toniCarr

Most people, especially small businesses  today have a website. Most very proud of their web presence and should be and naturally their websites bring them business. Many times in ways they never thought possible. But what  do they REALLY know about their website and what could be done differently? Until you emmerse (much like baptism) your site into search analytics you will never know.

Analytics is one method to get “personal” with your website. Common questions you should ask yourself: 

• Who is visiting your website?
• Where did they come from (referer)?
• How long are they staying on your site?
• What pages do they enter and exit your site?
• Are they submitting a contact form or buying a product (converting)?

How do you do this, without spending a lot of money on products that may not work?
I have tried different software packages (which I don’t want to get into here) and some do work, but right now my favorite is Google Analytics. Why? Because it is truly free and has great easy to read information. Google Analytics does take some time to learn and they say you get what you pay for, but I do believe it is worth the effort. I am now a “Google Analytics Junkie”.

Let’s get started with your website:

1. First you need a chunk of code to put on “every” page of your website that you wish to track. This is your tracking code. You can get this code by signing up for an AdWords account or if you have a gmail account use that as your user name/password (you don’t have to participate in AdWords). Here is the link to Google Analytics help center http://www.google.com/analytics/indexu.html
2. Now you are in your adWords account, this is really confusing. Across the top are tabs click on Analytics and that should get you started. “Create my free Google Analytics account”. Click on the continue>> button
3. Follow the directions on this page, submit >> accept the terms >>
4. Wallah - cut and past this code into your website right before the </body> tag on EVERY page you wish to track.
5. I know your lost, try the help center link above, it is worth your time and I know you can do it.

Now the fun begins watch the information roll in, give it some time. You will want to create what is known as the dashboard, personalize your dashboard.
Sample dashboard:

 This can be done by clicking through the information on the left hand navigation. For each category there is a button on the top of the page to either export / email / add to dashboard . Get familiar with these buttons. I have a report sent to me weekly with my dashboard information so that I do not have to login to find out what is going on and it gives me past week comparisons.

Some of my favorite information is: 

1. site useage 
2. the map overlay (where in the world are these visitors)
3. traffic sources overview  (where is all you traffic coming from)
4. content overview (what pages are most popular)
5. all traffic sources (who is referring to you)
6. Visitors overview (clicks per day, who is unique, how many page views…)
7. Now my favorite, setting goals and the funnel report

In each category you can get more and more granular, the best part - our friends at Google do it all for FREE!

Before I became a Google Analytics Junkie, I was THE original  Google Addict. My SEO addictions don’t appear to be going away. Does anyone know of a good 12 step program? Have fun and beware of the addictions.

SMXWest 2008

These are my notes from SMXWest 2008. Much of it is in shorthand. But if I did not do it in this fashion I would never get it out. I compare it to when you are in school and you needed to borrow a classmates notes. If you feel I got something wrong or it needs more definition please comment.

During the conference they had an open WiFi (provided by SEOMoz.org) and many participants had their computers open and were taking notes, others were chatting on IM, some were surfing the web, checking email; I think they call it multi tasking. I made a conscious decision that during the sessions I would not have access to my computer and that I would write my notes. This could be a generational thing, but for me personally I get distracted and do not get the full benefit.

Day One

  Keynote Speech by Danny Sullivan

  Search 3.0, Search 4.0 & Beyond

What was/is Search 2.0?

• Click through
• Links – aka pagerank
• Context = link text

The keywords “miserable failure” – who pops up #1 and Google kills it.

What is Search 3.0?

  Vertical search (what does that mean)

  Blended search, universal search, invisible tabs

  Vertical results are blended together

  Local / Video / News

Ask.com now has a 3 pane or column SERP

  Microsoft – LiveSearch LiveScopes

  Yahoo – shortcuts to upcoming events now introducing Yahoo! SearchMonkey

Search 4.0

  All about what you do personally, this currently is mainly done by Google

  Tracking your search history and where you go on the internet to come up with better “personalized” results. Gone are the days when everyone sees the same site rankings

  Since, everyone sees things differently therefore it takes in the information from your personalize search page i.e. iGoogle, you can turn personalized search off by logging out of google. You can also add three characters to the end of your search and it will not use personalized tracking. (I have to look through my notes to find the actual characters but I think it was “&pws”. Please don’t quote me on that because I am not sure.

One thing personalized search is missing is the human factor and that is how you are feeling at the moment.

Types of Social Searching:

• Social Search “swickis”
• Social Sites and social bookmarking: Digg, Delicious …
• Social Networking: Facebook, MySpace

The joining of SMM and SEO (the WonderTwins as they were referred to at the conference)

  Social Media Marketing and SEO:

• Builds links back to your content
• Authority sites
• New site needs to make use of Digg
• Delicious – number of people that have clicked on a page, book marked it in Delicious
• Google Reader – ranks how many have subscribed to an RSS Feed

Time to understand all of this now.

Search 5.0

  Two examples:

• Mahalo.com
• Hakia.com

Regarding the merger of Yahoo and Microsoft:

• Yahoo is a credible search engine and Microsoft needs the traffic
• This may give ask.com the opportunity to rise up

Yahoo made a search announcement at the conference.

