How to use Google Analytics to Drive more Traffic to Your Website

There are probably thousands of articles on the web talking about Google Analytics, such as how to use the free reporting tool, how to set up Google Analytics for your website, and what Google Analytics reports you can take advantage of. This is all great information, especially for novice website designers. What I think is missing is the most critical piece of information, which is “How do I analyze these Google Analytics reports in order to actually make impactful changes to my website?” In this article we are going to answer that question, as well as, provide you with some examples of taking certain data from Google Analytics, analyzing it, and then using it to make changes to your website and/or website marketing.

Analyze Your Website on a Quarterly Basis

Tools like Google Analytics allow you to check your website traffic data as frequently as you’d like. I definitely recommend keeping an eye on your Google Analytics reports daily or weekly. With that said, we all know that checking your reports and actually taking time to analyze them are two different tasks. This is why I recommend that every website owner take a full day each quarter to analyze their reports and implement any needed changes to their website based on what the data is showing.

It’s easy to get lost in Google Analytics. There is SO much data that you can analyze. Not only is there a ton of data, but the ways in which you can slice it up seem almost endless. Every website owner is going to have different reports to focus on, but there are a few main data points that all website owners should be aware of during their quarterly reviews:

Traffic Sources – Keywords: Knowing which keywords are driving the most quality visitors to your website is crucial. You can begin optimizing more of your website around these keywords in order to capitalize on those searches.
Traffic Sources – Referring Sites: Understanding which websites are sending the most quality traffic to your website will allow you to focus more effort and time on those sites, and less of your time on under performing websites, moving forward.
Visitors Overview: How much of your website traffic is new visitors versus returning visitors? Knowing this might help you phrase content different or run certain marketing programs geared towards one type of visitor versus the other.
Content Overview – Top Pages: Having an idea of what pages are performing best will tell you what content your visitors are interested in. Produce more of that!
Visits: What days do you have the most traffic to your website? Knowing what days visitors are coming to your website allows you to publish new content or launch promotions on those days in order to capture the most attention.

Now that we have an understanding of some of the most important reports to analyze for your website, let’s dig into each of them to provide examples on how you can use the data to make real impactful changes to your website and website marketing.

Use Keyword Reports to Optimize Your Website

Knowing which keywords to optimize your website with is crucial in attracting the right visitors. Here’s how you can utilize the Keyword reports in Google Analytics:

• Go into the Traffic Sources Overview section of Google Analytics
• Find your Top ten performing keywords and make a list of those keywords
• Go back through your website and begin infusing them into your website content
• Use them as anchor text for your URLs
• Name your images with your top ten keywords
• Add title tags and Alt tags to your images using your top ten keywords
• Create a list of new blog topics that you want to write about and be sure to infuse your top ten keywords into those articles

By analyzing your Traffic Sources – Keywords report and following the steps above you will significantly increase your website traffic for those specific keywords.

Once you have completed this first main Keyword optimization during your Quarterly review, go BACK through your Keyword report and sort the results by Average Time on Site. Find five keywords that might not be driving a lot of traffic to your website right now, but the traffic that is coming to your site from those keywords tends to spend a lot of time on your site. These are your “growth keywords”. Repeat the steps above using these keywords to see if with a little more use throughout your website they can produce more traffic.

Spend more Time on the Websites that Refer the most Traffic to Your Website

Knowing which websites (or social media channels) around the web that are referring the most traffic to your website is critical. As a website owner you only have so much time in the day to market your site. It’s best to use that time wisely. Follow these steps in order to analyze your traffic sources and make impactful changes to your website marketing:

• Go into your Traffic Sources report within Google Analytics and review the Top Referring Sites data
• Ask yourself, are these the websites that I assumed would be near the top? Are these the websites I’m spending the most time using in order to drive traffic to my website?
• Start trying to figure out why some sites are near the top of this list, while others are near the bottom. Perhaps one of the websites near the top is a site that you recently wrote a guest blog article for. Contact the owner of that site and see if you can write another article for them.
• Is LinkedIn outperforming Facebook? If so, you may want to tweak the amount of time you spend on both social media sites, with more time being devoted to LinkedIn next quarter instead of Facebook. This strategy can be repeated for all social media sites that you use.
• Is Banner Ad ‘A’ outperforming Banner Ad ‘B’? If so, perhaps you want to cancel Banner Ad ‘B’ and ask for more space on the website that’s hosting Banner Ad ‘A’.
• Is there a website that you don’t recognize that’s currently sending a lot of traffic to your website? Reach out to the owner of that website and see if you can partner with them in some way in order to capitalize even more on all of the traffic they are sending your way.

Using the Referral Sources report in Google Analytics will help you become more efficient with your marketing time and more effective at driving traffic to your website.

Run a Contest for New Visitors, Say ‘Thank You’ to Returning Visitors

Analyzing your Visitor Profile through the Visitors Overview report in Google Analytics will let you know how much of your traffic is composed of ‘New Visitors’ and how much of your traffic is composed of ‘Repeat Visitors’. You want to encourage new visitors to become return visitors, as well as, continue to attract even more new visitors. Here are a few ways that you can take your data from the Visitors Overview report and actually use it to improve your website:

• Post some sort of a ’Thank You’ message somewhere prominent on your website for returning visitors OR send out the periodic ‘Thank You’ email to your email list just letting your supporters know you appreciate them.
• Do you have an e-Commerce website? Give repeat customers a discount on their next purchase.
• Create a ‘FAQ’ page to help new visitors quickly understand your website and how to use it.
• Make the ‘Contact Us’ page as prevalent as possible in case new visitors have questions and need to contact you.
• Create a survey for returning customers to capture information that you think will help you provide more value to them in the future.
• Run a contest to encourage new customers to get engaged with your website/brand.

Produce More of the Content Your Visitors Like

Understanding what content is resonating with your visitors will help you come up with new content topics for the next quarter.

Go into the Content Overview section of Google Analytics and navigate to the Top Pages report
Find the top 5-6 pages visited over the past 3-6 months
Think about what information is displayed on each of those pages and determine what information the majority of your visitors are looking for
Develop a Content Plan for the next quarter, comprised of topics that you think are most relevant based on your findings above. A few ideas might be:

• Write blog articles around popular topics
• Focus social media efforts in promoting those top pages or discussing those top topics
• Write an eBook expanding on some of those topics that your visitors are finding valuable
• Shoot YouTube videos around those topics and embed them into your Top Pages

Producing more of the content that your visitors are finding valuable will keep them coming back, get them to share your website with their friends, and attract new visitors.

Publish New Content, Contests, and General Website Updates on High Traffic Days

Are the weekends a popular time for your website or do most people visit your website during the week? Knowing what days are high traffic days for your website and what days are low traffic days for your website allows you to be much more strategic in regards to publishing new updates to your website. By analyzing the Visits report in Google Analytics you can see which days seem to generate the most traffic. Make a list of your high traffic days and then start taking advantage of those high traffic days in the following ways:

• Publish blog articles on those days
• Begin and end contests on high traffic days
• Spend time on social media during those days
• Publish events to your website
• Make architecture or functionality updates on low traffic days

Knowing when, and when not to, publish new information to your website can drastically alter the number of views your new updates receive. Be smart about when you publish new content, news, events, etc. Use the Visits report in Google Analytics as your guide.

Turn Google Analytics Reports Into Impactful Changes for Your Website

Google Analytics is great. The website data provided by Google Analytics can help website owners learn a ton about their website. With that said, unless website owners take time to review and analyze their reports on a regular basis, and then take time to use that data to make changes to their website, they are missing out on the biggest advantage that Google Analytics provides. Google Analytics provides you with a blueprint for giving your visitors what they want, when they want it. Be sure to take advantage of that.

Source:http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/google-analytics-drive-traffic/

Put Your Customers First

No doubt you've wrestled with products that are impossible to pry open, electronic device tags that can’t be removed with anything short of napalm, and clothing labels that are so scratchy they result in bodily harm.
Why do companies put you through that? Because they’re so focused on what’s important to the company that they don’t consider what’s important to you.

Here’s an example. We called a mobile-phone company about an accounting issue, and they told us we had to go in to a store to solve the problem. What? You can’t do business by phone with a phone company? If the company was more interested in what’s convenient for me, not what’s convenient for them, I’d be a lot happier.

In fact, all the devices sold by mobile-phone companies are made by someone else. Sure, they provide a network, but what are they really selling? They are selling service. Yet, they repeatedly earn among the lowest retailer customer-service ratings.

So how do you keep your business from falling into the “it’s all about me” trap? Here’s how.

Make it easy for me to understand what you sell

I’ve been investigating dashboard software that can make brain-numbing spreadsheets more understandable. I downloaded a demo, and was immediately contacted by one of the company’s “customer success representatives.” A little pushy but, so far so good.

When the demo didn’t work (as in “at all”), I contacted her, but received no response. So I went to the website and watched what was described as an introductory video. It explained how to change the colors of the user interface. When I signed up to download a tutorial, I didn’t receive a download link. I managed to find a set of instructions billed as “First Steps” but the very first step didn’t work. I gave up.

Make it easy for me to do business with you

Every company struggles to find ways to attract customers, and some do an amazingly good job. But many could flush the money they spend on ads down the toilet for all the good it does them. They make it so difficult for hard-earned prospects to do business with them that would-be customers simply go elsewhere.

Websites have broken links or links to the wrong places.
Every company struggles to find ways to attract customers, and some do an amazingly good job. But many could flush the money they spend on ads down the toilet for all the good it does them. They make it so difficult for hard-earned prospects to do business with them that would-be customers simply go elsewhere.

Websites have broken links or links to the wrong places.

Ads and websites don’t provide contact information, maps or directions.

Web forms don’t fill in city and state when a zip code is provided.

Telephone systems require endless navigation to reach an operator who spends the first five minutes asking questions (like verifying your address) that solve their problems, not mine. Why not start with, “How can I help you?” and solve the customer’s problems before solving the company’s?

Apple has made it so easy for you to do business with them. They even let you use your iPhone to pay for accessories in their stores. The Apple Store app lets you scan a UPC code, touch a few buttons, and just walk out of the store with the product. It’s so easy some say it feels as if they’re shoplifting.

Make it easy for me to return your products

From an odd sort of perspective, one of the important ways to make people happy to do business with you is to make it easy for them not to do business with you.

There are plenty of apocryphal stories about people who have been allowed to return products to Nordstrom and Home Depot that, in all likelihood, weren’t purchased there. Costco will accept returns without question on almost every product they sell. Zappos is famous for paying shipping both ways, as they put it, so you can’t not buy from them.

The message? If they treat unhappy, non-customers so well, imagine what they’ll do for you.

Where to start

If you think about it, the golden rule is a pretty good place to start thinking about customer satisfaction. Ask yourself, would you like your business to do unto you as you do unto your customers?

Tom Harnish is a serial entrepreneur. Always on the bleeding edge of technology, he learned what works (and what doesn't) by leading projects, products and companies to success (mostly). He can't play a lot of musical instruments.

Source:http://www.openforum.com/articles/put-your-customers-first

The Best Design Tutorials in 2011 for any Web Designer

Web designing has become a very integral part of the internet. Web designing is used world wide to design mock-ups that later on are transformed to a practical and efficient HTML / CSS template and makes a website look more attractive and appealing. Photoshop is a technique which is generally used by the web designers while designing as it gives fabulous outcomes. Web layout is a very essential part of web designing and Photoshop is always used in creating these layouts irrespective of whether it a simple one or a sophisticated one.

Photoshop helps in creating these web layouts to a great extend and with the rise of demand, there are more and new sorts of layouts in Photoshop being developed every day. Everyone wants to learn the new stuffs available, there are many way in which you can learn Photoshop, but the best way to improve on your Photoshop skills is by taking tutorials. Some of the best design tutorials created throughout 2011 are given below.

1. Creating an expressive painting using a freestyle method in Photoshop

This tutorial was developed in the month of February this year and it shares the new process called freestyle expressive painting in Photoshop. This tutorial is more of an experimentation based on your imaginative powers and involves the trial and error method. This is not a technique meant for creating a master piece or something of that sort. But it is a technique meant for creating something that is very fresh and raw straight out of your imaginations.

2. Creating a 3D portfolio layout in Photoshop

With the increase in popularity of 3D, this was a new technique developed in 2011 to design web layouts in 3D. This is a tutorial which helps in learning how to use simple techniques to create a portfolio layout with a 3D look to it. The 3D look that this tutorial provides is not very high profile; it is done only by using some simple shadows and light.

3. Creating a flaming car in Photoshop by Lincoln Soares

This Photoshop technique has become quite popular this year. The tutorial will show how to create a car in flames. The effect that we see by using this technique is very good and looks attractive and it is equally simple to do it. You can always try this on various other objects and give them an attractive look.

4. Creating a comic book themed layout in Photoshop

This tutorial is meant for the die hard comic fans. This Photoshop technique gives you the freedom of designing a web layout in the form of a comic book. This tutorial helps you in picking up the simple techniques by which you will be able to create this web layout and the outcome is really awesome.

5. Creating a sports car layout in Photoshop

Every one fantasies about sports cars and this is Photoshop layout basically meant for all sports car lovers out there. This tutorial will teach you new and exciting stuff and how to create a sports car web layout in Photoshop.

6. Creating a sweet donut icon in Photoshop from scratch

This tutorial will teach you how to create a sweet and tasty donut icon from an initial sketch. The entire process is very simple and exciting and you get to learn new things.

7. Yummy cookies typography in Photoshop

With the help of this technique you can actually create texts in a cookies texture. This tutorial will give you a brief idea about the entire process of creating a really nice text effect using the cookies layer styles and texture. The entire process is very simple and the outcome is very attractive.

8. Creating a trendy wordpress themed layout in Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to create a trendy wordpress themed layout in Photoshop. By the help of this technique web designers can design a simple yet sophisticated web page. The entire process is quite simple as well and doesn’t take much time.



9. Creating a warm and cheerful website interface in adobe Photoshop

The layout designed by the help of this technique is very colorful and warm and looks very appealing to the naked eye. This tutorial helps you learning the process in which you can create a warm and cheerful interface in adobe Photoshop.

10. Creating an exploding light text effect in Photoshop

This is yet another technique in which you can present a text. By the help of this tutorial you can learn how to create and exploding text effect. You can add several other effects and make the entire layout look more dramatic and attention grabbing.

These are the 10 best design tutorials in 2011 for any web designer and are sure to help them enhance their creations.

About the Author: The above article is composed and edited by RP. She is associated with many technology and logo design communities as their freelance writer and adviser. In her free time she writes articles related to technology, business logo design, etc.

Source:http://www.technology.am/the-best-design-tutorials-in-2011-for-any-web-designer-074454.html