If you’ve been following our Web Analytics Fundamentals series for the last week or so, you’ve learned some analytics basics, how to track traffic, the importance of segmentation, and easy ways to measure conversion.

Today we’re going to look at another big piece of the puzzle: evaluating what’s working on your site. Again, in keeping with the “quick ‘n’ dirty” focus of this series, we’re going to look at just one report. As ever, you can contact me if you’re interested in exploring this in more detail for your site.

What I’m about to show you is a piece of cake in Google Analytics, though you can easily accomplish the same thing using any tool.

First, pull up whichever report shows you the most visited pages on your site. In GA, that’s going to be under Content > Site Content &gt. Pages. Next change the View from Data to Comparison, as you can see in this screenshot:

Then, select Unique Pageviews and Bounce Rate from the drop-downs above the data to display a comparison of the most viewed pages and their bounce rate relative to your site average, like this:

As seen in the example, three of the six most visited pages on this site also have a bounce rate that’s higher than average. Follow our steps to fix your bounce rate on the pages that “light up” your comparison report and watch your business grow, simple as that.

Like this post? Don’t forget to check out the rest of our Web Analytics Fundamentals series here.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: analytics, continuous improvement, conversion, conversion rate, conversion rate optimization, e-commerce, ecommerce, Google, Google Analytics, how to measure anything, internet business, internet marketing, landing page design, landing page optimization, marketing, marketing best practices, measurement, metrics, Omniture SiteCatalyst, page design, performance, testing, Webtrends

Related posts:

1. Semi-Deep Thoughts on Measuring Conversion: Web Analytics Fundamentals Wrapping up the Measuring Conversion portion of our Web Analytics...
2. Tracking Conversion: Web Analytics Fundamentals The Web Analytics Fundamentals series looks into conversion rates....
3. Measuring Traffic: Web Analytics Fundamentals How much traffic is your site getting? And is it...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve covered conversion rate in a competitive context in the past, but today I want to look at conversion on your site in more detail.

First, whenever you’re talking about conversion rate, you need to talk about what defines “conversion” for your business. As this series focuses solely on the most important metrics to determine how well your site and business perform, we’re only interested in conversion metrics that lead directly to—or themselves represent—meaningful business results.

Here are some examples from clients I’ve worked with:

• Hotels: Reservations
• Retail: Online sales
• Restaurants: Reservations
• Loyalty programs: Account sign-ups
• Financial services: Accounts opened
• Training services: Courses enrolled, courses completed
• Franchisors: Leads
• Wholesalers: Orders
• Real estate: Leads

Configuring your specific analytics tool to track conversions is outside the scope of this post, other than to say it usually entails placing a “tag” (a small piece of Javascript code) on each web page in the transaction path. Sometimes IT requirements make that a little more onerous than it sounds. But, to be fair, your CEO usually holds those IT folks accountable for ensuring that transaction path stays up and running 24/7/365, so work with them. You’re all on the same team. If you need help getting your analytics configured, drop us a line.

In some cases, your existing shopping cart/booking engine/lead system/what-have-you won’t let you modify the analytics code to track conversions. In those cases, you can usually pass parameters through the transactions via a hidden field or some other such mechanism. Again, if you need help, contact me and let me know.

Once you’re tracking meaningful conversions, it’s usually easy to pull a report that shows you how many you’ve received over a given period. For instance, this is what it looks like in Google Analytics (we’re looking at a nine-week period):

As ever, we’re looking for anomalies, which makes that dip in the middle (around week 4)—or the spikes surrounding it—curious.

And this is where the segmentation we looked at yesterday offers so much value.

Our traffic segment report shows that we had a drop in referral and natural search traffic beginning in week 4 when sales dropped off:

Now, wouldn’t it be great if you could view your conversions the same way?

Actually, you can. Most tools allow for segmenting conversions the same as traffic (in particular, this is an area where Google Analytics really shines):

It’s clear by looking at the data that organic search and direct traffic provided the bulk of the conversions prior to week 4, but only organic search picked up again in week 8. As with the discussion yesterday, this level of data offers both insights and opportunities for improvement. Did the company end any off-site or other offline marketing during the same period as the decline? Did they change their email marketing pattern? Could we use paid media to offset the decline in direct conversions? Again, we’re looking for anomalies and using those to drive business decisions.

