Have you heard the news? Google has updated Google Analytics! What is Google Analytics? It’s a free tool from Google that gives you statistics on your website’s traffic. Who visited from where, when, what page they came in on, what pages they looked at, average time on site, average pages viewed per visitor, bounce rate, what search terms brought them to your site, what country or state or city they are in, their credit card numbers (kidding–but only about that last one!)

To me, the biggest improvement is real-time analytics. In the past, your stats would be updated on average every 2 to 3 days, behind real time. Now they are in real-time. Using link tracking codes, you can get even deeper information about your traffic. If you’re running Facebook Ads or Google Adwords PPC (Pay Per Click) paid ads, add a tracking code so you know how much traffic comes in from that add to your specific landing page for it.

Here’s a concise explanation from Webopedia

Web Analytics

Web analytics is a generic term meaning the study of the impact of a website on its users. Ecommerce companies and other website publishers often use Web analytics software to measure such concrete details as how many people visited their site, how many of those visitors were unique visitors, how they came to the site (i.e., if they followed a link to get to the site or came there directly), what keywords they searched with on the site’s search engine, how long they stayed on a given page or on the entire site and what links they clicked on and when they left the site.

Web analytic software can also be used to monitor whether or not a site’s pages are working properly. With this information, Web site administrators can determine which areas of the site are popular and which areas of the site do not get traffic. Web analytics provides these site administrators and publishers with data that can be used to streamline a website to create a better user experience.

There is so much to this program that I could barely scratch the surface of what a powerful tool it is here in this post. If you do not have Google Analytics set up on your website–do it today! If you need help with that, call Core Zero at 207-212-2432.

OK, now on to some more juicy info about the new Google Analytics!

From Google

Our new version of Analytics provides three significant enhancements:

• A redesigned Google Analytics platform to enable major new functionality
• A streamlined interface to make it easier to get to the information you want
• Improved report performance for faster reports

Currently, we are showcasing the following features in the new version of Analytics

• A completely redesigned, faster interface/
• Multiple dashboards—build a custom dashboard for each department.
• Event Goals! Track your PDF downloads as goals with events, or configure 2 minutes play time on a video as a goal.
• More powerful custom reports—you can pre-filter reports and build additional data views (read more).
• New Term Cloud visualization.
• Linking a new AdWords or AdSense account
• In-Page Analytics
• Migrating a custom report from the current Analytics version to the new version

Soon to Arrive…

•     Exporting reports to PDF
•     Emailing reports

Google Link

Check out this killer outline from Mashable, and follow the link below for the full article. If that doesn’t get you going, well, analytics just isn’t for you. And if that’s the case… I hope you don’t depend on your website for any income or cash flow!

If you don’t know what some of these terms mean or why they are important to measure, then by all means, go check out the Mashable article for full descriptions.

• Dashboards
• Keyword Clouds
• Real-Time Data
• Site Speed
• Search Simplifies Navigation
• Webmaster Tools
• Social Engagement
• Visitor Flow & Goal Flow Visualization
• Event Tracking
• Multi-Channel Funnels

Mashable Article Link

Again, this is just a taste. If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website and you want it, call us at 207-212-2432.

To Your Success!

Eric Bryant

Here is a great tactic for massive live, real-time exposure on Facebook. Get on webinars that are in your niche, or related to your niche where you will find qualified leads, and/or which are about Facebook, Facebook training, or where the presenters are at least interacting on or about Facebook in their Facebook groups–or better–on their Facebook Page(s).

Open the Facebook Page(s) of the presenters and the Page of the target or sponsoring company or entity. Post a Hello/Welcome/I’m excited to be on the webinar message just as or just before the webinar starts. Soon enough they will open their Facebook page(s)–LIVE–and there you are! Now, don’t be spammy. It’s amazing just be seen to start with.

The other way to do this is to use Facebook as your Page, and when you comment LIVE it shows your page thumbnail. I am currently on a sold out webinar as I type this to you (1,000 people on) and 3,800 people are registered for it. I am only a guest on the webinar–it’s not my gig. I did exactly what I typed above and got “press” within minutes. Lots of people are commenting and interacting on the Facebook Pages during webinars. Tonight, the presenter has 6,500 Likes, and the company has 13,000. Plenty of people that are NOT on the webinar are interacting live on those two pages, just because they are–the presenter and the company are both popular and have strong followings. What I do is Like other people’s comments as they post them there, and then comment as well. I friend request some of them–total strangers yet with a common bond–and I get friend requests as well.

