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Why Small Businesses Need SEO

Put yourself in the shoes of someone starting up a business (maybe those are your shoes). You need a storefront in which you'll showcase your products and sell your services. You want business, lots of business!

Now imagine that you build your storefront in the middle of a forest. You don't put up a sign. There are no real roads to get to your store. How much business do you expect? Well, maybe a few people whom you've talked to personally will call you and order your services. They may even refer a friend or two. But if your direct competitor is situated in the middle of a busy mall, you can bet that he's getting far more business than you, even if your services or prices are better!

Google Analytics - Visitor Languages

At face value, the Languages report seems pretty basic - it's a report that tells you the preferred language of your visitors based on their browser settings. However, this is more than a simple list language-region combinations, this is valuable insight into how your site performs by segment, and where you should be concentrating your marketing efforts.

Using 'Top 10' lists in Email subject lines

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

E.g. "The Top 10 Subject Lines of This Year"

For some strange reason, people are fascinated with ‘top 10’ (or any other number) lists. You have simply to watch the Digg homepage to see how popular they are. I can’t explain why, perhaps people just like to validate whether or not the list matches their opinions, and debate it if not. Regardless of the rationale, they work, so use them in your subject lines.

Google Analytics - New vs. Returning Visitors

The next report after the Map Overlay report is the New vs. Returning Visitors report. This report is pretty straightforward, but can still provide valuable insight into the nature of your visitors, and the ability of your website content to generate return visits. The report looks like this:

How to create urgency with email subject lines

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

One of the best tips I can give you for creating an enticing subject line is to create a sense of urgency. Use a deadline. Here are two examples:

• [Company name] weekend clearance – 2 days only!
• Limited-time offer for our subscribers – expires MM/DD/YY

The importance of a good subject line

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

The subject line is one of the most important determinants of whether or not someone will open your email. The most common problem I see with subject line planning is that it doesn't actually happen! People pour time and thought into content and design, and at the last minute say “oh, what subject are we going to use?”. Please, this is one of the biggest recommendations I can make: start planning your subject line when you start planning your campaign!

Google Analytics - The Map Overlay

The Map Overlay is the first tab, or option, after the Visitors Overview. This visual report enables you to measure traffic volume (visits, pageviews), but as well visitor quality (pageviews per visit, conversion rates, per visit value, etc) metrics by geographic region. The default view is by continent, but can be narrowed right down to city level. Of course, the location data is based on the visitors' IP address, therefore it's really the location of the ISP:

What's a good bounce rate?

Recently while walking through Google Analytics with a client, he asked what the bounce rate was. I explained that it's simply the measure of people that arrive at a page on your site, and exit, or 'bounce' off your site without going any further. These people either found the info they need on that one page, don't see what they're looking for, or are confused about where to go from there.

His bounce rate was 25%, and he was worried about that. I was actually quite impressed, as in my experience that's pretty low! I was going to write a lengthy article on the subject, but Scott from Self Made Minds does such a great job explaining bounce rates, that I don't need to.  Great article, I'll be keeping that one on hand!