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Fixing a stale Web site | May 27, 2009
Your Web site probably needs a refresh. Here are five steps you can begin today
By Andrew Rideout
Keeping Web site content fresh simply isn’t enough these days. With so many different types of technology all promising to deliver page views, sales leads and conversions by the bucketload, it’s tough to determine which features your corporate Web site requires. To help shine light on this elusive topic, Backbone assembled a team of experts with front-line knowledge of Web site development, optimization and branding to outline the five features every corporate Web site needs.
Accurate metrics
It’s very difficult to know how consumers are interacting with your Web site if you don’t have reliable metrics and traffic data. While some hosting companies offer an out-of-the-box traffic counter, what you really need is a deep tool that offers details not just about clicks, but about interactions, conversions, time on site, page views and other essential online data. If your company can count how many people are coming to your site, but can’t get any details on what those people are doing once there, your metrics are only doing half their job.
Use tools like Google Analytics or a packaged solution like WebTrends in order to get an accurate view. This is step one because it’s both important and easy to implement. Google Analytics is free and can provide essential details. So start today: paste Google’s unique tracking code into each of your pages and then use the free Web-based software to track myriad aspects, including the standard visitors/page-view data all the way to keyword and campaign comparisons, e-commerce tracking, geotargeting and AdWords integration.
Now that you’re set with a broad range of Web site data and traffic reporting, you need to develop clear benchmarks and goals around these numbers so you can determine which aspects need work, set out clear milestones and then develop an action plan. Frans Keylard, director of optimization at WideMile, said “all sites should have meaningful success metrics against which to optimize. The most common meaningful actions are lead generation, viewing key pages, page or ad views, or a purchase. These goals should be optimized for maximum throughput to achieve more leads, more downloads and more transactions.”
E-newsletters
E-mail newsletters are commonplace on many Web sites, but actually harnessing the power of them and translating that into definitive results can be easier said than done. This is a great project for a company that wants to improve its online presence and start reaching out to customers. There is an absolute universe of software and services that will help organize newsletter content and your database, and then provide accurate metrics about how many people opened the e-mail, how many forwarded it and how many simply deleted it right away. Popular options include Constant Contact, iContact or the low-cost MailChimp.
If your company needs more than just a static Web site, the next obvious step is to start reaching out to your customers. According to Martin Hofmann, senior vice-president at Highroad Communications, “The key success factor for SMBs is: how engaged do they want to be online? A great-looking Web site is not enough. How do you get people to go to your Web site? How do you keep them coming back over and over again?”
A newsletter is easy to start if you have a list of customer e-mails, but what happens if you haven’t been tracking that info and have no idea who your Web site’s visitors are? Contact companies that already have a database of individuals interested in either your industry or your product. Armed with that type of ammunition, a sales team can really shine. Keylard said “opt-in e-mail house lists are the best qualified leads for cultivation and response. These customers view you as a trusted source and are more likely to be receptive to your message or offer. Just don’t erode that trust through over-mailing.”
Boris Mann, the managing director of Bootup Labs, also suggests going the e-mail newsletter route, but he believes they should be intertwined with existing Web sites. All newsletters should be archived on the site: “Every piece of content you create should be available as a separate piece on your Web site, with a unique URL. This will allow you to build up more content over time, which is great for natural search engine ranking that will make it easier for people to find you or your product online.”
RSS feeds
RSS feeds are becoming ubiquitous on the Internet as more people choose to customize the type of content they want and define the terms by which they read it. Essentially, RSS sends your content out to subscribers, and automatically transmits updates when the content changes. Keylard said simplicity is one of the key factors in getting viewers to take your content seriously. He advises that you “get the visitors the information they came for with a minimum number of clicks.” You can’t get much fewer clicks than with an RSS feed. Unless your company is trying exclusively to increase page views, this should be considered an essential next step. Mann agreed, and said RSS ties in very well with an e-mail newsletter campaign. “On the front page (of your Web site), have a way for people to stay in touch—that means subscribe by e-mail and an RSS feed.”