Another point worth mentioning is how segmentation aids our understanding of what’s going on with the site. Without segmentation, we see that there were roughly 8,700 visits and 154 transactions resulting in a 1.77% “conversion” rate. But, in reality, this is what conversion actually looked like:

Armed with this data, we’re immediately able to create action plans around each of these areas to drive increased traffic, increased sales, or both. It’s important to note that looking at data at this level also ignores multi-channel attribution.

But, the point isn’t to answer every question. It’s to get enough information to start making positive business decisions. Notice how quickly we’re able to make some decisions once we’ve got some trended, segmented traffic and sales data. In the spirit of fairness, I’ll take a look tomorrow at some of the nuances of conversion data worth thinking about. In the meantime, check out the rest of the Web Analytics Fundamentals series and start digging into your data. I guarantee that with only this level of information you can start making some seriously positive changes in your online marketing and e-commerce efforts.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: analytics, attribution, attribution modeling, Avinash Kaushik, conversion, conversion rate, conversion rate optimization, E-commerce, e-commerce, Google Analytics, how to measure anything, integrated marketing, internet business, internet marketing, marketing, marketing best practices, measurement, metrics, Omniture SiteCatalyst, online marketing, performance, ppc, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, Webtrends

Related posts:

1. Measuring Traffic: Web Analytics Fundamentals How much traffic is your site getting? And is it...
2. Measuring Traffic Segments: Web Analytics Fundamentals Measuring traffic segments continues the Tim Peter Thinks look at...
3. Web Analytics Fundamentals How can you make your web analytics work for your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Last time, we took a look at measuring website traffic. Today, we’re going to look at where that traffic comes from.

As mentioned in our 7 web keys for successful web metrics, segmenting traffic allows you to quickly identify where your traffic comes from and, ideally, which traffic provides the greatest value to your business. Happily, looking at traffic segments in most tools is pretty straightforward affair.

Traffic comes to your site from one of three places:

1. Direct navigation. These folks typed your website address directly into their browser, had your site bookmarked or (in some cases), followed a link from within an email.
2. Search engines. These customers found you in a search result. Just about every tool on the market can further divide this into paid search (i.e., PPC marketing) and natural search (SEO).
3. Referred. These folks clicked on a link on another site (other than a search engine) that points to yours. Much like search, these often break down into paid referrals (think banner ads) and natural or “earned” links. A customer linking to your site on Twitter is a referral as is the banner ad you bought. Understanding which one drove traffic, though, can tell you much more about what’s working and what isn’t among your marketing.

Additional valuable segments to watch include customers responding to emails, new visitors vs. repeats, and loyal customers vs. non-loyal (i.e., those enrolled in your loyalty program, if you have one).

For these segments, note where the bulk of your traffic comes from. From a marketing perspective, that’s where you’re going to want to focus first. As with measuring your overall traffic, you’re looking for anomalies, big changes, things that stick out.

For instance, in the following graph, search represents the lion’s share of traffic—and almost 100% of the growth in traffic—to the selected site. The marketing team for this site should look more closely at what’s driving that growth, while also looking at ways to increase direct and referred traffic:

One caveat to keep in mind: the bulk of your sales may actually come from a lower traffic segment. In fact, it’s fairly common. Don’t worry, though, we’ll explore that in more detail when we start looking at conversions.

And, of course, as you drill down further into each of these segments, look at which sites drive your referred traffic and which keywords drive paid/natural search.

Once you’ve looked at traffic in the aggregate and by segment, it’s likely you’ll already start to think of ideas for how to grow that traffic. Which is the real point of any analytics exercise: to create actionable insights.

Find a paid keyword that’s producing a load of traffic? See if you can allocate more budget to it. Discover a referrer that’s driving serious demand? Contact their team about deepening the relationship. Realize that most of your traffic comes from a single source, as in the example? Look for ways to diversify your marketing. And so on.

