Last week, we shared how to use SEO to attract potential customers to your website.  But how do you know if SEO works effectively? Measurement comes in the form of Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the easiest, most comprehensive way to measure SEO because it tells you who visits your site, how long they stay, and what content they view. Simply install Google Analytics code into your website and you will be on your way! To learn more information about incorporating Google Analytics into your website, visit: http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/iq.html.

Once you install Google Analytics, pay attention to the metrics below to measure website success:

1. Overall Visitors & Unique Visitors

When first logging on to Google Analytics, you see an overview of how many visitors view your site. This tab also shows the number of unique visitors to your site. The unique visitor metric is the more important of the two.

Unique visitors are the total number of visitors coming to your website, excluding repeat visitors. This lack of inflation gives you a much better understanding of the numbers your website attracts. As you monitor your analytics over time, pay attention to whether this number rises or declines.

2. Pages/Visit

This metric shows how active visitors engage with your website’s content. The higher the number, the more content your visitors are viewing and learning about your company. As you monitor these metrics, watch how this number fluctuates.

3. Avg. Time on Site

This metric shows how long each visitor, on average, stays on your site.  You would like to see a high number here. Anything above one minute is considered pretty good, however, the higher you go above one minute, the better, indicating visitors are actually reading and absorbing the information on your site instead of quickly browsing through it.

4. Bounce Rate

The bounce rate indicates the percentage of visitors who leave the website from the page they entered. This rate has two implications:

a. People leave your website from the page they entered because your site’s content is not relevant to them.
b. People leave your website because they are able to find the exact information they need from the page they entered.

On average, a bounce rate around 40% is considered good. Anything in the 60% or 70% range would be a troublesome rate. If your bounce rate is that high, you may want to rethink your SEO and keywords to ensure you attract visitors looking for your product or solution.

For certain pages, it is not as worrisome to find a high bounce rate. Your contact page, for example, will most likely have a high bounce rate because people entering this page are probably looking for your contact information and nothing else.

5. Traffic Sources

This tab shows exactly where your visitors come from, whether it is from search engines, direct traffic, or referring sites. This tab also displays the top search terms that lead people to your website. This information can help you decide which keywords should be included in your SEO.

6. Pages

This tab is located under the “Content” section of Google Analytics. This page shows the most viewed pages on your website. These results illustrate which content is the most popular, which can help you decide which content to update and how to update it. On this page, you can also see individual page bounce rates.

Still confused about Google Analytics? Give us a call today! We will help you clear the fog and start measuring your website’s progress.

Posted by Brittany in • General Marketing • Google Analytics • Web Marketing • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | (0) Comments | Permalink

Once your website is up, it’s time to drive traffic to it. But, you don’t want just any traffic, you want targeted visitors who will be more likely to become customers after visiting your website. Search engine optimization (SEO) will help drive the visitors you want to your site. 

People often become intimated when they hear about SEO because they don’t fully understand what it is. Simply put, SEO consists of keywords and dynamic, interactive content.  Below is a step-by-step process.

Step 1:  Research and Develop Keywords
Keyword research starts with a brainstorming session. Think about the most important words that pertain to your business, including your company name and words that relate to what you do. For instance, if you provide technology services to healthcare companies, a good keyword would be “healthcare technology.” Also think about words your customers use to describe your business.

Once your list is compiled, plug it into a keyword research tool, such as WordTracker or WebCEO. These tools show search totals for your list, and generate similar keywords and their search totals. This will help you understand which words receive the most searches and will drive the most traffic to your website. Then, compile a final list of keywords, combining words that specifically relate to your firm (even if they do not have high search totals) and more general terms that have higher search totals.

Step 2: Add Keywords to Your Website and Content
Incorporate your list of keywords into your website in:

1. Page Titles
2. Body Copy
3. Image Tags
4. Headers
5. Metadata*

*Metadata is the website “code” and is what search engine crawlers “read” when they visit your website. Based on the system used to build your website, you may have to include keywords in the source code of your site or you may be able to plug them into the metadata section of your website. As a rule of thumb, each page should have a different combination of keywords in the metadata. This will ensure search engine crawlers go to each page of your website to “read” it, which means higher search rankings for your website.

Step 3: Generate Dynamic, Interactive Content
Interesting, dynamic, and interactive content is just as important as having the right keywords in your website. Because people want to see content they can interact with and connect to, interesting content draws more traffic naturally.  Here are some examples of dynamic and interactive content you can post:

1. Videos
2. Press Releases
3. Links to other websites
4. Photos
5. Social media links and buttons

This type of content drives people to your website. And, the more often your content changes, the more often search engine crawlers visit your website, resulting in higher search engine rankings.