Collaboration
Your company can take advantage of software like Google Calendars and Docs, internal RSS feeds and wikis to help your staff connect with each other and share ideas in an open format. The low (and sometimes non-existent) price point for these types of services only enhances their appeal. Mann said “there are a host of Web-based services that range from free to low monthly costs that can replace expensive internal IT investment. Everything from shared calendars and document collaboration to invoicing using services like FreshBooks can easily be set up and used securely from anywhere you have an Internet connection.”
Mann said this can also be expanded out to a company’s customers. “One tool that I’ve been falling in love with more and more is Get Satisfaction. It’s a hosted service that lets you run a space for customer feedback and problem resolution.” If people have questions or complaints about your company and you aren’t there to receive them, problems could quickly snowball. So Mann said it’s important to provide “ways to give feedback—if you don’t provide a place for it, someone else will, and it’s better to control, monitor and be aware of that feedback.”
Target search
One of the most important ways to ensure your site actually connects with visitors is by optimizing your content for search engines. Major search engines like Google and Yahoo! index your pages by electronically “crawling” your site’s content and then matching it up to keywords. The multi-billion dollar search engine optimization market was built in less than a decade to facilitate this. If you are using Google Analytics or WebTrends to track the search keywords that bring traffic to your site, then you are already on the right track. If a specific search term is delivering a lot of traffic that’s converting into customers, then why not take things a step further and really capitalize on that quality traffic. Keylard suggested that you look toward creating individual landing pages. “Landing pages and micro sites are what is usually missing right off the bat. These are usually grafted on later, but I think they should be part of the overall site design and strategy.”
Take the most important search terms that relate to your company and create specific pages that deal exclusively with those types of topical issues. You don’t need to include every single thing about your company on there, just the vital info that can lead to the sale.
Web revamp
Constant Contact
www.constantcontact.com
FreshBooks
www.freshbooks.com
Get Satisfaction
http://getsatisfaction.com
Google Analytics
www.google.com/analytics
iContact
www.icontact.com
MailChimp
www.MailChimp.com
WebTrends
www.webtrends.com
SIDEBAR
Definitions
Geotargeting: customizing marketing efforts based on the physical location of a Web site or surfer.
RSS: a method of sharing and broadcasting content. Information is automatically downloaded using news reader software or to a Web site.
ExecutiveOverview Archive
By Andrew Rideout
Keeping Web site content fresh simply isn’t enough these days. With so many different types of technology all promising to deliver page views, sales leads and conversions by the bucketload, it’s tough to determine which features your corporate Web site requires. To help shine light on this elusive topic, Backbone assembled a team of experts with front-line knowledge of Web site development, optimization and branding to outline the five features every corporate Web site needs.
Accurate metrics It’s very difficult to know how consumers are interacting with your Web site if you don’t have reliable metrics and traffic data. While some hosting companies offer an out-of-the-box traffic counter, what you really need is a deep tool that offers details not just about clicks, but about interactions, conversions, time on site, page views and other essential online data. If your company can count how many people are coming to your site, but can’t get any details on what those people are doing once there, your metrics are only doing half their job.
Use tools like Google Analytics or a packaged solution like WebTrends in order to get an accurate view. This is step one because it’s both important and easy to implement. Google Analytics is free and can provide essential details. So start today: paste Google’s unique tracking code into each of your pages and then use the free Web-based software to track myriad aspects, including the standard visitors/page-view data all the way to keyword and campaign comparisons, e-commerce tracking, geotargeting and AdWords integration.
Now that you’re set with a broad range of Web site data and traffic reporting, you need to develop clear benchmarks and goals around these numbers so you can determine which aspects need work, set out clear milestones and then develop an action plan. Frans Keylard, director of optimization at WideMile, said “all sites should have meaningful success metrics against which to optimize. The most common meaningful actions are lead generation, viewing key pages, page or ad views, or a purchase. These goals should be optimized for maximum throughput to achieve more leads, more downloads and more transactions.”
