You can't manage what you can't measure

I am constantly amazed at how many (even good) websites don't measure their traffic. And I don't mean just having a 'hit counter' or basic page view statistics. Many websites don't use one or employ free website monitors that don't do much more than graph number of pages viewed.

It doesn't make sense to spend thousands on a website and then not measure the results correctly. It's like buying a car that doesn't have any gauges. Measurement is a fundamental business, science and engineering principle that doesn't seem to apply to websites.

A good web analytic can tell what works and what doesn't, and if you mine the data enough, your customer's behavior. At minimum, it can tell you if anyone besides internal people and search engine spiders are visiting your site. The only thing worse than having an expensive 'billboard in the forest', is not knowing it is.

Website marketing for everyone

Many prospective clients feel that they don't need website marketing because they don't have an e-commerce website. While we understand their rationale, we certainly don't subscribe to it. A properly optimized site can turn a website into a 'marketing weapon', by turning visitors into prospective leads. All it takes is a strategy and willingness to implement the necessary steps to attract traffic and then find out who is interested, track when they come back, and what topics they are interested in.

In addition, websites can be a great tool for branding. Searching under relevant keywords and coming up with your company's name and website will generate name/product/service recognition. You don't have to 'sell' something right away to get value. But of course, the trick is being found under those keywords to begin with.

Microsoft announced the beta version of their new search tool with 5 billion pages indexed in their database. Google coincidently announced that they now have 8 billion pages indexed. Talk about who's got the bigger...

Scan proof your site

In our studies, the majority of site visitors spend about 5 seconds on a page. You only have a matter of seconds to tell your site visitors what your message is on a page. If you want action, it's better to employ scannable text.



People rarely read web pages word by word, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. Therefore your site content needs to be scannable. This is especially important for an e-commerce site.



To give you an example of scannable text, look at Google adwords (Sponsored Links on the right of a Google search result). These ads force a focus on crisp and plain content that will communicate the message in a second or two. Your message on your web page must be focused, clear and what they were looking for. Otherwise, your visitors will be visiting the website of your competitors. 3 clicks and they're gone!