Having your website reach the performance levels you desire isn’t easy. It takes constant monitoring and measurement of visitor data to optimise web usage. This is where Web Analytics comes in. Not only is web analytics useful for measuring website traffic but it is also an effective tool for both business and market research.
 
By tracking user behavior, we can begin to see how they are interacting with our website and how we can begin to communicate more effectively to our audiences. In this article we’ll take a closer look at how Web Analytics can be utilised and what effect this has on the design process.

What is Analytics?

Every time a visitor reaches your site, the web server records this transaction. This data is then processed by Web Analytics software to produce detailed reports and charts. This software is most commonly available in web-based applications such as the popular Google Analytics, which allows you to see what’s going on with your website through cold hard data.

1. Measurement

Web Measurement is the process by which Web Analytics is utilised. While hits were popular in the early days of the internet, analytics have become much more sophisticated over the years.  Basic metrics – such as visits, bounce rate, referrers, and conversions can be measured after determining the outcome you want your website to accomplish.

 

2. Bounce Rates & Exit Rates

Bounce Rates and Exit Rates are two metrics to analyse in determining whether or not you’ve grabbed the attention of your users successfully. Exit rates will tell you how many people left the website through a particular page, while bounce rates tell you how many people left the website without visiting a second page.
 
The potential drawback to measuring user behavior using bounce rate is when your website is intended to find what they are looking for on the entry page, as opposed to sites with well-defined conversion steps requiring multiple page views. In the latter case, bounce rate is a good metric to use in indicating conversion success.

3. Referrers

Where the visitor came from is a good metric in understanding why some visitors convert. A referrer is a website that sends you traffic. In addition to search engines, referrers send you traffic as well. Seek out those in your industry or network to build positive, meaningful relationships – whether it be through social network activity, blog conversations, or even writing articles in your niche. More conversions may end up coming from human referrals than search engines, as these individuals are likely in your industry and can see the need for your product or service moreso than the rest.

4. Call to Action Clicks

Your design should appeal and inspire your target audience to take action. Does the design make them feel like they are getting value from your services and, more importantly, are they clicking on the call to action buttons? Analytical tools provide reports to easily understand what users do on your site and where they are clicking. Alternately, you can use A/B testing to help test different designs and determine which is the most effective.

5. Conversions

If you’ve gotten this far, you know you’ve satisfied most of your visitors and gotten their attention. The crucial step now is to get them to convert. A conversion is a term used by marketers to describe the final outcome of a site visit. Don’t thwart your visitors from completed the intended action. This means optimising your web forms for your users and making the form submission or checkout process as user-friendly as possible.
 
The metric for measuring conversions is Funnels and/or Paths taken. Tools allow you to track funnels and paths to conversions. If you’re on a tight budget, Google Analytics’ goal and funnel-tracking can also be used.

Conclusion

With Web 2.0 and Analytics, a culture of improvement has been laid before us. We can gauge more accurately how visitors are interacting with your content. With these tools, the ability to improve the experience your online customers have is at your fingertips. In some cases, you no longer have to guess or wonder why your site is getting the results it is. How is web analytics working for you?

(this article was originally posted here)

The construction of the new Bosweb office, and Business Catalyst Service Centre (nicknamed 'The Rocket'), has finally commenced!

Two years in the planning, the construction of our new offices will be the sixth in our twelve year history, and by far the largest, being specifically built in order to meet our demand for growth.

While we'll continue to develop high-end online marketing solutions and advanced business systems, our new Service Centre will empower us to grow, support and proactively service our client base, our reseller network and distribution channel partner opportunities.

Here's a few statistics;

Location:                Commercial Avenue, Blueridge Business Park, Dubbo, Australia

Site size:                560m² (6028 ft²)

Internal                 Walk-in foyer, large open office area, comms room, meeting
Features:               room, seperate offices, male bathroom, female bathroom, 
                              shower, kitchen, boardroom/conference room with full
                              screen projector and opening outdoor entertainment space,
                              reverse cycle air-con and 'big ass fan' for natural ventilation,
                              combination carpet/tile/timber floor panels, energy efficient 
                              and acoustic dampening internal walls & ceiling panels with 
                              partly exposed ceiling cavities, set soundproof ceiling in 
                              boardroom, bespoke desks in offices, 3 person cohabited
                              reception island, 5 x 3 person workstations, wind out awning
                              windows, floor to ceiling internal glass walls, POE telecoms,
                              power & data cabling dropdown via suspended ceiling including
                              pole mounted 50" LED screens for 'live monitoring' throughout,
                              game consoles & media server installed for 'breakout' spaces 

(Space, light, energy efficiency - and fun! - are core goals in the design of our office)

External                Covered walkway pergola, landscaped & established gardens,
Features:              office will overlook water garden feature area at front protected
                              by free standing pre-cast branded panel, IP camera security   

Car spaces:           8 (inc. disabled parking access bay and mounted bike rack)
                              plus off street parking

Staff Capacity:      20

Bandwidth:            400MB capable ethernet over fibre (direct to Exchange)

Signage:                Floodlit illuminated panel at site entrance, pre-cast panel building
                              entrance (additional roof signage proposed)

Opening:                April 2012

Stage 1 (Dec 2011):

Internal frame construction starts

40 ton crane (inside the office!) lifts wall panels into position

The rear of the building with my son trying to find a way through the barricade (the site is now closed off for the holidays)

Construction recommences on site mid-January so stay tuned for updates!

Many thanks to those brave revolutionaries who joined us to take on our Social Media Revolution information session.

We taught them how to increase sales by marketing with Social Media and how tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ can work for business.

Our Social Media for Business workshop answered many questions and reassured our clients about connecting with their customers.

Social Media has been attributed with starting revolutions, bringing down governments and changing the way we think, buy and communicate with each other in ways not seen ever.

We were delighted to share this uprising with all those in our session. 

View all our photo's here

Are you ready to join the social media revolution? Would you like to learn how to increase sales by marketing with social media? Do you want to know what Social Media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are and how they can work for your business? Then come along to our Connecting with your Customers ('Facebook for Business') workshop!

Katie, Fran, Phil, Angela, Jason, Trina, Luke, Leanne & Brendon

(Judy is missing and so has been spared the Christmas treatment!)

All of the bos web team would like to thank all of our wonderful clients, supporters, followers, partners and suppliers for working with us in 2011.

It has been a big year for us - our biggest - but it would not have been without the support of all of you and we have very much enjoyed seeing our clients achieve so much more in their online businesses in 2011.

We have worked with clients enabling them to sell more, reach more people, communicate more effectively and have more fun with their site tools especially social media than ever before.

Thank you for allowing us to do that with you and to invite us into your businesses. If you like, have a browse at some of the sites that we worked on in 2011, - we hope to see yours there in 2012!

Have a wonderful break with your families

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at bosweb 

Our office will be closed from 12 noon on Friday 23rd December and reopen on Tuesday 3rd January.

For any support related issues during this time please email support@bosweb.com.au as this email will be monitored during this time for any items that need attention.

A little out of date - but a taste of things to come!

 

Join the revolution - the social media revolution - book now!

As web developers, we are always thinking about the outcomes of our work. So uppermost in our minds when we design a site, or even the layout of text on a page is what will trigger a response in a customer to do something.

Sometimes clients think that a great big red flashing button, different sized fonts and different colours will encourage people to ‘do’ something, i.e. click on something or call. Whilst this might work in the world of print, on a billboard poster or a loud TV ad, this tends to have the opposite effect with a website.

So what are some guidelines to make people click

1 - Make your site easy and enjoyable to use – key to this a navigation that makes sense

2 - Arrange content in an F shaped pattern; the pattern of how people read

3 - Ensure pages download quickly - no big images!

4 - Online readers skim content – so aid retention and action by breaking it up, using bullet points, numbered lists and sub headings. These are tools to help the eyes focus on what is important ( just like using BOLD here)

5 - Put key information above the fold – i.e. above the first screen length before people start to skim

6 - Put important stuff on the left – we have had quite a few arguments with clients who want logos on the right – ‘just to be different’ – WRONG! Being different does not actually make it better!

7 - Use white space to enhance readability – that’s probably why you like sites with lots of white – they are easy to read!

8 - Check things across all browsers – these days there is a smorgasboard of browsers and devices to use, so we need to check a million places!

9 - Focus on all your key landing pages – what do you want people to do on each of these pages – not just your home page

So get Clicking!