Web analytics needn’t be difficult. Analytics exist to help you understand what’s going on with your customers, your website and your business. Notice that only looking at some high-level metrics offers you a wealth of opportunities to increase your revenues. Your goal isn’t to spend your life inside your analytics tool. It’s to gain enough information to make a reasonable business decision about areas of focus.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at conversion rate, what it really means for your business and some surprising truths that you may not know. In the meantime, check out the entire Web Analytics Fundamentals series here.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: analytics, E-commerce, e-commerce, E-commerce strategy, Google Analytics, internet marketing, measurement, metrics, online marketing

Related posts:

1. Measuring Traffic: Web Analytics Fundamentals How much traffic is your site getting? And is it...
2. Web Analytics Fundamentals How can you make your web analytics work for your...
3. What Your Online Marketing Dashboard Should Look Like How well are you tracking your online marketing and e-commerce...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It seems everyone’s looking for simple, inexpensive solutions for hosting their websites. Happily loads of tools exist to help you get a site up quickly. While I’ve provided in-depth comparisons of many of these tools in the past—as well as explored available options in our small business blogging guide—here is a quick summary of eight quality offerings.

Weebly

One of the long-time leaders in the space, Weebly has continued to enhance their offering since I last reviewed them.

Pros:

• Excellent blogging tool
• Very easy to use
• Free domain hosting if you own your domain (which you should)
• Strong support
• Inexpensive

Cons:

• Limited e-commerce options
• Only ad-free in the paid versions (though, again, those options are fairly inexpensive)

Cost: Free as long as you’re OK with advertisements (you shouldn’t do this, though). Paid versions start at $3.99/month. Domains are expensive through Weebly, so buy your domain elsewhere and direct it to your Weebly site instead.

Squarespace

Another strong offering that continues to grow in features and functionality. I reviewed Squarespace last year and they continue to impress.

Pros:

• Powerful
• Very flexible (especially if you have CSS development chops)
• Unlimited bandwidth at higher plan options
• Excellent customer support (arguably the best in the business)

Cons:

• Expensive relative to other options

Cost: Starts at $12/month.

Jimdo

Jimdo continues to challenge Weebly and Squarespace for top billing. While not as powerful as Squarespace, Jimdo offers loads of options at a reasonable price. Well worth checking out.

Pros:

• Powerful, even at the free levels
• Loads of third-party widgets
• Surprisingly strong e-commerce support
• Highly customizable at paid levels
• Lots of language options

Cons:

• Blogging platform not as strong as others
• SEO editing capabilities limited relative to competition
• Domain hosting requires paid versions

Cost: Free. Starts at $5/month ad-free with domain hosting.

Yola

Formerly known as SynthSite, Yola provides an excellent site editing tool and decent features, but is expensive relative to others for what you get.

Pros:

• Easy to use editor. It’s not the most intuitive, but isn’t hard to use once you gain some familiarity with it.
• Lots of third-party widget options
• Very good customer support

Cons:

• Relatively expensive compared to the other options
• Limited customization options
• Only allows Google Analytics integration at the highest paid level
• Poor built-in analytics

Cost: Free. $9.95/month to remove Yola advertising and add Google Analytics for your site (which you’ll definitely want to do).

SiteKreator

SiteKreator takes a slightly different approach than many of the others in this round-up. While they offer self-maintained sites like the others here, they also offer a “Deluxe” package where their designers will build a completely custom site for your business. I can’t recommend their “self-managed” solutions (most others here offer more power for less money), but if you need a custom site, their Deluxe offering is worth a look.

Pros:

• Loads of flexibility at highest paid level

Cons:

• Expensive

Cost: Starts at $19.95/month for self-created websites. $79.95/month + a one-time $500 setup fee for a custom SiteKreator-built site.

Homestead

This offering from Intuit plays on its parent’s relationship with small business owners but doesn’t offer the bang for the buck of its competition. You’re almost certainly better served with other options, even for e-commerce. So, why include it? If you plan on doing heavy e-commerce volume, Homestead’s customer support and credit card processing features make it worth a look.

