marketing initiatives by identifying competitive strategies. Knowing this information can take your SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimization) efforts to the next level, and help you stay on top with site metrics and audience profiles.
4. WeWe Score - Rates your website's customer focus.
http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm When visitors find your website, they really only care about how well you can help them meet their needs. Your focus has to be on the customer, which is conveyed through the words you use on your site. This website counts certain words on your site that are the key indicators of whether your focus is on them, or on you. This can be helpful in better understanding the impression you are making on your prospects, and where you need to make changes in order to grab and entice customers to go deeper when they land on your home page.
5. Trace My IP - Tracks IP addresses for traffic analysis, and much more.
http://www.tracemyip.org/ Although we use all of the above sites at Spas2b, I've just found this one, and frankly, it looks very intriguing. Is the time coming that we will actually be able to zero in on the name of the person visiting our websites, and where exactly they are from? It appears that this kind of advanced data gathering is just around the corner, but for now, just knowing more about our visitor details through the activity reports provided here, is a great way to develop strategies; monitor results and improve outcomes.
More....
"Audience Tracking Tools 101":
For those new to the world of websites and blogging, and even for many veterans of the industry, understanding the purpose and need for website statistics is not always an obvious one. Read more about Knowing the Who, What, When, Where and More of Web Analytics here: http://sitemeter.com/?a=knowledgepowerseries
"The Problem with Free Analytics"
**Interesting collection of data**
In closing, it's important to know that with all the decreases in business budgets, there is one category that continues to be on the rise, and that's investment in a business' online presence.
Make no mistake - your online presence must be a top tier focus.
Best Regards,
Leslie Lyon, President
Spas2b Inc.
1-519-585-0626
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