Many businesses have websites today, but how many are effective?

How many attract the right kind of clients and convert them to customers?

Lots of people just look - but we want the buyers.

We put together a list of 7 deadly website sins and what you should do to avoid them.

Sin No 1: - Starting with a dud logo

No site will work if your logo is crap. As the saying goes, you cannot make a silk purse out of sow's ear.

Sin No 2: - Not promoting your site enough

Many first time website owners can 'forget' their traditional marketing methods when promoting their new site. 
'Build it and they will come' - is not how it is done.

Remember: -

• Good Banner graphics ( yep that dud logo is really going to drag you down )
• Consistent taglines as part of your brand - you need a hook
• Good SEO practices, including perhaps Google Adwords for key times of the year
• Social Media - Facebook, Twitter and Linked in - tell everyone, in every network
• Blog - you know your stuff, share, create interest, you are an expert in what you do!
• Offline - yes your traditional marketing tools - don't forget them!

Sin No 3: - No WIFM

If a client can't see the 'what's in it for me' - they are gone. Make sure your site is about benefits and not features. Everyone sells widgets, but how will yours benefit your clients?

Sin No 4: No Calls to Action

Your website must be a lead generator. If you are not picking up contact details, then you are not using your investment to its fullest. Make sure you entice viewers to signup to newsletters, click here for more, fill in forms to get more information, give away free tools. Do whatever you need to do to grab a future lead.

Your blog and your social media channels will also help with this - make sure people can subscribe to your news feeds, twitter, facebook and linked in accounts.

Today they are browsers, but tomorrow they might be buyers!

Sin No 5: It's all about me

Actually it's not - it's about your customers. So whilst your vision, mission and values may be vital to you, your customers don't really care. Awards, flash office photos have a place, but it is well in the background. Your site is all about attracting and converting clients.

Sin No 6: Not looking at the numbers

Like any investment, you need to understand your ROI. With your website, you need to track the metrics and regularly be across them. What are your visits, what products are being viewed or searched on, what forms are being filled in, what is your most visited pages?

Sin No 7: Poor Auto Responders

What do you feedback forms say to people when they fill them in? Are they welcoming, professional and in the tone of your business? Or are they very blunt and robotic? Make sure you use your forms like you expect your front line team to answer the phone. Bring your business personality into your site, from every angle.

Remember if your website is an extension of your office, how do you greet, meet and treat your potential clients.

As the year heads to a close – are you prepared for Christmas? (read more below).

In recent news we presented at Adobe MAX in Los Angeles. Brendon returned inspired and enthused having met premier Business Catalyst web development partners from around the world (read more here)

Getting Ready for Christmas

Today our in house training focussed on industry leading techniques to convert your email marketing campaign browsers into buyers.

We looked at concrete ways to layout your email campaigns with the emphasis on conversions.

Couldn't make it - then our current promotion could be for you? Make sure you click on the left to redeem your discount code!

Upcoming Training

What training would you like or need for 2012?

Please complete our survey for your chance to win a $50 gift voucher.

Complete survey now

Recent Launches

Ange and the team have been really turning out some great sites for clients all over the eastern seaboard - from Toowoomba down to Melbourne and beyond.

Mission Control

Make sure you keep up to date with the latest industry news as well as as tips to use your Online Business Tools better!

On a happy note, Luke is getting married in a few weeks, so he is having a well earned break and the delightful Katie Kidd - our content developer will be on hand in the office to assist with the support queue.

Congratulations Luke and Lana!

I recently flew to Los Angeles to represent Bosweb Systems at the Adobe MAX conference with 5000 other designers, developers and online marketing companies.

As part of our involvement, and as one of the leading Business Catalyst partners globally, I presented to other Business Catalyst partners from around the world.

Predominantly I focussed on 'Customer Care & Support' including discussions on the value that Business Catalyst offers to the online businesses of our clients, appreciating the needs of our clients and understanding the satisfaction of our clients with us as a service provider.

Photos of the event can be found here

In addition I was interviewed by Adobe along with other premier partners for our opinion of Adobe Business Catalyst and our partnership with them (I appear at 3m12s).  

 

BC @ MAX 2011 - What Partners had to say from Business Catalyst on Vimeo.