Pros:

• Decent e-commerce capabilities at highest paid level
• Strong customer support

Cons:

• Expensive
• Blogging tool is a hassle to work with
• SEO capabilities could be better at lower-price level

Cost: Starts at $4.95/month. $19.95/month for blogging, e-commerce and custom domain options (which, again, you likely should choose).

Tumblr

Seriously? Tumblr? Yes, Tumblr. While it’s much more a blogging tool than a full-fledged content management system (CMS), building a simple site on Tumblr is fast, easy and fun. And its social tools can help drive traffic and interest in your site. While it’s not for everyone, for the simplest sites, Tumblr may be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Pros:

• Incredibly simple site builder
• Free
• Surprisingly robust, especially if you’re comfortable with CSS
• Loads of templates to choose from, with lots of customization option. “Premium” templates are inexpensive
• Excellent mobile options
• Built-in social integration

Cons:

• Limited support apart from the Tumblr community
• Setting up your own domain requires you to manage A name records at your domain host (this page is the entirety of Tumblr’s support for the process)
• Not a full-fledged content management system

Cost: Free. Truly. You’ll have to buy your own domain elsewhere, but free unless you choose to purchase a “premium” template.

Wordpress

I’ve long been a fan of Wordpress. Despite its origins as a blogging platform, Wordpress has grown into a fairly robust CMS in its own right. While not a great option for e-commerce applications (you’ll need a separate, third-party option for that), for many small business sites, Wordpress offers exactly the right features at a reasonable cost.

Pros:

• Great content editor and world-class standard blogging platform
• Excellent community
• Fully customizable (for an additional fee)
• Terrific SEO capabilities
• Tons of plug-ins and widgets
• Ability to move to your own host if necessary
• Inexpensive

Cons:

• Support options are not as good as other paid choices (though, as noted, Wordpress has an excellent community around it)
• Setting up your own domain requires you to manage A name records at your domain host (this page is the entirety of Tumblr’s support for the process)

Cost: Free. Starts at $41.97/year to remove ads and add your own domain (effectively $3.50/month). Custom designs cost $30/year.

Conclusion

Any of the options discussed above will help you get a quality website online quickly and easily. And with prices ranging from a couple bucks per year to a couple hundred, none will bust your budget. Obviously, your specific needs will determine which offering works best for your business. But, if you don’t have a website, the options presented above demonstrate why that shouldn’t be true any longer. Take a look and start engaging with your customers online today.

Disclosures: I am an affiliate of eBay ProStores, Amazon, Dreamhost, the Thesis theme platform and (as of October, 2011), Squarespace but received no compensation for writing this post from anyone. While I recommend Squarespace for those that need its power and flexibility, it’s not right for everyone. I also recommend you look at other, lower-priced options to determine whether Squarespace is right for your business.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, homestead, hosting, hosting solutions, jimdo, sitekreator, small business blogging, solutions, squarespace, Squarespace hosting, synthasite, Tumblr, web hosting, weebly, wordpress.com, yola

Related posts:

1. Build a better blog: 7 tips from top marketers (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – January 13, 2012) You need a better blog to build better customer relationships....
2. More mobile memes (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – March 25, 2011) Since I’ve spent much of the week mulling over the...
3. Social and search and… steaks? (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – June 3, 2011) Social begets search which often begets social. And what does...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A lack of skills, focus or (heaven forbid), talent, can doom the best marketing strategy before it ever gets off the ground. But, more often than not, the problem isn’t with the team. It’s with management. According to US News and World Report, “Even in this economy, between 1.5 million and 2 million people quit their jobs each month.” And the top reasons people quit their jobs relate to management and culture.

Does your company measure up? The simplest question you can ask your team—ensuring their anonymity, of course—is whether they’d let their friends work for you. If your customers said they wouldn’t recommend your business to their friends, you’d sit up and take notice, right? Why not do the same with your employees?

Finding the right people and then keeping those people happy, focused and secure separates the companies winning the race from the ones that fall by the wayside.

If your team lacks skills, it’s your responsibility to get them the training needed to succeed. If your team lacks focus, it’s your job to inspire them. And if they lack the desire to gain the skills and focus, well… dude, you hired ‘em. Something must have attracted you to them in the first place. Find that and draw it out again[*]. I once knew a manager who complained about every person on his team, even those he’d professed to love when they first joined his team. After hearing this story repeatedly, I figured he either a.) didn’t know how to hire or b.) didn’t know how to manage.

