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Many companies simply assume paid search, most often through Google, is their best source of business. It’s inherently trackable - and you know how much we love that around here - quick and relatively inexpensive. Customers love it, too. So much so that Marshall Kirkpatrick at Read/Write Web recently wondered whether mainstream users will ever learn about the browser’s address bar because so many searchers use brand terms - or URL’s themselves - as their search terms. But Google, for all its importance, is not the only game in town. Mike Moran looked at it another way, asking what percentage of your traffic should come from search. To Mike, the answer appears to be “the amount that makes your sales go up.” Smart man, Mike is.

The key takeaway here is that Google represents the largest single source of traffic for many businesses because Google also represents the largest site on the internet. But should it be your largest source of traffic? And are you getting your fair share of business from sources like:

• Alternative search engines. Both big players like Yahoo and Live, and smaller, vertical search engines, like Business.com, Yelp and Kayak all fit here.
• Referred traffic. Linking from other sites, whether partners, customers and even competitors.
• Email. Obviously this is more for repeat customers. But they’re lower cost than obtaining new customers. Do you do what’s necessary to keep them coming back?
• Direct navigation. Always a good one. Does your domain (or better yet, domains) match how people think about your brand?
• Social. Finally, do you connect with your customers in other channels?

An effective ecommerce strategy looks at each source of traffic and business to determine the value of customers coming from each. Don’t neglect one channel simply because another (I’m looking at you, Google) drives significant volumes. After all, when you put all your eggs in one basket, you often end up with the yolk on you.

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Norwegian browser maker Opera has released its monthly Mobile Browsing Report. According to the country snapshots, users (across all countries) most frequently visited the following sites :

• Google
• Yahoo
• Facebook
• Wikipedia
• Gamejump

Ignoring for a moment the lack of iPhone data, mobile users visit search, social networking, research and game sites. How is that different from the PC web? And, is your business showing up when your customers search?

Worth looking into, no?

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Roger Ehrenberg is a successful investor who knows more about finding and growing great companies than most. He’s had a number of successes, notably Wallstrip and Mytrade. But he’s learned more from failure. Better yet, he’s sharing his learning. Roger has written a powerful post mortem (in the truly dead sense) of his company Monitor110 that you should read right now. Insightful. Useful. Smart. Raw.

The problem with most “best practices” is they suffer from survivor’s selection bias. In other words, the folks preaching such practices point only to the survivors who used them, never the failures. But I bet many failed companies used those same practices. The key is recognizing which fit your business, which are worth trying and which won’t work in your world.

How do you do that?

• Examine your goals.
• Match your tactics to those goals.
• Focus on what matters first.
• Learn. Every step of the way.

For example, what happens to your business when your site goes down? Are you ready to keep going? Here’s what I learned from my own failure in that regard.

Tell us about a failure you learned from in the comments. Or drop me an email and we’ll add it here in the coming weeks.

You can’t afford to make mistakes in such a competitive environment. Your success relies on learning from others’ mistakes as much as their wins. And your own.

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Customers feed business. And we’re all hungry. In the Maslow Hierarchy of Business, customers trump product, service, capital and personnel. Which means we’re all looking for ways to find customers. Especially in these trying times. Business tough right now? Here’s a some good thoughts on what customers are looking for. And how you can use the Web to look for them. Read on, Big Thinkers.

• Jackie Huba at Church of the Customer blog leads off with a profile of one small business and their process for gaining repeat customers. Jackie’s also got a phenomenal interview with Rob Walker about what happens to your brand when customers get their hands on it. Best quote: “Consumers determine brand meaning whether anyone ‘allows’ them to or not. And they don’t need a special website to do it.”. Well worth the read. Getting customers comes with risks. Good. Get over it.
• One of those risks is that customers will expect more from you. Seth Godin offers two examples, one that asks whether small businesses have the right to whine about being small, the other addressing how companies use email to reach customers and how to do it better.
• Analytics can tell you lots about what your customers want. The fine folks at GrokDotCom picks up where we left off looking at bounce rate to set priorities and examines what your bounce rate is trying to tell you. And FOT Linda Bustos shares Get Elastic’s recent webinar with Avanish Kaushik, who looks at what your other metrics are trying to tell you, too.
• Jackie Huba’s partner Ben McConnell adds to the story, explaining why online WOM matters. Why? As Ben points out, “61% of respondents to a recent survey said they check review sites, blogs and other customer feedback forums before buying a new product or service.” Sounds like a good reason.

Enjoy, folks. See you here next week!

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The headlight on my wife’s car burnt out the other day. Instead of
taking it to the dealer - overpaying for a simple repair - I
decided to do it myself. One quick Google search later, and I learned
exactly how simple the repair is. It just takes a replacement bulb.
Cheap. Easy. Happy. Right? Not exactly.

A search for the part took me to an online auto parts store, a brand I’ve
never heard of. that’s OK. They get good ratings, have reasonable
prices, and the part is in stock. But what’s this?

(Note: This is just a representative display in order to protect the guilty)

Why do they show the same part with two radically different prices? Is
one higher quality? Will it last longer? Or is the higher priced item
simply a 10-pack? The site doesn’t tell me. Damn. What if I make a
mistake?

And that’s the key. Your customers don’t want to buy the wrong thing. They don’t want to deal with returns. They don’t want to hate the experience. They don’t want to feel stupid.

What do you do about it? You can act like Zappo’s and make the return
process painless, to ease the customer’s decision. Offer reviews.
Improve your copy. Provide click-to-call or chat to answer any questions that the customer might have. But every company, every site
must do something.

Or you can lose the sale. Just like those auto parts guys did.

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Ever have trouble getting people to, well, get it? Struggle communicating an idea? Dan Roam may have a solution for you. His new book, The Back of the Napkin, shows how anyone, using simple drawing tools, can deliver even the most complex or abstract messages in pictures, to anyone. And he delivers an engaging, well-presented view of how visuals help tell your story. Even if you (think you) can’t draw.

While the early chapters read a bit like testimonials (”I didn’t think I could do it!”), the book finds its stride in later chapters, where Roam demonstrates a simple framework for choosing the right kind of picture for needed data. Easily worth the price of admission right there. Fortunately, Roam admits as much, and encourages readers to skip ahead when they’re ready.

In a world cluttered with communication (or is that, “with cluttered communication”), Roam offers a simple solution. Clear, concise (you’ll read it in an evening or two), and coherent, Roam’s book will make a welcome addition to your business bookshelf.