When I switched to my Core Zero Page tonight–and when the speaker mentioned Facebook Design, I posted as Core Zero. I got some new likes on my Page, and I got a request for a design quote within 10 minutes.  Why, you ask, did they mention Facebook Design? Because I was on a webinar related to MY NICHE–get it?)

Now, for certain a replay link to this massive webinar will go out to not only the 3,800 people registered, but the entire lists of the presenter and company, bragging about how incredible it was, and how people should drop everything and watch the replay now before they take it down forever. OK, you’ve heard all that jazz before. But it’s true. I will be re-seen several times posting live during this webinar as both Eric and Core Zero, to potentially not only the 3,800, but however many more are on their lists, and on all the affiliate promoter’s lists, and any others that the webinar replay is shared with.

I hope you like this tactic. Click the Like, Tweet, or +1 Buttons above to give me some blog post love if you like this! And please take a second to “Like” Core Zero at www.Facebook.com/CoreZero.

Onward!

Eric Bryant

The phrase “first impressions last” carries over into the world of websites and online marketing. For ages we’ve been saying that you only have eight seconds to impress and convince a website visitor to stay on your site. Within that time they size-up your image, make a judgment call, and either engage or move on. From what we’ve seen, these days we’d have to call the 8 second visitor a very patient one.

Within this article we’ve included and explained ten key areas where your website will either make or break your business. Core Zero Creative is offering a no strings attached Complimentary 10 Point Website Evaluation to businesses and individuals looking to upgrade or improve their web presence. We’ll show you what works and what doesn’t on your website. If you’re going to have a website, it might as well be working for you as against you.

One more thing regarding the Complimentary 10 Point Website Evaluation: this is a hands-on evaluation that takes 30 to 45 minutes to prepare, and includes a phone session to go over the details with you. This is not a canned, automated report. It is an item-by-item analysis done by our top designer, who has over 18 years of web experience.

OK, let’s dig in! We’ll be covering these 10 key areas:

• First Impression: Brand Presentation, Trust
• Overall Professional Appearance
• Effective Communication of Message
• Content Relevance, Quality, Quantity, Blog
• Photo & Graphics Quality
• Ease of Navigation & Contact
• e-Commerce Functionality
• Email Marketing Functionality
• Social Media Integration
• Search Engine Stats, Ranking, & Online Competition

 Category Explanations, Terminology, and Definitions

 Category 1)  First Impression: Brand Presentation, Trust              

This speaks to the first impression your website has on visitors. Repeated studies have proven that the average website visitor stays on a website about 8 seconds before deciding to stay and dig in, or close the window and go to the next website on their list. You need to totally impress them in that short time frame. Your image either creates trust or raises suspicion. If your site offers e-commerce (online purchasing) then all the more so. Everything has got to be perfectly in its place. On a subconscious level people will react or respond to this.

Category 2)  Overall Professional Appearance

While this is somewhat covered under the topic of first impression, it speaks as well to the overall layout, appearance, and visual presentation of the website, which is by extension, a presentation of what your company is all about, your beliefs, values, and mission. How does your website appear to the critical eye? Was it one of those sites put together by a niece or nephew taking a web design course in community college who needed a project to do? Or does it look like one? You can say “no” but you’re not fooling anybody but yourself if that is the case. You want a professional design, created by an experienced designer with an eye for design, a good handle on layout, flow, and color theory.

Category 3)  Effective Communication of Message

Do people immediately “get” what your company does, sells, services, or provides from a quick look at your home page? If not, you’ve got some homework to do.

Category 4)  Content Relevance, Quality, Quantity, Blog

Content is King. Relevance is Queen. Your website needs to provide the necessary information for people to make a decision–whatever that decision may be. Your copy (text) needs to be proofed and perfect. It needs to be persuasive. This is all part of your image, and it’s all part of what makes your website work for you while you’re doing other things. You certainly don’t want it turning people away for lack of quality, lack of information, or lack of professional presentation. The more relevant content you have, the better your website will do in search. An integrated Blog is a fantastic way to keep up with posting fresh, relevant content, and does wonders for your web presence, interaction, and over time, search engine presence.

Category 5)  Photo & Graphics Quality

Your photos and graphics need to be crisp, clean, properly sized, cropped, and color-corrected. As with the section above on content, it’s all about your image, trust, and judgment. Ask yourself, “Does this website–representing this company–look like the kind of outfit I’d do business with?” Do your info-graphics provide info that will help a prospect to make a decision? Have you selected the most effective photos of your work, the right amount of photos, and are they in the best place to be seen, where they will have the most impact?