It’s easy to assume that employees will work for you, no matter what. It’s also BS. Yes, the economy—especially on the employment front—sucks. But people want to feel valued and to work on things that matter. I’d mentioned that you’ve got to have your team in order when looking at the 5 steps for online marketing success in 2012 over on the Biznology blog a few days ago. If your employees wouldn’t want their friends to work for you, it’s not the team that’s out of order. It’s you.

Footnote: Of course, you may be better off finding folks who actually are engaged and passionate to learn/work. But, unless you’re like a former Governor, you probably don’t like firing people. The decision whether to retain or part ways with an employee is one of the hardest any manager ever faces. My advice—unless you’ve long since determined the person isn’t going to work out—is “teach, teach, term.” Make sure you’re providing the employee the opportunity to improve. Again, you hired the individual. Try and rekindle whatever it was that sold you on the person first before deciding to move in a new direction.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: leaders, leadership, marketing, marketing best practices, teamwork

Related posts:

1. What Makes Social Work? Does social work where you work? If not, here's one...
2. 5 Steps to Online Marketing Success in 2012 | Biznology Do you know the right steps to ensure success in...
3. Can You Market Test Your Time and Money? Testing how well you're spending your time and money matters,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Well, it’s that time of year again, where we recap the most popular posts here on the old blog. Since we looked at the most popular posts during the first half of the year, here’s the second half:

• One of the biggest stories in 2011 was the launch of Google+. And while recent events seem to suggest Google’s putting all its eggs into the Google+ basket, its early stumbles led me to ask “Is Google+ dead, or what?”
• Another very popular post was my list of the The 2011 E-commerce and Online Marketing All-Stars.
• Obviously, I’m a big fan of analytics. It seems you are, too. My post about “What Your Online Marketing Dashboard Should Look Like” was among the Top 3 posts of last year.
• While it came late in the year, loads of you liked my look at “Subdomains vs. Subdirectories For SEO”.
• Finally, the data suggests you’ll never go wrong blogging about Google. That’s probably why you all liked “Google Removes Marketers Access to Valuable Data but Doesn’t Protect Privacy: Have They Lost Their Mind?”

Thanks again for all your support in the last year, Big Thinkers. I’m looking forward to keeping the dialogue going here in 2012!

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: analytics, blogging, blogs, E-commerce, E-commerce strategy, Google, google, Google Analytics, Google Plus, Google+, Google+ Pages, marketing, marketing best practices, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo

Related posts:

1. The 2011 E-Commerce and Online Marketing All Stars: The Top 9 E-commerce and Online Marketing Blogs It's awards season here at Thinks. And we've got your...
2. Is small business blogging still relevant in 2011? What's the point of a small business blog in 2011?...
3. 6+ Tips for Social, Search and Social Search Success (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – May 5, 2011) Search and social provide search marketers a match made in...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Getting customers to care about your business often depends upon the quality of your content. And I know of few better ways to build a committed community of customers than with a great blog. In fact, my guide on how to build your small business blog remains one of the most popular parts of this site.

But what if you want more? What if you’re ready to move past the basics? Over the coming weeks, I’m going to look at building a better blog in more detail. But to get you started, check out these 7 tips for improving your content—and improving your marketing:

1. Leading off, HubSpot shows 11 ways to use content to build your authority online.
2. Writing can be hard. Thankfully, ProBlogger suggests 10 David Ogilvy quotes to inspire your blogging.
3. OpenForum has a great piece on 5 simple ways to get more traffic to your website. Spoiler alert: great content factors into heavily in the mix.
4. Mashable offers 5 steps for creating “magnetic” content.
5. CopyBlogger looks into the 2nd most important element in your writing.
6. Getting people to read your content is only half the battle. Which is why I love this ProBlogger piece on what motivates readers to share.
7. And, finally, Social Media Examiner has a terrific video that explains how to use content marketing to increase your sales.

