Google has a pretty big change coming to Analytics in late May and website owners need to be prepared. Google Analytics now has a feature called "Data Retention Controls" that will give account holders the ability to set the amount of time before user-level and event-level data stored by Google Analytics is automatically deleted from Google Analytics’ servers. When you log into Google Analytics, you'll see a notification bar as follows: These new data settings will officially go into ... Read More
Google Analytics
The Ultimate Website Redesign SEO Checklist
This week I had a call with a small business owner who is launching a website redesign in WordPress. He asked me how can we best preserve his existing SEO and makes sure he doesn’t lose any search ranking in the transition. Right away I replied that this was a fabulous question. We then chatted about common mistakes that occur and how we can prevent them from happening with this website redesign project. Here is the scary part about this conversation: I rarely am asked about this until the ... Read More
Free SEO Tools and Software
I use a variety of free SEO tools and software each business day. And in a few rare cases, I subscribe to premium SEO software. But guess what? The best tools are ones that require a little work and investigation by you. You don’t have to be rich to have great SEO data. You just need to do a little research and investigation on your own. Today I want to share my favorite SEO tools with you. While all the below links will have free versions available, a few will also have premium upgrades for ... Read More
Google Analytics Goal Tracking Helps You Make Better Business Decisions
Google Analytics goal tracking allows marketers to record specific actions or interactions within their website. These goals are then used to report on website activity via tables, graphs, and flow charts. While goals are generally track a completed conversion, such as an inquiry form submission or product sale, they can also be used to track specific website events. I’ve traditionally used goals within Google Analytics is to obtain a better understanding of our successful website activity ... Read More
Use Google Analytics Annotations to Make Better Marketing Decisions
Do you struggle with making solid marketing decisions based on tangible data? If so you are not alone. We talk to a lot of business people who feel they are forced into making decisions on the fly and without tangible metrics to back up their chosen direction. While I cannot solve all of your marketing conundrums, I can offer a suggestion that provides an option for viewing website traffic shifts and monitoring potential sources of such movement. Within Google Analytics there is an easy to ... Read More
Make Better Decisions With Custom Google Analytics Dashboards
If you own a website or blog, you most likely have a Google Analytics account and you are tracking data. I encounter a lot of website owners who are in this state. It the starting point of a beautiful world of data - if you are actually using it. The question is not if you have Google Analytics installed. The real question: Are you actually reviewing your Google Analytics data and are you using the data to make better business decisions? Unfortunately I talk to a large number of website ... Read More
Building a Marketing Strategy Based on Data
Having access to accurate marketing data is powerful. It helps you make better business decisions because you have a clearer picture of your business, your target market, and your ability to attract new customers. With real data you have power. This is because you are creating a marketing strategy based on something tangible and not based on a passing idea or a whim. This month I had an opportunity to speak at WordCamp Chicago. While we were in the Q&A part of my presentation, I was ... Read More
Friday’s Marketing Roundup: Good Reads from the Week Ending June 28th
It's Friday and that means it's time for another weekly roundup. Today we found excellent posts on WordPress security and choosing trustworthy themes and plugins to a beginner's guide on pairing fonts. You'll also find must reads on content marketing mistakes, how to spot links that could be harming your website and why quality over quantity is always best for SEO. Ready to read and take action? Web Design and WordPress Free WordPress Food, Recipe and Restaurant Plugins - These ... Read More
The Good and Bad of Google Analytics Real-Time Data
At the end of each web development project, I give each client an hour training session in WordPress. If time allows, I jump over to Google Analytics and show them some of the available reports and data I use for our company. Most clients are completely new to Google Analytics or if they do own an account, they’ve forgotten all about it. While our clients oh and ah over data like visits, traffic sources, and keyword tracking, the best and funniest responses come from a quick jump into ... Read More
The last 48 Hours Taught Me Website Usability is an Adventure
This week we launched a redesign of our website and for me it was a valuable lesson in the importance of website usability. I originally initiated this project so we could make sure our website was capable of serving the ever growing mobile market. Our client websites were all responsive, but we had yet to take the time to make our own website mobile friendly. I completely underestimated the value of a redesign so I was taught a very valuable lesson in the process. Good Usability is Backed by a ... Read More