• The search is more enhanced, you create your own apps.
• Bringing in media, photos, video…
• Task links
• Structured data of ratings and price, hours with addresses
• User choice (remove a listing or report it is spam)

This is about giving the user more control, another form of personalization, add or turn off enhancements

  Learn more about it at http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/open.html

  This is what Yahoo! claims:

  Everyone Wins.Site Owners:
Boost site traffic quality and quantity with visibly differentiated search results through this free program.
Searchers:A more relevant and efficient search experience with deep links, product reviews, prices, photos and more from preferred sites.
Get more information from http://www.ysearchblog.com
Different sites will provide search information, they feel there will be an open playing field for everyone not jus the Yahoo! Properties

Next  I will share my notes from additional sessions. 

Hear I am dusting off my blog, and I really mean dust it off  (phewwwww) I am currently at  SMX West and  once again getting the shot in the arm (ouch) to get back to work with my blog. Once I get the itch I write, but then life gets in my way.

My review, SMX has done a great job of knowing what people want to hear. The keynote speaches so far have been right on.  Danny Sullivan spoke on the first day about where search is going (always a good topic) and he did have a lot of relevant information, web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 …. infinity. What does it all mean. I think we are all struggling, and no one so far has the answer. The big buz is blended search, personalized search, yes just get noticed, (lift up your petti-coat). Mixing everything, from maps, images, videos, books, blogs condensed into one page and we don’t want to look like Costco.

One of the moderators Vannessa Fox, has a website VannessaFoxNude.com, having the word nude in her url you can imagine the ’great’ hits she must be getting. But truly that is what it is all about bearing our souls to each other, and doing in anonimously? 

Here I am with a new a shot in the arm, the orignial Google Addict once again learning how to position my search engine marketing. I am getting to old for this? Hopefully you will  read more, but wait I can’t stop now, I had a long conversation with a group of eBay boys (and they were cute) about how my experience with eBay has disolved. I started with eBay 8+ years ago when it was truly a community and I expressed to them how I feel eBay has lost that true communtiy feeling and that I miss it. There were a group of us with cottage industries that just got swallowed away by the “POWER SELLERS”.  ebay truly was one of the first social networks, that went wrong. What are your thoughts? 

I refuse to begin my blog post with “I haven’t written in my blog for a long time blah blah blah”. Obviously writing in my blog is not my forte. I always have great ideas and don’t seem to follow through. Today I am so moved to write about 301 redirects. This is not a post about how to do 301 redirects, believe me there are many of those out there. What I want to relate is the importance, the freak out factor and the search engine affect involved when one goes through the 301 redirect process, making a domain change or file change on their website.

When one gains ranking for a major keyword term, you never want to lose it. I am always checking Google to see how I or my clients rank for certain terms. As usual we go up, down but tend to stay in a pretty stable placement if we continue to update our sites and stay ahead of the competition.

Just recently I had a client that for one reason or another had to change their domain name for legal reasons, they shall remain unnamed. I walked this particular client through what needed to be done, so that they did not lose page rank or get dinged for duplicate content. We went through the painful process of implementing the 301 redirect on the site. Everything was working great, Google had not made the update but the redirect was working. Then the Google bomb drops!!!

Phone call, from client “I am on page 7 for my XXX keyword, so much for your 301redirect”. In the SEO business you either have clients that are thrilled with you or irate with you. In my humblest voice I told them not to worry that Google was making their adjustments and they would retain their old ranking when the dust settles. Maybe not #1 but, it would slowly work it’s way back up. Client “we will see, it was fun while it lasted, …. I have to go to an appointment.” –click– That was a week ago at most.

Today I did a quick look see and guess what, there they were, not #1 (as they had been) but #3. I just love this business!! Did I say “told you so”? It was tempting, my next suggestion to them, was to put up a blog posting or update a page using those precious keywords.

One thing SEO has taught me is how to take abuse politely and with wise patience. I will not allow Google to control my life; only my keywords.

I came across this blog today and thought you might find it interesting. Should help you understand “Blog Speak“. For some reason he has the page set so that it automatically clicks to his homepage, don’t be fooled you will have to click back. Kind of annoying!

Last week I attended the Search Engine Strategy Conference (SES) in San Jose. As I was driving down from my home in Marin County, I was trying to count how many conferences I have attended.� Amazingly enough this was my fourth conference, it seems impossible, but I have four years of Google Dance t-shirts so it must be true. The Google Dance is known as the big party event of the conference and Google does a great job of making it that way.� Lot�s of food, games, drinks, giveaways, music and product information. Of course most of the people (kids) seem to be half my age!! But I always manage to have fun. View the pictures from the party held at the Google headquarters in Mountain View.