Category 6)  Ease of Navigation & Contact

How much of a hassle is it to find something on your website? How much of a hassle is it to find your phone number or to email you? It should be no hassle at all. Words, links, and navigation menus all need to be properly placed, spaced, and call out to the website visitor clearly showing them what to do next. Contact info and mechanisms should be readily accessible on every page, enabling prospects and clients to contact you.

Category 7)  e-Commerce Functionality

E-commerce opens up a world of opportunity to service your customers and streamline your sales process and cash flow. If your website uses e-commerce (online credit card purchases) then it better work, and it better work correctly. Incomplete orders– buyers bailing before the final transaction is complete–represent an alarming amount of lost sales. You want a solid, easy-to-use front end for buyers, and a thorough, functional back-end for sales and order management, returns and refunds, and reporting.

Category 8)  Email Marketing Functionality

You may or may not be taking advantage of sending out an electronic Newsletter to your subscriber base. Beyond Newsletters, which are an effective tool for maintaining top of mind awareness, there are Autoresponders, which accomplish two important functions. First, they allow you to send Broadcast emails out to your list. A Broadcast is an on-the-spot, one time, “here’s something important that I want to share with you” email that typically goes out immediately, though they can be staged for sending later. The second function of an Autoresponder is to automatically send out a pre-written series of emails over a predetermined period of time. So when someone opts in to your list, they get a “welcome to the list, here’s the info you requested” email. Then at set increments they receive other personalized emails that you have already prepared in advance, for instance, 3 days later, 7 days later, and so on.

Category 9)  Social Media Integration   

Social Media is the wave of the present. If you’re engaged in social media then you will want to have that integrated into your website. Make it easy for readers to Share or ReTweet your content on Facebook and Twitter with a single click, or add buttons that let them “Like” your Facebook Page right from your website, or Google +1 the page they’re on. You can also add your social media content streams to your website.

Category 10)  Search Engine Stats, Ranking, & Online Competition

Having your website show up in search gives your business an incredible competitive edge. If you’re not showing up in search you’re providing an incredible competitive edge to your competition! There is a science to showing up in search–it’s called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While SEO is an ongoing process of tuning, adjusting, measuring, improving, and repeating, there is a lot that can be done as a one-time tune-up to your website and its pages.

Keywords: These are the terms that you want to be found for, the terms that people are typing in to search engine queries when they are looking for products or services that your company produces or provides.

Site Description: This text is displayed in the search engine results pages.

SERP’s: Search Engine Results Pages, or SERP’s, are the pages that show up when you search. Page 1, spots 1 through 10 are the most highly coveted, although being anywhere on Pages 1 through 3 is a major accomplishment and a plus for business.

Indexed Pages: This is how many of your website’s pages have been found by the major search engines and are available to be provided as links in the results (SERP’s) of searches.

Crawl Date: The last time a search engine crawled (reviewed) your website. Search engines keep an eye on what’s changing on your website. If content is changing a lot, they will come back sooner. If things are not changing much at all, they come back less and less frequently. Search engines not stopping by is bad for business. You want to attract them to stop by frequently.

We hope this has been a helpful and informative article on making your website work for you, not against you!

Call us today for your no strings attached Complimentary 10 Point Website Evaluation.

Core Zero Creative
Delivering Success by Design since 1993
Commercial Web Design & Graphics
Custom Blog Design & Branding
Facebook Reveal Pages with Video, Opt-Ins, Ebooks, and Downloads
Social Media Graphics & Branding for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Digital Watercolor Architectural Renderings

 www.CoreZero.com
207-212-5100
Call Us Today!

]]> http://corezero.com/is-your-website-working-for-you/feed 1 http://corezero.com/are-you-ignoring-me http://corezero.com/are-you-ignoring-me#comments Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:28:33 +0000 Tina Bryant http://corezero.com/?p=3084 What I mean is, are “you”–the provider of services, products, events, etc.–ignoring “me”, your audience? Recently I’ve discovered a product that I could not live without! Seriously, I love it. I love it so much that I’ve posted about it several times on my social media profiles with links back to their profiles, I’ve voted [...]]]>

What I mean is, are “you”–the provider of services, products, events, etc.–ignoring “me”, your audience?

Recently I’ve discovered a product that I could not live without! Seriously, I love it. I love it so much that I’ve posted about it several times on my social media profiles with links back to their profiles, I’ve voted for their business to win a grant with a very nice testimonial, I’ve told an endless number of people about it AND I just bought this product again to bring across the country as a gift for someone else. Guess what? They have NEVER responded. Not even with a simple “thank you”. Really?!

Is it clear that any company would want someone like me being a marketing advocate for their product or service? We all want gads of people out their doing our advertising for us. That is the beauty of social media. The possibility is endless, free, and everyone else doing it for you! 350 MILLION users with an average daily session time of 25 minutes a day. Your social media profiles offer an exceptional chance for visibility on Google. Do you get that yet?