Step 4: Register Your Site with Search Engines
Once you have the best keywords in your website and you’ve incorporated interesting and dynamic content, you are ready to register your site with search engines. Many people believe that not registering your website with search engines means you will never appear in search engine results, however this is not true. Search engine registration simply guarantees that your website will be tracked and ranked on those search engines, which can lead to increased ranking overall.

Search engine registration is easy. Google which engine you would like to register with and you will find a simply entry form to include your website. We recommend you register with the following search engines:

1. Google
2. Bing/Yahoo!
3. Open Directory
4. Alexa
5. Ask.com
6. MSN

These are the most popular and most important search engines. To find other search engines, Google “register your website with search engines” and you will find numerous, free tools, that will register your site with a large number of smaller search engines around the web.

You have now optimized your website for targeted traffic! If you have further questions about SEO and how to get started, contact us today!

Posted by Brittany in • General Marketing • Web Marketing • Target Marketing • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | (0) Comments | Permalink

In the technology-driven world we live in, if your website hasn’t been updated in a year, it is outdated.  It’s important to keep your website branding current to reinforce your position, and to frequently update content to give your audience a reason to visit time and again.

Now, if you cringe at the thought of updating your site, fear not!  There are a number of inexpensive and user-friendly tools to help.  In our next series of blogs, we will outline how to create and design a new website, optimize it for SEO, and track website progress.

Today, we begin with a requirement in website creation: a Content Management System (CMS).

A carefully chosen CMS includes tools to help create your website and allow multiple users to logon and make changes. It gives you an easy way to update your site yourself, with little hassle and low time commitment. With a CMS, you should be able to:

1. Create new web pages
2. Edit text in current web pages
3. Add and delete photos
4. Create an interesting side bar and module content
5. Add Facebook and social media plug-ins

You’re probably thinking, “Okay, that sounds great, but where do I find a tool like that? and, How much is it going to cost me?” The truth is, there are many CMS options that can be found by Googling “content management systems.” And, even better, many are free! Below are the five most popular options (ranked by Nettuts+).

1. WordPress
2. Joomla!
3. Drupal
4. ExpressionEngine
5. TextPattern

If you think a CMS is right for you – because you want to maintain your site on an ongoing basis—ask your agency (think focused, smart, great to work with…DMG?) to add one to your new site.  At DMG, we often use Joomla! to build sites for clients that want to participate in maintaining them.  Our Joomla! clients are usually pleased at how simple it is to create new pages and edit content.

Want to learn more about how to incorporate a CMS into your existing or new site? Contact us today! And if you like this blog and want our others to come straight to your inbox, subscribe today.

Posted by Brittany in • Content Management Systems • General Marketing • Joomla! • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink

Are you thinking of branching out into the area of mobile marketing? We are! Below is an article from AdAge discussing how important mobile marketing is becoming. As more people search for information on their phones and touch pads, websites and marketing materials must be optimized for this format. At DMG, as we build new websites and emailers for our clients, we are continually keeping mobile marketing principles in the back of our mind. Check out the article below for interesting tips on how to get started in mobile marketing. For more information on how DMG can help you branch out into mobile marketing, contact us!

Push Clients Out of the Gate With Mobile, Before It’s Too Late (article from AdAge.com)
By: Phil Johnson Published: December 9, 2011

Who can argue any more about the significance of mobile? It’s big, and we all know it’s big. Given the media hype, and the abundance of case studies on successful mobile marketing programs, you might conclude that every client and agency is a master of the mobile universe.

Surprisingly, that’s not the case. Based on questions from the audience at a BtoB Forum on Mobile Marketing in New York City, where I spoke recently, plenty of people are struggling to integrate mobile into marketing programs. The Association of Strategic Marketing reports that 58% of companies it surveyed do not even have a mobile strategy. The number one reason why: they’re not sure how to get started.

That statistic is hard to believe when you consider the size of the mobile advertising market and its phenomenal growth, but it points to a perceptual gap between companies leading the way on mobile and many thousands of others going nowhere with it. On one side of the gap, we see billions of dollars spent on mobile advertising, not to mention the amazing personal mobile experiences that most of us are having on a daily basis, whether we’re shopping or using social networks. On the other side are companies without mobile sites who still have not made mobile part of their marketing discipline.

See more of the article...

Posted by Brittany in • General Marketing • Marketing Articles • Mobile Marketing • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink