So you have your new website launched, you’ve started your marketing campaigns to bring traffic and hopefully sales. How do you know how many people are visiting your website, where they are coming from and what they are doing once they arrive at your website?

The answer is to implement website analytics tools as part of your website design and internet marketing strategy ensuring you can test, track and tune the whole process once it is live.

There are many tools available on the market falling into two categories:

1. WEB SERVER BASED TOOLS
Tools installed on your web server capturing information about all traffic on your sites from your website log files. These are often included in your web hosting package – check out what you have already. Some common examples are Webalizer, AWStats & Analog.

2. TOOLS EXTERNAL TO WEBSITE
External tools which require small snippets of code to be embedded within all web pages you wish to monitor. The market leader in the field is Google Analytics which is free, provides e-commerce analysis and also links into Google Adwords PPC analysis. Other providers are Yahoo! Web Analytics, Omniture SiteCatalyst & Microsoft adCentre Web Analytics.

More About Google Analytics

Some of the many statistics you can track with the market leader, Google Analytics are:

• Site visits per day/month;
• Comparisons with previous months/years data;
• Map of where in world visitors are from;
• Info about which browser visitors used;
• Numbers of direct access, other website referral or search engine visitors;
• Which pages are most popular, how long visitors spend on each page;
• Website visitor was referred from;
• Keywords used to find site via a search engine;
• Bounce rates for each landing web page (ie. %age of visitors who only visit one page and leave the site);
• Site Overlay feature showing you what percentage of users click on which web page
• features providing identification of unpopular or unused areas to be tuned;
• Goal setup and tracking (eg. Goal = sale, track which web page in the sales process loses the most customers);

Google Analytics also has a reporting feature where you can setup your own bespoke reports tailored to your website.

Why Would I Use One on My Website?

• To monitor useful information about visitors to your website;
• To enable split testing of your website and PPC marketing campaigns;
• Monitor conversion rates, sales values, bounce rates, popular web pages;

Possible Requirements to Consider If I Need One

• Always implement Google Analytics;
• Make sure your website developer includes inclusion of Google Analytics code into ALL required web pages;
• Ensure your support & maintenance agreement includes Google Analytics code inserts for all new web pages;
• Setup both sorts of tools on your website to provide cross reference data validation;
• Specific analysis tools may provide additional useful information;
• See what is provided already with your web host before implementing additional tools;
• Will you monitor your website statistics yourself or will someone else – document and agree what information you want, when and how this can be varied;

Examples

Google Analytics: Overview Statistics

Google Analytics:Summary of Website Traffic Sources

Google Analytics: Goal Funnel Visualisation

Above is a very simple example of a goal visualisation with a home page only containing a sign-up form. Completing the sign-up form and clicking on the button is the goal or call to action on this website. After signing-up the website redirects you to a Thank-You web page which is the “goal” web page which 23% of website visitors actually did in this case.

If this was your sales goal process you would include all web pages throughout the sales process to see how many and at which point customers left your website. You would then need to look at what was causing them to leave your website BEFORE completing their purchase.

Further Information

Website analytics are a MUST HAVE on your website – without them you have no information about how well your website is achieving your website objectives.

Signup Page For Google Analytics

Signup Page for Yahoo! Web Analytics

This article is about email hosting linked to your domain name and not about any free email service such as Google or Yahoo.

Email hosting services provide an email server to setup, store and forward all of your emails. If you have a domain name for your website and wish to setup email addresses using your domain name (ie. fred@.co.uk ) then you would normally have your email and web hosting with the same provider.

When purchasing your web hosting solution you will normally be allocated 100’s of potential email addresses linked to your domain name allowing you to setup a full list of appropriate email addresses for all your employees, generic sales/admin/support departments and also any marketing campaign specific ones.

Once your email addresses are setup you will be able to forward the emails to your desktop email tool (ie MS Outlook), your mobile phone or view them on-line via the email hosting control panel.

Why Would I Use One on My Website?

• To link email addresses for your company to your domain name;
• To provide an email server location for emails to be delivered to prior to download;
• Enables you to setup multiple email addresses for different purposes;
• Email addresses linked to your domain name project a more professional image;

Possible Requirements to Consider If I Need One

Business

• Number of email addresses required – can you purchase additional ones if required in future;
• Email storage limits;
• Email hosting limits on size of attachments to emails or number of emails sent;
• On-line access to email management – also allows email checking at any time;
• Virus checking is a must on all email accounts to protect both your PC and the computer equipment of your customers/suppliers. Some email hosting services limit the number of email accounts included in the package, so do check;
• Spam filtering – email service automatically filters out any suspected spam into a separate folder for you to review;
• Auto-responding facility. Ie. Email server automatically sends out emails to provide a better customer experience.

Support & Maintenance

• Availability of email – should be 24 * 7 and 99.99% availability of web servers;
  Room where email servers are located should be secure and have dual power and network connectivity to guard against single points of failure in solution;
  Ensure hosting service supports both POP3 and IMAP email services;
• Stepped package offerings so email hosting can grow as your business expands;
  Daily backup and recovery solution for your emails;
• On-line and/or telephone customer support facility;

Further Information

Also see “Website Hosting” section for additional information about your website.

In order to display your new website to the world it must be located upon a web hosting server. Unless you are a large company you will not host the website on your own server, but use a third party web hosting company such as HostPapa, Yahoo or EasySpace. There are many web hosting services available with differing levels of customer service and features. Normally the web hosting service will provide a standard on-line tool which you can login to and maintain your website, domain names and email accounts.

Websites are accessed from the web hosting service via your website domain name (www..co.uk   ) which must be registered to yourself and hosted by the web hosting service.

Free website space is generally available via your ISP (eg. BT, Demon, Pipex), but these services do not allow you to setup a website and email addresses under your domain name.

The web hosting service can store some or all of the following:

• Website files;
• Product & Customer Databases;
• Blogs;
• Emails;

There are four main methods of web hosting:

• Use existing ISP website space delivered with your broadband connection;
• Subscribe to share web servers with other business users via a web hosting service:
• Pay for a dedicated web server just for your business via a web hosting service;
• Build and maintain a web server within your business;

The costs will vary from free web hosting, through modest monthly charges of £5-£20 up to many thousands per year. The key factors determining the monthly costs will be the number of visitors and how much web space you require. Be careful if using free web hosting as many use pop-up advertising on your website instead of charging you for hosting which does not project a professional image.

Why Would I Use One on My Website?

• To publish your website on the world wide web on your domain name;
• To enable email addresses linked to your domain name (not possible on ISP web space);
• To setup sub-domains;

Possible Requirements to Consider If I Need One

• Your domain name must always be registered under your name NOT the web hosters;
• Web Server must be located in UK for Search Engine Optimisation to work effectively in the UK;
• Web file Space;
• No of users and how much data they download. Ie.Bandwidth;
• Availability of website – should be 24 * 7 and 99.99% availability of web servers;
  Room where web servers are located should be secure and have dual power and network connectivity to guard against single points of failure in solution;
  Ensure Unix/Linux server if you require 301 redirects;
• Ensure hosting service supports the software and versions your website will use. Eg. PHP, MySQL, CGI, Perl, ASP, Frontpage extensions etc;
• Stepped package offerings so website hosting can grow as your business expands;
  Daily backup and recovery solution for your website and customer/product databases;
• Select service with no adult sites hosted which can use up bandwidth impacting the speed of your website;
• On-line and/or telephone customer support facility;

Examples

How to Check Information About Your Domain :

• Go to webpage link WhoIs .
• Enter domain name in LOOKUP box at top of page.
• ‘Server Data’ confirms the geographical location of the web server.
• ‘Domain Tools Exclusive – Reverse IP’ tells you how many other websites are located on the server and can provide you with a list of these websites for a small fee.
• ‘WhoIs Record’ will confirm who the domain is registered to and the renewal date for the domain.

Further Information

When selecting a web hosting service also consider the following:

• Check out customer reviews of their service;
• Send a test pre-sales email or ring them to assess their customer service;
• Check out the cost of the optional add-ons which can significantly increase your overall hosting costs;
• Some web hosting packages allow multiple domains per package – others only one;
  Backup services can be an additional cost;
• Demo their on-line control panel to see what features they offer and how easy it is for you to understand and use;
• Check how you will be notified of any planned downtime on your web server as your website will not be available during this period;
• Lookout for length of contract and notice period – some hosting packages are for minimum of six months;
• Also check the contract for any termination fees;
• Check there is a simple method to move your website to a new hosting service;

Also see “Email Hosting” section for additional information about your emails.

Usability is the latest buzz word about making websites more user friendly and easier to navigate, leading to increased sales and website goal conversions.

A successful website:

• Attracts lots of visitors
• Maximises conversions from visitors to customers. Ie goal conversions

Websites implementing key usability principles have been found to increase average sales conversions by 135%.

Visitors arrive at your website looking for an answer to a question. If they do not find engaging, relevant information within about 10-30 seconds, they will leave your website.

Visitors are not looking for a flashy, graphical representation of your business. What they really want is information and that means useful, relevant content which catches their attention and makes them stay a little longer.

Load times for web pages are one critical part of usability. Basic research on website response times remains unchanged for thirty years [Miller 1968; Card et al. 1991]:

• 0.1  secs – limit for the user to feel that computer is reacting simultaneously;
• 1.0  secs – limit for the user’s flow of thought to start uninterrupted
• 10 secs – limit for keeping a user’s attention focused on the dialogue

Always think about how long your website pages will take to load – adding large images, complicated moving graphics is likely to send them scurrying to the next website…..

Why Would I Use One on My Website?

• To make website navigation easier;
• Improve customer experience;
• To persuade the visitor to stay longer on your website and start to build a relationship with your company;
• To increase goal conversion rates;

Possible Requirements to Consider If I Need One

• Keep the same basic web page layout throughout your website for a consistent customer experience;
• Try to locate most important web page content based on the F shape viewing habits of most users (see examples below);
• Use common layout conventions for menus, links and other standard features;
• Ensure it is clear on every web page who your company is;
• Make web page headings engaging and relevant – not your company name;
• Ensure most important message is contained in first two lines of web page;
• Write for your subject – not your peers;
• Use short sentences and paragraphs;
• Keep language simple and jargon free;
• Use bullet points and numbered lists;
• Highlight keywords in bold;
• Provide internal links on relevant text in your web page to improve customer experience;
• Use a breadcrumb trail;
• Think about how any images you use illustrate your product’s benefits or show the product in use;

Examples

Can you Tell How to Start Using this Website?

We have no idea what information is available, we can’t easily access it – and what is a “Quickstart Lift”?

Another website I came across just had a set of three doors on it’s home page all set inside each other. It took me several attempts to discover that you needed to click on the three doors to enter the different components of the website.

Don’t make your website hard to understand!

Excellent Example of Good Usability From Highly Successful Amazon Store

Web Page Heat Map: How Users View Web Pages – the F Pattern

The red above indicates the areas of the web pages where the user looked the most, yellow indicates fewer views, with blue showing the least viewed areas. The grey areas were not viewed at all!

Further Information

Some Statistics

• Remember < 40% of visitors to your site arrive on the Home Page – review all potential landing pages to ensure the content will make sense for a first visit;
• Complex language may cost you 30% of sales;
• Less than 50% of users scroll down the web page – keep your important content and features “above the fold” (ie. The page you see before scrolling);
• Only 23% scroll down on Home Pages;
• 76.5% of clicks are made above the fold;
• Keep Home Page message simple – you need to catch their attention with about 20-25 words within 30 seconds;

Useful Links

More about the F Shape

Website of Jakob Nielson – Industry Expert on Usability Research

Testimonials are complimentary comments made about your service/product by a customer. These comments can then be used to promote your service/product, providing social proof that you are a real business who cares about their customers. They can be used in all marketing material and on your website.

It is important that the testimonials are displayed on appropriate web pages in a prominent position. Always include some information about the person giving the testimonial to personalise the comments and enable potential customers to connect.

Testimonials or independent reviews of products/services are becoming the norm when purchasing via the internet. Potential customers feel more confident in buying from you if they can find independent social proof about your company. Although testimonials are not 100% independent of your site, they do show that you care aboutyour customers.

Research has shown that customer testimonials can boost sales by up to 30%.

More than three-quarters of consumers surveyed worldwide find that consumer opinions are the most effective form of advertising, according to a Nielsen study. See full article here

Why Would I Use One on My Website?

• To provide proof that other customers have purchased your product/service;
• Appeal to people’s emotions and help build trust with your potential customers;
• To help potential customers understand how your service/product benefited similar customers;
• To promote and reinforce your excellent customer service, USP and backup the benefit claims you make on your website;
• They are free!

Possible Requirements to Consider If I Need One

• Decide which web pages you wish to view testimonials from;
• Maybe show the two best ones on your home page and then link to the rest on another webpage;
• Display in prominent position;
• Always include personal information about commenter – first name and type of business as a minimum, ideally full name, company, location and a personal photo;
• Include a date with the testimonial to prove you have recent satisfied customers as well as a historical record of good service;

Examples

Great Testimonials full of Individual Comments

Further Information

Be on the lookout for customer complements during discussions and emails which you could use as testimonials. If a compliment is passed about your business ask the customer if they would be willing to provide a testimonial.

Always confirm that the customer providing the testimonial is happy their comment to be published and agree the actual text and personal information to be displayed.

You could also obtain testimonials from celebrities, recognised experts and trade associations.

Never make up testimonials as this will leave you open to legal action through mis-representation in your advertising. It could also lead to long term damage to your reputation and your relationship with your customers.