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Dear Bruce,
BRUCE ARNOLD is sending you this newsletter to help
you make better use of the
Internet for business results and personal success.
This is a complimentary publication. You
can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the
SafeUnsubscribe(tm) link below.
This month we are going back to the basics ... sharing
our ideas on how best to measure and manage the
effectiveness of your website. As you have probably
heard before ... IF IT AIN'T MEASURED, IT AIN'T
MANAGED.
Web Marketing Metrics, Part 1
Many people think getting a "hit" on your website
means somebody viewed your web pages. Some people
think a "hit" means somebody responded to your
website's call-to-action by clicking through, calling you,
or coming by. A few people think a "hit" means
somebody came to your website, liked what they saw,
and became a new customer. NONE OF THESE ARE
CORRECT. In Internet terminology, a "hit" is defined
as "... a single file request in the access log of a web
server." In this context, a hit or "file request" does not
equate to a web page visited or viewed.
When someone calls up a web page, the page itself is
one file request. If that page includes component
objects or parts--like embedded flash animations or
standardized headers or footers--they each count as a
file request. And every graphic on the page, both those
you can see and "spacers" used for formatting, each
generate a file request. Consequently, it would not be
unusual for a single visitor calling up a single web page
to generate 100 hits from a single click.
In other words, the presence of hits is an absolute
indicator of activity, but hit counts alone don't really
mean much. They should never be used as a
comparative measure of traffic between two web pages
or websites. As we have shown, a website getting
10,000 hits a month might be getting only 100 visitors a
month, yet it might be getting twice the traffic of a
site that boasts 50,000 hits a month!
"Hits" are not a useful measure of website
traffic. "Unique visits" and "page views" are. Please read
on....
click here for more ...
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Web Marketing Metrics, Part 2 |
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I once met with the president of an apparel retailer
with 30 locations in 10 states. I asked him what his
objectives were in making changes to their eCommerce
website. He said they were ". . . not selling
zip online," and that consequently he felt it was time
to ". . . change their web host." I explained that if they
were not making sales online, the cause had
to be a lack of traffic (positioning), an ineffective call
to action (messaging and presentation), or both. I then
asked how much traffic the website was getting. He
said he didn't review their traffic reports, so he didn't
know.
He didn't know? Perhaps that was a false admission to
conceal an embarassing truth. Had I known for sure it
was not, I might have stopped the meeting right there.
There was no need to point out that messaging,
presentation and positioning are functions of web
DESIGN, not web HOSTING . . . or that changing web
hosts would be about as likely to increase sales as new
carpeting in his clothing stores. IF IT AIN'T
MEASURED, IT AIN'T MANAGED. There is no objective,
intelligent way to judge the effectiveness of your
business website or ecommerce platform without
knowing how much traffic your site is receiving. A
website with persuasive messaging and professional
presentation will sell nothing if it has poor positioning
and therefore receives no traffic. Conversely, a website
with pervasive positioning yet poor messaging and
presentation can be equally ineffective. And if you do
not monitor your web traffic, you cannot evaluate your
performance, or identify areas for improvement.
As we said earlier, HITS ARE NOT A
SUFFICIENT MEASURE of website traffic. What you
really need to know is WHO is coming to your website,
HOW they came to you, WHERE they came from, and
WHAT they are doing while they are there. Useful
measures include "unique visitors", "number of
visits, "number of page views", "referrals", dates and
times.
If you are not effectively measuring and regularly
monitoring your web traffic, you are not managing your
website. For some basic tools you can use, please
read on....
click here for more ... »
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Web Marketing Metrics, Part 3 |
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Measuring the return on investment (ROI) for a financial
instrument is simple enough: Divide the annual income
generated by the principal amount invested, and there
you have it. Measuring web ROI--like that of most
marketing investments--is much more complicated.
Intangible returns--like increased brand recognition or
customer satisfaction brought about by your web
presence--can be difficult to objectively value.
Accurately tracking all the business attributable to your
website can also be a challenge. How many times, for
example, has a prospect called your office or come by
your store without relating that they "found you"
on the Web? DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR
CALCULATOR, THOUGH. There are several objective
and quantifiable metrics that can help you
monitor and improve your web marketing results. Here
are three:
CLICK-THROUGH RATE. This is the number of times a
unique visitor clicks a promotional link (banner ad,
sponsor ad, link list, search engine result, etc.), divided
by the number of exposures of that link. The higher the
click-through rate, the better. We have seen click-
through rates ranging from 0.1% to 15%. There is no
such thing as a good or bad click-through rate,
however, except as compared to other click-through
rates where factors are equal or conditions similar.
Click-through rates can be improved by (a) more
persuasive messaging, or (b) exposure to a more
qualified market.
AVERAGE PAGE VIEWS. For any given period, this is the
number of web pages viewed, divided by the number of
visits. This metric has no meaning for a one-page
website, but otherwise it can be a useful measure of
actual versus anticipated visitor interest and site
navigation. The ideal average value will be a function of
web site and page organization. For many sites,
however, a value less than 3 may suggest room for
improvement in messaging (call-to-action),
presentation (alluring architecture), or positioning
(targeted audience).
CLOSING RATE. For any given period, this is the number
of visitors who accept and execute your call-to-action
(e.g., by becoming an identified prospect or a paying
customer), divided by the total number of visitors.
Some people like to apply a direct mail rule-of-thumb to
this key web marketing metric, and say that anything
above 2% is a success. We have engineered websites
that achieved closing rates of over 14%. If you'd
like to see what we can do to increase your closing
rate and overall web ROI, call Bruce Arnold today.
click here for more ... »
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99 ... 97 ... 95 ... 75 |
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99% of all Internet users reference search engines to
find what they are looking for. 97% of that traffic goes
to the Top 20 listings for any given search. 95% of
Bruce Arnold's web clients hold multiple Top 20
positions for their targeted search terms. Over 75% of
Bruce Arnold's web clients hold multiple NUMBER ONE
positions on major search engines.
In other words, Bruce Arnold (re)designs websites so
that they look good, rank high, get traffic and generate
revenue for their owners. Isn't that really what
business web design should be about?
clikc here for more ... »
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