It’s All Fun and Games Until the Website Flops
It’s the moment of truth. The moment when you finally know whether your new website is a lead machine or a money pit. It happens. Virtually every business owner with an internet presence has been there. The moment when your new website is live and you can finally determine if your web design project was a huge success or a dismal failure. This is the thirty-day mark and what I call the moment of truth. Thirty is the Magic Number Once a new website or redesign is thirty days old, you can ... Read More
The Girlfriend’s Guide to Blogging
This week I received an email from a longtime girlfriend who is interested in launching a blog. I was actually surprised by this, because Mary (name has been changed to protect the innocent) has a full-time job already and it is not marketing related. She had an idea for a blog and wanted advice on how to get a blog started. My girlfriend is not alone. I receive dozens of emails each week from people wanting blogs and websites created for their “idea” and I can tell at least 75% have no ... Read More
Stand Back! The Geeks Are Coming
Last night I met with a business partner named Scott. Scott is an engineer and his engineering brain loves SEO. I’ve been teaching SEO 101 while we build Scott’s website. Last night as we moved from SEO 101 to SEO 201, Scott couldn’t understand why I didn’t do this with every client. The truth be told, 99% of my clients don’t care. They pay me to make sure their website and SEO are taken care of and they don’t want to worry about it. We All Make Mistakes Very few clients have Scott’s ... Read More
Keyword Research for the Average Joe
Good keyword research is imperative for organic SEO. We SEO consultants typically view this practice as common sense, but it’s only because we do it all the time. In the real world, keyword research isn’t necessary easy for the average marketer or webmaster. But keyword research doesn’t have to be some big crazy formula. I read a lot of SEO articles and blog posts and the internet is full of great content and advice for performing elaborate keyword research. While this works, the activity ... Read More
Why You Should Treat Your Website Like the Family Dog
Friday afternoon I had a call with a client I built a website for back in March. Before I realized it, I was comparing their website to the family dog. Not a typical analogy, but it worked in the situation and the client understood the point I was trying to make. Who’s Taking Care of Fido? In my house I take care of the family dog. I’m not a big fan of our English Lab, but I’m still the one who makes sure he is fed, watered, and let in and out four hundred times a day. I am the caregiver even ... Read More
The Magic Formula of Great SEO
This weekend I looked back at SEO related statistics for a B2B website I launched in November of 2009. A full year has passed and I wanted to see the progress this company made over a twelve-month period. After launching the new WordPress website, the client retained me to work on their internet marketing efforts. It helped free up time for the client, it gave their internet marketing a cohesiveness it would not have had otherwise, and it gave me time to nurture my new baby. I believe it was ... Read More
Do Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers Really Matter?
Facebook likes and Twitter followers do not equal success. If you are a fly-by-night, wannabee internet marketing consultant, then yes, by all means, use Facebook likes and Twitter followers to measure the success of your online marketing efforts. Otherwise, dig deeper to see if your social media efforts are worth the time and money spent. Social media is about engaging with your audience, increasing brand awareness, and providing value to the visitors who land upon your Facebook page or ... Read More
Google’s Search Results Skews Your Self Image?
What is your view of your current website traffic and Internet marketing campaigns? Are you receiving as much traffic as you’d like or are you scoring as high on your top keywords as you had originally hoped? No, this isn’t my sales pitch; there is a point to these questions. If you’re the average small business owner, you know enough about organic search engine optimization to make you dangerous. You know a little about SEO (search engine optimization) and you periodically check your ... Read More
When a Website Designer’s Good Intentions Go Bad
Today I am meeting with a client to review the design and build of his new website. Quite frankly I’m not looking forward to this meeting. I am the barrier of bad news. When I originally accepted this project, I could see Google had indexed about 1,000 pages within his domain. While it would take some time to migrate and optimize this many pages, I was up for the challenge. The goal is to give him a more SEO friendly site that he can maintain himself in WordPress. If that meant throwing ... Read More
Web Analytics 2.0 Hits the Stores
Today I ordered Web Analytics 2.0, which is the second book by Avinash Kaushik, the best selling author of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day. As an avid website designer, SEO nut, social media fan, and overall Internet marketing addict, I can’t wait for delivery of my new purchase. I already subscribe to Avinash’s very popular blog Occam’s Razor, which provides insightful discussion on Google Analytics and the software’s newest functionality. I enjoy his blog entries and cannot wait to immerse ... Read More
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