The conference is divided into business tracks from fundamentals, PR, to advanced search engine optimization. This year I was happily impressed with my own level of confidence and expertise in regards to the type of sessions that looked interesting to me. I also feel that my clients level of expertise is getting more advanced therefore it is evermore important�to step up my skills and look outside of the box for new ways of doing business. Some of the most interesting sessions I attended had to do with Blogs and feed searches. It is my prediction that one day Blogs will be like web sites “everyone” will have some form of a Blog on their site. As community becomes more in the forefront, Blogging provides the outlet.

Just having a Blog is not enough. Getting published and the feed search engines (RSS) is enough to make your eyes glaze over twice. Another technology to master. The Blog and feed search engines that were represented at the session were Technorati, Topix.net, Bloglines, Sphere.com and Techmeme.com. Each has there own qualities, some it is important to subscribe and set up your own profile. Today most if not all of the subscriptions are free. Who knows this may change. I can see it now, their will be elite Blog Clubs to keep the riff raff out. =o)

Attending the conference is always enlightening to hear what others are doing, shareing ideas, seeing friends and acquaintances from past years like Dan Thies and Matt Bailey. �I met one new friend from Colorado while standing in the line to board the bus to the Google Dance, he has a web based business Rent Vine he wrote a great article in his Blog about his first experience at SES take a look.

Hope to see you in the Blogoshere!

The other day I was talking to a lawyer friend and she asked me how to promote her business on the �internet�?

Since every business is different and the business model for one in the same field can be different for another there are a few basics or first steps to think about. My first thoughts without seeing the website:

• The content of the site - should not be about you, but what can you do for me (the viewer looking for your services) and what sets you apart. Testimonials are great, examples about how you helped your clients without being too specific. How do you work? How long will it take?
  
• How focused and user friendly is the site - is the information easy to find, there is a rule nothing should be more than two clicks away.
  
• Do you get the results you want to see when searching for your business on the search engines? Where are the SE�s getting the information on your site for their listings?
  
• There are key word reports that list how people search and what terms they are using. With this information you can focuse the content without sounding corney.
  
• How often is your site updated? Do you personally refer clients to use your website as a working tool? If someone (a client) has a legal question would they think to go to your website for the answer? Books on the subject, links to information on the internet. Your website could become the hub for expert opinion.
  
• As a lawyer, most of your clients may be local, where do you rank for a local search? �Are you in the local directories? When someone does a local search and your name is listed what page do they come to? .
  
• While your doing the tuneup on your website, start some�online news and press releases that will link back to your site. Check out PRWeb�http://www.prweb.com/�. Make sure you truly have news or something to report.

Some people may be confused over difference between a�search engine and a directory. Why is it important to be in both?��To the everyday computer user it may�seem transparent. What about those phone calls or emails that tell you they will submit your website to a �bazillion� search engines. Do they really mean search engines and are there really a �bazillion� of them out there? Next time they call I would ask them that question.

A recent study on Search Engine User Behavior �found that 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of users click on a result within the first three pages of search results.� The last study was done in 2002, when the statistics reflected 48% and 81%, respectively. As a search engine marketer this once again reveals the importance behind appearing on the first few pages of search results.My question would be are users learning to dig deeper for more personalized results and are the search engines providing the users with better results?

This study, supported by iProspect (a search engine marketing firm) along with Jupiter Research, also revealed that searchers are not only loyal to a specific search engine but they’re increasingly using lengthier queries. Most searchers, 82% stay with the same search engine after an unsuccessful search and try again with more or different keywords versus changing search engines. �Just 68% stayed with the same engine in 2002.� We are now seeing a new brand loyalty to search engines. It sounds like the search tool bars are working, I know it does for me.

This study also found that 36% of the searchers polled believe that companies whose websites are returned at the top of the search results are the top companies in their field. Slightly more (39%) felt neutral on this question. But then 25% said that top search engine rankings had nothing to do with market or brand leadership. Searchers are becoming more seasoned and doing more personalized research. Therefore getting your web site to be spidered deeper so that�it will be found for these customized searches is even more important. The information also�supports gaining a better�understanding of who and how your clients are finding you.

For the entire article and more statistics you may read the article at:
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3598011

Click this link for a full copy of the Search Engine User Behavior Study .

Adding good quality information (content) to your web site is never a waste of time. The process of SEO is really making an investment in your site and business. The goal is to make your web site the �authority� on your product and services. Once you get known by the engines for that kind of content, other sites will start linking to your site (boosting your popularity) as a great source of reference. The search engines will view the site as quality content, due to the popularity in linking, and the site can be depended on, therefore the site improves in rankings. SEO is really about making your site the best it can be.

The goal�of SEO is to optimize the entire site so that it’s the best it can be for the search engines as well as your users (viewers). My job (as SEO) is to help it to be found in the engines for� lots of� phrases that relate to it, but as you know I can’t simply *place* a site in the engines for a specific keyword, in a certain position. That is where PPC (pay per click)�comes in.

Within your content you want to analyze the key words on each page,�that�are relevant to your business. This will help your potential customers�to find you�and educate them about your goods or services. SEO does not happen over night and it really is a process, the rules are always changing and what works one day may not work another. From my experience good quality �content is king� and it will remain that way. Adding links within your content using key words gives you�that extra needed�boost. It is never a waste of time.��