Ignore your audience at your own risk. I’m just sayin’…

If you’re looking to boost engagement on your brand’s Facebook Page, timing is everything. Key data collected from 200+ Facebook Pages over a 2 week period shows that timing is a key factor in determining the success of a Facebook post. More often than not, Facebook posts are ill-timed, and office hours could be the worst time of all to post content. Brands (that’s you!) must adapt to consumer schedules in order to optimize their engagement.

Facebook has an algorithm (a.k.a. ‘fancy math thing’) that doles out Edge Rank. Everything on Facebook has an ‘edge’. The term comes from the way we use it in business: having ‘an edge’ on your competition. Edges get compared, and ranked. Facebook keeps posts with higher Edge Rank closer to the top of your news feed–and more importantly–closer to the top of your friends’ news feeds. The more action and attention an item gets from your network–and the sooner it gets it–the higher the Edge Rank. Edge Rank is averaged continuously over time, and fades rather quickly.

Here are a few definitions and informative stats:

• Comment Rate: The number of comments as a percentage of fan base.

• Like Rate: The number of Likes as a percentage of fan base.

• Engagement Rate: A combination of the above, factoring in fan base size.

• Post Timing: Posts outside of normal business hours show 20% higher engagement rates.

• Post Length: Posts between 1 and 80 characters have a 27% higher engagement rate than posts with 80+ characters, however, only 19% of all posts are in this range.

• URL Shorteners: Engagement rates are three times higher for posts that used a full URL, as opposed to a URL shortener.

So how do you crack the code? There is no set answer that works for everyone. You just knew I’d say that, didn’t you? The best strategy is to make informative, entertaining, and even controversial posts that are 80% to 90% of the time about what (you think) your audience wants to hear, as opposed to what you want to say or sell that day. Once you post, STICK AROUND AND ENGAGE! At least for 10 to 20 minutes. Post and check back 3 to 4 times a day (minimum) to interact. If you’re doing this, you’ll find your own best times to post, you’ll start having some fun engaging, and you’ll increase your exposure. You’re better off not even getting started with Facebook than to start and stop. As soon as people see you’re not interacting they stop coming back.

Here’s a final secret to keep in mind as you work on your posting schedule: It is a statistical proven fact that the hands-down best and absolute highest exposure time to post is on Sundays between 6:00pm and 9:00pm PST (Pacific Standard Time) while everyone is winding down from the weekend, catching up, and gearing up for the new week.

Here’s to Your Success!

Eric

The thing you’ll probably be doing most with your WordPress Blog is writing and publishing posts. This is a short video showing you how to get started. %%theme_more%%

Social Media Marketing Client Adds 10 New Sales Per Day–Fully Automated!

While working with us on social media marketing, one of our clients created a FREE group on LinkedIn and attracted 200 vendors for his product. One of those vendors has a call center that makes 10,000 calls every day %%theme_more%%

Facebook recently made some sweet changes to Tagging & Comment functionality. I’ve recorded a quick Screencast here for you to check out. The key points are:

• You can Tag people in Updates (you knew that, right?)
• You can Tag people in Comments now
• You can Edit Comments
• The “Comment” button went away
• You can write on multiple lines in Comments

Click here to check out the walk-through!

In case you hadn’t heard, search engines are indexing social media posts now, and linking them up to user searches. There’s not much more I can add to this simple, short, and powerful video by my friend Gary Vaynerchuk. The guy has vision. Heard of Barnes & Noble? OK, how about Amazon crushed them? Ever heard of BlockBuster? OK, how about Netflix wasted them? Getting the picture?

You have Social Media Marketing questions.
Core Zero has answers.

I just finished an architectural illustration of a new project being started by SunRiver St. George. This project will be nested within the beautiful valley of Green Springs in St. George, Utah.

This was a rush project created from designs by Jeff Andrews of Jeff Andrews Custom Home Design, Inc. Jeff is a wonderful designer bursting with creativity and a skilled knowledge of function. We both had only a few days to design and complete a rendering for this proposed 26,000 sq.ft. facility with all the fixins’ inside and out! Jeff has designed a beautiful garden for the residents to stroll through. I look forward to seeing the final built project.

This is what our client had to say about working with us

Jeff and Tina

Just Finished  the meeting for the community.  Both of your drawings and work received  rave reviews.  Thanks to both of you for all of your hard work in a very short period of time. I know that both of you lost many hours of sleep accommodating our timeline. It turned out well.

Thanks again!

Janeen