Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Is anybody actually visiting my website?
That's a question that a lot of people ask themselves. After slaving away to keep their sites polished and updated, business owners want to be able to see whether their site is actually working for them.
So what's the best way to do this? Look at your analytics.
Through Google analytics, you can find out not only whether your site is getting visited, but a boatload of details about who is visiting it and what they're doing there. It's kind of like 24:7 video surveillance on a store - except it's on a website.
In some ways, Google analytics are even better than constant video footage would be. For example, you get to find out how visitors ended up at your site. In other words, what did people type into Google that made your site pop up? That's really important information from a search engine optimization standpoint, so that's an awesome feature of Google analytics.
You can also use Google analytics to determine your site's bounce rate. A bounce rate basically shows whether people who visited the site peaced out right away or spent some time clicking around to different pages. Your goal is to have a site with a low bounce rate, which would indicate that your home page is enticing people to delve deeper into your site.
And that info is just the beginning. Do you want to know the average time your visitors spend on your site? Do you want a map of what areas of the world your visitors live in? Are you interested in how many new visitors vs. how many returning visitors? Do you want to compare your traffic from one day to the next? Google can hook you up with all of this information, and more.
Of course, the benefit of a store's video surveillance system is that it can be used to see people's faces (well, at least a grainy version of them). So while you can actually see who visits a brick and mortar store through its video security system, you cannot see a picture of exactly who visited your website through Google analytics...
...yet.
Showing posts with label visitor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visitor. Show all posts
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Web Design - Home Pages That Sell
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
A web design has a lot of jobs, and one of the most important jobs is to make you some dough. Your chances of making this happen increase when a web design gets people delving further into the site, arriving at points where they can input their contact information, get a quote, or buy something. We talked a little about this before in previous articles
That means that in order for a design to work, your homepage has to hook your visitors.
If you don't get your visitors involved right away, you may lose them, so you need to get them clicking deeper into your site. You do this by focusing on their pain points, and then giving them the first step to a solution right on the homepage.
The problem they have, of course, will depend on the goods and services that you're selling. But the idea is to reveal a pain point for the visitor that will make him think, "Yes, that's exactly how I feel!"
For example, if your business involves fixing cars, you could include copy that reads, "Are you sure that your car will keep your family safe as you drive this winter?" Copy like that makes the website visitor stop and think, Wait, is my car safe for winter? I think so, but I'm not a professional...Should I get it checked out?
Since people are bombarded with advertising messages like that, however, you do have to get your visitor to act right away before they move on to the next dilemma. This can be accomplished by pairing this compelling copy with a call to action button that gets the person involved in addressing this problem immediately. Keeping with the car example, something like, "Click here for information on our FREE 12-point winter car inspection" would work well. Now that you've raised the issue, you've given the web surfer a way to start the process of solving the problem.
Take a little gander at your homepage. Have you reminded casual visitors that they have a problem that you know how to solve? Have you given them an easy way to get started with that process?
A web design has a lot of jobs, and one of the most important jobs is to make you some dough. Your chances of making this happen increase when a web design gets people delving further into the site, arriving at points where they can input their contact information, get a quote, or buy something. We talked a little about this before in previous articles
That means that in order for a design to work, your homepage has to hook your visitors.
Here's How to Help Your Homepage Hook
If you don't get your visitors involved right away, you may lose them, so you need to get them clicking deeper into your site. You do this by focusing on their pain points, and then giving them the first step to a solution right on the homepage.
The problem they have, of course, will depend on the goods and services that you're selling. But the idea is to reveal a pain point for the visitor that will make him think, "Yes, that's exactly how I feel!"
For example, if your business involves fixing cars, you could include copy that reads, "Are you sure that your car will keep your family safe as you drive this winter?" Copy like that makes the website visitor stop and think, Wait, is my car safe for winter? I think so, but I'm not a professional...Should I get it checked out?
Since people are bombarded with advertising messages like that, however, you do have to get your visitor to act right away before they move on to the next dilemma. This can be accomplished by pairing this compelling copy with a call to action button that gets the person involved in addressing this problem immediately. Keeping with the car example, something like, "Click here for information on our FREE 12-point winter car inspection" would work well. Now that you've raised the issue, you've given the web surfer a way to start the process of solving the problem.
Take a little gander at your homepage. Have you reminded casual visitors that they have a problem that you know how to solve? Have you given them an easy way to get started with that process?
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