Web Trends and Insights

Universal Analytics and SEO - When to Switch

Campbell — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:12:14

Universal Analytics is a Google service that was initially available to Premium customers only, but is now available to everyone with Google Analytics. So what is Universal Analytics, and how will this tool help businesses manage and execute their online strategies?

What is Universal Analytics?

Universal Analytics allows for a better understanding of how visitors are arriving at and interacting with your website and your organisation. The benefits of Universal Analytics include:

- More customised data using a new code snippet.

- Track more than just websites, including mobile and other devices, and send the data straight to your Google Analytics account with the Measurement Protocol.

- The ability to customise configuration settings – you can see many examples and lots of information about them here.

- Track a single user for up to two years, allowing you to track a user’s behaviour over a very-extended period of time.

- Advanced advertisement tools are arriving in the near future, like Content Experiments, AdSense tools, and more.

Adding UA to your website will require a new tracking code – learn how to set up the new feature here. And because UA is really only a new way of collecting data, there are no new reports to go along with it.

Should I Add Universal Analytics?

Universal Analytics is an example of the ways Google Analytics (and other software) can track the many various steps and actions a user can take while interacting with your organisation. Not all users simply sign on to a website, do a quick browse and make a purchase; it is often a more complicated picture. And while analytics is far from perfect, updates like Universal Analytics help construct the greater story behind the user’s experience.

That said...if you are doing analytics on your own and just a beginner, some recommend waiting before installing Universal Analytics. It looks like Google will be adding an upgrade feature to allow users to simply change to Universal Analytics rather than installing a completely separate set of analytics, as you have to do now (there has been no official announcement from Google on this as of yet).

For many companies, Universal Analytics and the customisation that goes along with it provides too many benefits to wait for such an upgrade. Having the data for a longer period of time will also be an advantage in the future, even if you aren’t completely ready to delve into the many features and customisation tools available.

Don't Get Overwhelmed by Data

Campbell — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:42:02

Last week I wrote about the importance of data when creating, implementing and maintaining an online strategy. But with so many tools, platforms and metrics out there, how can a business wrap its head around this information without feeling overwhelmed and outmatched?

Overcoming the Over-Info

Looking at a Google Analytics report can give anyone a headache if there is no focussed strategy to fall back on. Where do we start to fix our website or improve it when faced with such a huge amount of data to interpret? Not to mention that analytics are far from perfect. Here are some tips to keep it simple and get data to work for you.

Choose your platform: There are many paid and free analytics platforms and software available to businesses of all sizes, and it’s best to avoid paying for far too many features that you don’t need. That said it’s also important to think in the long-term and plan for future expansion. Google Analytics is a standard choice because of its reach, its simplicity and its efficiency, and it’s one of our preferred platforms (you can learn more about it at our free Analytics & AdWords seminar in May).

Limit your goals: Setting up KPIs attached to your analytics is an excellent idea but don’t get carried away! Start with 3-5 initial goals that align with your overall business strategy. When you become more familiar with analytics you can think about getting into areas like microconversions, the behaviour of specific users, and other levels of information, but keep it simple for now! Track things like traffic, transactions, registrations and other major levels of engagement from customers first, and then work with that information before diving in too deep.

And check out my 9 Metrics to Measure blog post from last week.

Monitor: Regularly monitor the data and look for trends. When you make adjustments – both large and small – set up goals and benchmarks, or else you won’t know if those changes are for better or worse.

Maintain: Take an inventory of your resources and time commitments. Where can you seriously schedule the time to monitor the data behind your online presence? It helps to have a designated representative within your company who can “own” the analytics and track the data on a regular basis (see above). This person should, ideally, either work with an external partner in the web or stay up to date on analytics (or both) in order to keep your organisation ready for the ever-present changes in the web industry.

We’re hosting a free evening seminar on May 8th where Jason Healey, our head of bwired Services, will present a Google Analytics and Google AdWords 101 presentation. We're currently fully booked but feel free to sign up for our wait list for the May event!

9 Metrics to Measure for a Better Web Strategy

Campbell — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:49:28

Google’s recently released Universal Analytics for all users (it was previously only available to Premium customers), and it’s a good reminder of the importance of data in online strategies in 2013. Forming a strong web strategy to back up your business goals is basically impossible without some data behind it.

We’re always talking about how you can’t manage your online presence if you can’t measure it, so today I’m going to go into some details about the types of things you can measure using a tool like Google Analytics. Now, every business requires its own strategies and will need to focus on the metrics that are best for THEIR GOALS, but these are some great starting points when determining how you will use Google Analytics. Data is king!

We’re also hosting a seminar about Google Analytics in a few weeks – check out information about this free seminar in Melbourne here.

Measurements to Improve Your Website

1. Bounce Rates: “Bounce rate is the percentage of visits that go only one page before exiting a site” (so says Google), and it can be caused by many factors: Poor loading times, a bad design, crappy content, misleading landing pages. Check out the video from Google about bounce rates and how to improve them - as Avinash Kaushil says, where is this crappy traffic coming from? (Also: What are the differences between and Exit Rate and a Bounce Rate?)

2. Traffic: Knowing the largest sources of your website traffic can make major differences in your future online strategy. For example, if you are seeing a large amount of traffic from paid ads but less traffic from email marketing, you can divert more resources to ads and less to emails.

3. Mobile traffic: To get more specific, check out which mobile devices are being used to access your website. This can help determine your mobile strategy, such as choosing between a separate mobile website or responsive design.

4. Keywords: Find out which keywords are bringing people from search engines to your website through organic search. Use this information to improve and refine keywords to attract more useful site traffic. These phrases can also be used to determine the best Google AdWords for your business.

5. Content: Data is king? Wait…I thought content was king! This isn’t Game of Thrones; we can all be happy together. Use analytics to see what content is capturing the attention of your audience and turn that knowledge into a targeted content strategy.

6. User interactions: Events refer to an action that goes beyond a simple page view, like watching a video or downloading a PDF. Conversions are related to page views and destinations, such as a checkout page or contact page. Using a mix of events and conversions, choosing what to track will be determined by your business goals. Try not to measure too much and focus on the basics at first, then build from there.

7. Load times: Check the load time of your web pages. A slow load time for a web page is very frustrating for mobile and desktop users, and can easily lead them to a competitor website.

8. Exit pages: Find out where your users are coming and going by looking at both landing and exit pages. Exit pages should be order completion areas, a ‘thank you for signing up for our newsletter’ page, or even a phone number contact page, and NOT the middle of a checkout process. Use this information as an opportunity to improve particular areas of a website or even a single web page.

9. Landing pages: What pages are most users seeing when they first arrive on your website? Add calls to action or include special information to improve conversions and to take advantage of leads. For example, change a landing page depending on the traffic source leading to the page (e.g. Email, social media account, online ad). This is also a good area to experiment with different landing pages and seeing which design/layout/navigation contributes to more conversions.

Measure, Learn, Refine

There are a huge number of user interactions that you can track on a website, which is why it’s important to establish business goals before developing a web strategy and diving into analytics. And though data cannot give us all the answers, making small changes can deliver major results.

To learn more about getting started in Google Analytics and AdWords, attend our FREE seminar on May 8th.

Mobile and SEO - Worth the Worry?

Campbell — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:32:54

According to an article from Search Engine Journal, “Yelp reported several months ago that about 40% of searches came from their mobile app. BGR chimed in to say that a little more than 10% of all web searches originate from mobile devices. We’re now past the stage of expecting that mobile devices will take over web searches — the process is already underway.”

With so many customers using their mobile phones to search, should we be taking a separate approach to search engine optimisation for the mobile user? Do we need new techniques to get our website to the top of mobile search results? This is a much-discussed topic, with some commentators saying we don’t need a mobile SEO strategy while others say that mobile SEO requires its own techniques and planning. But as we’ve learned over the past 12+ years – when it comes to web strategy, there are no easy answers.

Arguments Against Mobile SEO (and for Responsive Design)

Some of the arguments against the idea of “mobile SEO” are really just arguments against the idea that we use tablets, smartphones and desktop computers for different purposes and therefore need a separate mobile website (and a separate SEO strategy for that website). And if you’re at all up to speed on the web industry, you’ll know this often ends up as an argument FOR responsive design.

With responsive design, a single website can be viewed (and will, in theory, look great) on all types of screens. The site’s appearance will change according to the device being used; for example, a mobile site may have less content and images than the desktop site, but it removes the need to create and update a completely separate mobile site. And check out our post from Viv Trang about responsive design versus mobile apps. A single website also means a single URL for both desktop and mobile sites, which then allows Google to easily discover your website.

But a responsive design is not always the absolute best choice for SEO...

Arguments For Mobile SEO

Google recommends responsive design, but this does NOT mean that it is the right option for every business: “If responsive design is not the best option to serve your users, Google supports serving your content using different HTML...” And it also looks like separate mobile URLs do not affect organic search traffic and do not dilute link equity. Plus, Google introduced “switchboard tags” to support separate mobile sites using the m-dot domain (m.websitename.com).

And while we’re big fans of responsive design, it’s not going to be the right option for everyone. Check out this guide to SEO best practices for mobile websites.

Examples of SEO Practices for Mobile AND Responsive Design

Here are some tips to incorporate into your SEO strategy that considers the mobile user, no matter which mobile method you’re doing:

Consider shorter keywords: Typing on a smartphone is not always the easiest experience, so focus on short keywords in your SEO strategy. And according to this SEJ article, mobile users are also likely to tap on the keyword suggestions (you know, those phrases that pop up when you start type something into the search bar). It’s a good idea to look at those suggestions anyway for long tail keywords (another post for another time), so add this to your general SEO research for multiple benefits.

Local SEO: Sure, we don’t want to equate local SEO and mobile SEO, but we do want to focus on local search to help both mobile and “regular” SEO strategies. Browse this guide to building a local SEO roadmap; it’s long but it has many details and tools to point you in the right direction.

Analyse and update: Whether you go with responsive design or a separate mobile site, use analytics to examine the activity on your website, from traffic to bounce rates to the keywords driving desktop users versus mobile users. Analyse and optimise regularly! SEO strategies should be flexible and accommodating, so as your learn more about your site and your users, you can make those small changes that bring big results.

Learn more about Google Analytics at our May seminar in Prahran!

Would You Ever Pay for an Ad-Free Web Experience?

Campbell — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 05:46:35

According to a patent filed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and others, the social media giant may be considering something called Paid Profile Personalization. This personalisation could include many customized features, like removing the “About” section under your profile picture and adding a personalized status; but one potential features that stands out is the ability to remove ads and sponsored posts and replace them with items like photo albums and other “social networking objects.”

As many have noted, this patent doesn’t mean that Facebook will actually use this “Paid Profile Personalization” feature. But we must also remember, as Janko Roettgers at Gigaom points out, that “Facebook has been under significant pressure by Wall Street to increase monetization – and efforts to do this through ads and sponsored messages have led to some backlash.”

Personalisation in Social Media

Personalisation can be a powerful tool in social media (and many other areas of the web) but it can also be a hard thing to get right. Web users are freaked out by personalised ads and often consider it an invasion of privacy, but many also want more relevant search results.

Zuckerberg is clearly on top of this idea, not only with the (yet to be seen) Paid Profile Personalization, but also his promise of “the best personalized news feed” that Facebook can provide, as announced last month. And we all know that Facebook doesn’t mind changing things up when it comes to design and functionality, so why not add new personalisation features?

So, could this be a way for Facebook to boost revenue? Users aren’t thrilled about sponsored posts and ads to begin with, but would they also be annoyed at the thought of having to pay to remove ads? Or will the other personalisation features make it worth the money?

Thoughts? I don’t think we’ll be seeing Paid Profile Personalization any time soon, but what do you think?

Older Aussies and the Internet - Forget the Stereotypes

Campbell — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:57:00

In an age of changing technology, new social networks, and innovative web design and development, it may be easy to forget that some Internet users are going on to the web with much more simple goals in mind: to contact a friend, to find information, to send an email, to pay a bill. Today, older Australians are on the web but often using it differently than younger users. They have different goals, use different channels and have lower skills and experience levels than the average user.

With these differences in mind, it’s important for some organisations (far from all!) to think about their web strategy and how they may be isolating an important group of consumers – older Internet users (generally, aged 65 years and over).

Most Common Activities for Older Users

For older Aussies, the Internet is most often seen as a source of information and tools rather than a social setting; however, this is changing and older users are getting onto social networks than ever before - social media use by users over 65 years old has more than tripled in the past year as more Australians go online to see family photos, stay in touch and to keep up with younger generations.

Social networking also allows older users to connect with other online communities and fight social isolation. You may not want your mom or granny to see the photos from your night out last weekend, but she wants to connect with you (better master those new privacy settings - until Facebook changes them again).

Currently the most common activities on the web for older generations include:

Checking emails and sending emails with attachments
Browsing or searching the web
Online banking
Checking the weather

And according to ‘Older Australians and the Internet: Bridging the Digital Divide’, a study from the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre (NSPAC) that surveyed participants over 50 years of age, older users want to get on the web more frequently. The study tells us that over one-third of participants would like to use the internet to Skype, talk to people in other countries and use email. If they couldn’t access the internet, these participants felt they would be missing out on a great deal of information.

For example, accessing information on health-related topics is common activity for many Aussies, but it can have a great impact on older generations and their ability to self-manage their health.

And when learning new web skills like social networking, online banking and e-health, older users feel empowered. With the NBN roll out, we may be seeing more education and awareness for seniors, like information technology classes.

What’s Preventing Online Engagement

Despite a desire to learn about the web and computers in order to access information and keep up with younger generations, there are some obstacles preventing an increase in older web users, including:

Lack of knowledge about the web
Lack of skills
Cost
Privacy concerns
Limited access to technology and Internet connections

Tackling these issues will require education, awareness and changes on business websites to address these common concerns.

Creating an Online Experience for Older Users

If it’s appropriate for your industry, consider designing a website that caters to older web users. If they are not a primary audience, it may also be helpful to consider some factors that can help less experienced users find the information they need from your website. For example:

Email marketing
Simple design and navigation
Font size and colour contrast for older users
Less content on web page
Easy-to-find buttons, links and sign-up forms
No pop-ups
A design that works on multiple devices, especially tablets (a popular device for older users)
Be obvious and clear about security on the website, especially secure checkouts

So consider whether your website and web strategy is placing enough emphasis on older users. And also think about helping your older relatives learn a thing or two about the web! It can make a big difference!

4 New Ways to Think About Mobile Marketing

Campbell — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:41:20

Adding mobile to your web strategy is no longer about creating a separate mobile website and calling it a day. Mobile doesn’t get its own silo. There is no “set and forget it.” Consumers are mobile savvy, and businesses are just running to catch up to what is no longer a trend and now is just a part of being online. It is time to deliver real value through mobile channels!

That said...though we consider mobile to be a basic part of web strategy in 2013, we also know that is can be very complicated! For example, we are big proponents of responsive design, but it’s also true that some organisations will benefit from a separate mobile website.

So has your business started thinking about all of these mobile users (or as we like to call them, just....customers), a plethora of devices and the growing demand to deliver a seamless experience across multiple screens? There may be some areas of mobile that you haven’t thought about.

Four Important Ideas in Mobile Marketing

Here are four things to consider when integrating mobile into your larger business strategy:

1. Mobile and Content

How is your content appearing on multiple mobile devices? Is the content aligning with the needs of the mobile user? Depending on your business and web strategy, your mobile content may need to address that immediate need for information or for a course of action, which can be accomplished with a separate mobile website or a responsively designed site. (Choosing between the two will require some other considerations...but more on that another time.)

2. Mobile and Email Marketing

Customers are increasingly reading email on their mobile devices, adding a whole new twist to email marketing. How do your marketing emails appear on mobile devices? Are the messages aimed at the desktop user, or do you have to tweak the messaging for both mobile AND desktop? Or maybe more towards mobile?

There are many things to pick apart in this area of mobile. If your customers are more likely to read your emails on the weekends that may also mean they are more likely to use their mobile devices rather than a desktop, and that can have a big effect on your email marketing strategy!

3. Mobile and Design

We’ve written about mobile and design before – take a look at my post “Don’t Design for Mobile” where I talk about responsive design and the many benefits its offering businesses. That said, as mentioned above, sometimes a mobile website or even a mobile app could be best! It all depends on your business, its objectives and your audience. Check out the blog post for more!

4. Mobile and Analytics

One key element to answering some of the questions above is successful analytics. What platforms are customers using? Are mobile customers behaving differently than desktop users? What’s the difference between tablets versus smartphones? What time are my mobile users checking email most often? Your mobile strategy will depend, on large part, on the make-up and behaviour of your audience. Get the data and see what you’re dealing with; this is one of the earliest steps towards successfully integrating mobile into your overall web strategy.

It might be time to analyse each of these points in their own separate blog posts and really look at the data and what other businesses are doing in mobile. Is that something you’d be interested in? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter@bwired_group or @Campbell_Wilson.

Four Important Ideas in Mobile Marketing

Here are four things to consider when integrating mobile into your larger business strategy:

1. Mobile and Content

2. Mobile and Email Marketing

3. Mobile and Design

4. Mobile and Analytics

The Rise of Facebook Apps for Business?

Campbell — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:40:39

With Graph Search, Facebook is becoming a more useful tool for certain businesses. (You can read a blog from our own Jason Healey to learn more about Graph Search and its potential benefits for businesses). And through Facebook isn't the right tool for every organisation out there, there is one area of Facebook that can bring many benefits to a business page -custom applications.

We created an app for a client that shows off their latest work. The application makes use of visuals (which is very important on social media these days!), it’s easy to use and it allows potential customers to view some gorgeous images without ever leaving Facebook. The app provides a simple, attractive introduction to the company and what they’re about via a network that you’re already using on a possibly-daily basis. Interested in more? The user can then head straight to the website to learn more or to contact the company.

Make Facebook Apps Work for Your Business
Before jumping into the app game, ask the following questions:

What are you getting out of it?
Adding a Facebook app because there are millions of users on the social network and it seems like a hip thing to do is NOT a good reason. Will the app improve sales and be integrated into your eCommerce site? Is the app acting as a welcome page that encourages users to sign up to your newsletter? You must have some actual business objectives aligned to you application before you even think of developing a Facebook app!

How are you directing people to the app?
An app is of little use if people can’t find it. Get some inspiration from these creative cover photo designs or create custom thumbnails and draw some attention to your application. It can also help to advertise the app on other social networks and your website.

What does the customer get out of it?
Think about the benefits your app is offering the customer. Why should they bother clicking on your app to begin with? When you have that answer, turn it into a clear and succinct marketing message that will encourage the user to open that app.

Business Facebook Apps to Consider
Here are some suggestions of existing Facebook apps that are useful for business pages, like video calling and Facebook Questions. Do you have any other suggestions of apps that worked (or didn’t work) for your organisation? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @bwired_group!

Don't Design for Mobile

Campbell — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:29:26

Larry Page, the co-founder and CEO of Google, recently said that the web industry “shouldn’t be designing for mobile.” Instead, we need to move towards responsive design, which means a full website would be able to work on multiple devices with varying screen sizes. Google had already endorsed responsive design over separate mobile sites in 2012, so it’s no surprise that this trend is only growing in 2013.

Why Move Away from Mobile Design?

As our own Viv Trang wrote recently, responsive design is an important part of web strategy in 2013. But why move towards responsive websites and leave separate mobile sites behind?

1. Mobile devices on the rise. The number of tablets and smartphones is increasing and it’s becoming harder to design for a single audience (e.g. iPhone users). This approach often leads to waste of time and resources and eliminates many areas of the market. That’s one of the reasons we often don’t recommend mobile apps for businesses. With more and more different types of devices entering the market, it just makes sense to design a website that can respond to different screen sizes whilst delivering an experience that matches a full desktop website.

2. One task on multiple devices. Recent research from Google indicates that users are performing a single task (like researching a buying a product) on multiple devices. They may do a search on their smartphone on their way to work, save the link to their bookmarks, then later return to the site on a desktop or tablet later. By creating a responsive website rather than an entirely separate mobile site, you’re creating a more seamless cross-channel experience. Users only need a single URL (no more m.website.com) to share and access content.

3. Keep content fresh. A single site will also reduce loading times for users and allow the Google bots to crawl website pages at a faster speed. This will “indirectly help Google index more of the site's contents and keep it appropriately fresh.”

4. Easier to build and manage. For clients, a responsive website is not only easier to build, but it is also easier to manage and update. From an SEO standpoint, it is also easier to manage a search strategy because your SEO efforts are aimed at a single asset rather than multiple sites.

Designing for the Future

The rise of responsive design requires a change in thinking from designers, consultants and businesses (and pretty much everyone else in the web industry). Responsive design is NOT a passing web trends, it’s going to be standard practice sooner rather than later. There will still be cases where a separate mobile site works, but that is no longer the default option.

Instead of imagining how to build a separate mobile site, starting thinking about how your full website experience can translate across multiple devices through a responsive website that can adapt and respond to each context. If you're not going to listen to me, at least listen to Google!

Improve Internal Links for SEO

Campbell — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 09:55:56

An internal link is, simply put, a link to another page within your website. Internal links affect SEO because they affect the “crawl-ability” of your website (aka how easy it is for the Google bot to go through your website) and the ranking power of certain areas of your website, and they provide a structure for both users and search engine crawlers to navigate through your website.

Create a Link Hierarchy

Search engine crawlers don’t “see” a website like a human sees it, and the crawlers “look” at websites in a particular way. The right link structure (and site architecture) should do the following:

Allow both users and search engine robots to easily navigate through the website
Prioritise important pages by linking to them often – this makes it easier for the search engine crawlers to get to the page, so they’ll visit them more often
Link relevant pages together
Avoid creating “orphan” web pages (pages that are not linked to directly and, therefore, do not get crawled by search engines OR are difficult to find for users.)

These are some basic requirements of a solid internal link structure – and a solid SEO strategy. Here are some other tips for better internal links.

Think About Homepage Links

On almost every website, the homepage ranks the highest because it is the most linked-to page of a site, giving the homepage a high PageRank. The PageRank of the homepage is then divided out amongst the remaining web pages. The fewer links it takes to the get to a page from the homepage, the higher the PageRank “juice” they will receive. Think about your most important links and give them a higher place in your link structure.

Limit Link Numbers

It’s good practice to limit the number of links on a single page to 100 (150 max) links. Any more than that and the search engine spiders may not crawl the remaining links on that page. SEO Moz has a video (and transcript) from John Doherty which gives a specific example of footer links and a possible negative effect on SEO. But remember – it’s very specific. Footer links can be great, but when they are on every page of the website and you have thousands of product pages, you then are creating thousands of links that look irrelevant – and this makes Google suspicious. (Watch the smarter internal link video on SEO Moz.)

Avoid “Click Here”

For any links, avoid using “click here” as your hyperlink text. Instead, use a descriptive term or phrase – preferably with keywords – in your link text. This “anchor text” will help the Google bot understand the subject of the page you are linking to. Search engines consider this anchor text to be an important metric in link relevancy.

Link Creatively

On SEO Moz, Doherty also talks about creative ways of linking between important pages, like using sidebars that change. These changes can occur because of the type of page you are on (say, one sidebar for product pages and another for the home page), or the particular season (for example, you’re an apparel company and you can link to winter boots during colder months, then bathing suits in spring/summer.) For large sites, consider switching up the footer links based on the web page the user is on, thus providing more relevant links to the user. For example, you can use different footer links on category pages than you would use on the home page.

A Strong Foundation for SEO

These are just a few examples of how you can build not only a strong internal link strategy, but also a strong structure for your overall SEO. And we didn't even get to the technical side of things! For help getting search engine optimisation right, contact us on 1300 780 566 or email info@bwired.com.au.