Enjoy the list, Big Thinkers. And look forward to more in the coming days.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, content, content marketing, content strategy, integrated marketing, internet marketing, marketing, marketing best practices, online brand building, online marketing

Related posts:

1. Web marketing is more integrated than you think (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – October 7, 2011) Interested in integrated marketing on the web. We are too....
2. Guest Post: The Benefits of Guest Posts For Your Small Business Blog by Carol Wilson Guest poster Carol Wilson explores the benefits of guest posts...
3. These Go to 11: 6 “Marketing 101″ Tips to Take Your Business Further (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – November 11, 2011) Need some Marketing 101 tips and tricks? Our weekly roundup...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Is it better to be lucky or good? Why can’t you be both? After all, luck favors the prepared, right? Which is why, as you hit the ground running here in 2012, it’s important you’ve prepared in all the right ways. How you can do that is the subject of my latest post for Mike Moran’s Biznology blog: “5 Steps to Online Marketing Success in 2012.”

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: integrated marketing, internet marketing, marketing, marketing best practices, online brand building, online marketing, strategy, success

Related posts:

1. What’s the Big Question for Online Marketing Success? My latest post for Mike Moran's Biznology blog looks at...
2. Biznology: Whose brand does Google want to build? Google has built a lot of brands over the last...
3. Countdown to Marketing Success Want to learn how to improve your marketing from the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google introduced its latest “Think Quarterly” online magazine today, this time focused on speed. But why does speed matter in marketing?

Adaptability

The most basic reason speed matters? Adaptability. Change happens every day. And those changes occur increasingly rapidly. With the volume of change, it’s almost impossible to predict where the world will be 5 days from now, let alone five years. But what you can do is adapt quickly to the world around you.

“Fast mover” vs. “First mover”

Most people forget that Apple didn’t create the first MP3 player. Or the first mobile phone. Or the first tablet computer. And Amazon wasn’t the first online retailer. Or the first provider of cloud computing services. Or offer the first e-book reader. And yet each has staked dominant positions in their respective markets.

Why?

Because they learned from the people who came before them, introduced clear improvements on the existing products, then continually innovated to maintain their market leadership. Their efforts haven’t always succeeded (see Apple’s Newton or Amazon’s auctions platform—on second thought, don’t). But they’ve learned from their mistakes and moved forward. Quickly.

SEO and customer benefits of speed

Of course, so far we’ve only looked at the pace of product and service innovation. But at least two other places exist where speed matters, especially in terms of SEO and customer experience:

1. Your web platform
2. Your content process

Platform

Google values fast websites. Increasingly, Google’s algorithm factors speed into the equation when determining who gets that vaunted top search result.

But more than that, your customers care, too. Imagine you’re looking for a phone number or address when searching from your mobile phone (actually, this is one of the key reasons Google cares about speed so much). 4G may provide reasonably fast service, but bloated, clunky websites that take a while to appear on a desktop computer become downright glacial on mobile devices.

Customers and search engines simply aren’t going to wait for your page to load. They’re going to click to the site that answers their question quickly and readily.

Content

Customers have too much on their plate to wait for answers to their questions. We’ve frequently seen companies waiting to address customer complaints—and by doing so, failing to do so effectively.

By contrast, companies that act quickly in response to customer concerns often gain from those actions. Waiting to say what’s on your mind (or address what’s on your customer’s mind), risks missing the moment.

Plus, of course, our old friend Google also values frequently updated content. So a content process that isn’t built to support regular and rapid updates isn’t much of a content process.

Speed matters

My very good friend Mike Moran is fond of saying “do it wrong quickly.” In fact, he’s been saying it for over 5 years (the man is both fast and ahead of his time). Don’t wait until 2013 to catch up. Make “value speed” one of your New Year’s Resolutions right now and get ready to leave your competitors behind.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: strategy, success

Related posts:

1. Is it crazy to do what you love? Do what you love? In this economy? Are you nuts?...
2. Top E-commerce Errors: No website The cardinal sin of e-commerce: not having a website....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Yesterday, we took a long, long, long, long… (you get the idea), look at the pros and cons of subdomains and subdirectories for SEO. But, I glossed over the benefits and disadvantages to brands of the different options. Let’s take a look, shall we?

SEO, Branding and URL Choices

Branding is a funny thing, in some ways more art than science (though, you can easily argue the same about SEO, too). While there are more formal definitions, I usually think about brands as representing the sum of every interaction your customers have with you:

So, by definition, SEO plays a role in branding. If a customer looks for you on a search engine and can’t find you, that hurts both your business today (transactions) and your business tomorrow (brand). Ever hear someone say, “I looked for them on Google but couldn’t find them”? Experiences like that subtract from the overall experience customers have with you and diminish your brand.

Of course, your customers have to search for you in the first place before that experience can contribute to—or detract from—their brand experience. Yesterday, we listed the various types of URLs you can use for your business’s blog. In the interest of your time (and sanity), I’m not going to recap the differences (see the original post for more details), but list the types for your reference:

1. www.YourBrand.com/YourBlog
2. YourBlog.YourBrand.com
3. YourBlog.SomeoneElsesBrand.com
4. www.YourBLOG.com

I particularly like #1 from an SEO and ease of management perspective. As it happens, I also think it’s the right one from a branding perspective in most cases. Here’s why.

In the excellent book “Kellog on Branding,” the authors list three challenges anyone building a brand faces:

1. Cash
2. Consistency
3. Clutter

In other words, do you have the cash to get your message in front of every customer you want? …employees and partners who convey your message the same way every time? …a special way to be heard among the mess of messages in the marketplace?

So, ignoring SEO considerations for a moment, which of the four URL choices above works best from a cash, consistency, and clutter perspective?

Usually, it’s #1.

You’re already working to build your company’s brand. Your existing customers already know how to find you online. You’ve probably got the URL on every piece of collateral material (and if you don’t, just tell me you do for now, then go fix that). What benefit is there in giving your customers yet another place to try and find you?

That’s not to say I’ve never built a specific campaign using URL’s like those in #2, #3, and #4. It’s that when I’ve done it, it’s been with a very specific understanding of how to address the cash, consistency and clutter challenges. Since I believe that URLs should live forever, these usually aren’t short-term decisions. #1 isn’t a perfect choice for every single instance. But it’s rarely a bad choice for most situations. If you’re leaning towards one of the other options, just be sure and think through the implications of your choice for the long term. Which, really, is what brand building is all about.

Also, remember that you can use multiple domains (and domain types) to point to the same content, either as a tracking mechanism or to target specific customer segments so long as you use a 301 redirect. For example, I do this with the blog, using both timpeter.com/blog and thinksblog.com to direct traffic here.

Conclusion

As important as choosing the right URL is from an SEO and branding standpoint, none of these choices will provide you significant benefit if you lack quality content and your fair share of inbound links. Domains are only one (important) part of your SEO and branding picture.

But they’re not the whole picture.

When in doubt, pick the one that you can support most readily (cash and consistency) and that doesn’t confuse your customer (clutter). Then put your focus on building quality content and driving links to it. That will do at least as much in improving your SEO and improving your customer’s experience. When it all comes together, that’s what builds your brand.

URL Selection Note: Some services—usually social sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Flickr, and Slideshare—can help you build your brand and require using their URL with your brand and/or a generic identifier appended to it. Obviously, if the service helps you meet the needs of your customers and doesn’t offer you a better URL option, then go with their URL scheme. My rule of thumb is always optimize for customers first, search engines second. There’s also an argument that having your brand appear on multiple sites as either a subdomain or subdirectory can help you dominate the search results page for your brand. It’s a great idea and worth exploring if you’ve got the bandwidth to support it. But put the focus first on what helps your customers.

Technorati Tags: brand building, branding, domain hosting, domain selection, hosting, hosting solutions, online brand building, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, strategy, URL

Related posts:

1. Subdomains vs. subdirectories for SEO Should you use a subdomain or a subdirectory to get...
2. Web marketing is more integrated than you think (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – October 7, 2011) Interested in integrated marketing on the web. We are too....
3. Searching for Search Success? 5 Great Search Marketing Articles to Point the Way Search marketing continues to be the most important online marketing...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.