E-newsletters E-mail newsletters are commonplace on many Web sites, but actually harnessing the power of them and translating that into definitive results can be easier said than done. This is a great project for a company that wants to improve its online presence and start reaching out to customers. There is an absolute universe of software and services that will help organize newsletter content and your database, and then provide accurate metrics about how many people opened the e-mail, how many forwarded it and how many simply deleted it right away. Popular options include Constant Contact, iContact or the low-cost MailChimp.
If your company needs more than just a static Web site, the next obvious step is to start reaching out to your customers. According to Martin Hofmann, senior vice-president at Highroad Communications, “The key success factor for SMBs is: how engaged do they want to be online? A great-looking Web site is not enough. How do you get people to go to your Web site? How do you keep them coming back over and over again?”
A newsletter is easy to start if you have a list of customer e-mails, but what happens if you haven’t been tracking that info and have no idea who your Web site’s visitors are? Contact companies that already have a database of individuals interested in either your industry or your product. Armed with that type of ammunition, a sales team can really shine. Keylard said “opt-in e-mail house lists are the best qualified leads for cultivation and response. These customers view you as a trusted source and are more likely to be receptive to your message or offer. Just don’t erode that trust through over-mailing.”
Boris Mann, the managing director of Bootup Labs, also suggests going the e-mail newsletter route, but he believes they should be intertwined with existing Web sites. All newsletters should be archived on the site: “Every piece of content you create should be available as a separate piece on your Web site, with a unique URL. This will allow you to build up more content over time, which is great for natural search engine ranking that will make it easier for people to find you or your product online.”
RSS feeds RSS feeds are becoming ubiquitous on the Internet as more people choose to customize the type of content they want and define the terms by which they read it. Essentially, RSS sends your content out to subscribers, and automatically transmits updates when the content changes. Keylard said simplicity is one of the key factors in getting viewers to take your content seriously. He advises that you “get the visitors the information they came for with a minimum number of clicks.” You can’t get much fewer clicks than with an RSS feed. Unless your company is trying exclusively to increase page views, this should be considered an essential next step. Mann agreed, and said RSS ties in very well with an e-mail newsletter campaign. “On the front page (of your Web site), have a way for people to stay in touch—that means subscribe by e-mail and an RSS feed.”
Collaboration Your company can take advantage of software like Google Calendars and Docs, internal RSS feeds and wikis to help your staff connect with each other and share ideas in an open format. The low (and sometimes non-existent) price point for these types of services only enhances their appeal. Mann said “there are a host of Web-based services that range from free to low monthly costs that can replace expensive internal IT investment. Everything from shared calendars and document collaboration to invoicing using services like FreshBooks can easily be set up and used securely from anywhere you have an Internet connection.”
Mann said this can also be expanded out to a company’s customers. “One tool that I’ve been falling in love with more and more is Get Satisfaction. It’s a hosted service that lets you run a space for customer feedback and problem resolution.” If people have questions or complaints about your company and you aren’t there to receive them, problems could quickly snowball. So Mann said it’s important to provide “ways to give feedback—if you don’t provide a place for it, someone else will, and it’s better to control, monitor and be aware of that feedback.”
Target search One of the most important ways to ensure your site actually connects with visitors is by optimizing your content for search engines. Major search engines like Google and Yahoo! index your pages by electronically “crawling” your site’s content and then matching it up to keywords. The multi-billion dollar search engine optimization market was built in less than a decade to facilitate this. If you are using Google Analytics or WebTrends to track the search keywords that bring traffic to your site, then you are already on the right track. If a specific search term is delivering a lot of traffic that’s converting into customers, then why not take things a step further and really capitalize on that quality traffic. Keylard suggested that you look toward creating individual landing pages. “Landing pages and micro sites are what is usually missing right off the bat. These are usually grafted on later, but I think they should be part of the overall site design and strategy.”
Take the most important search terms that relate to your company and create specific pages that deal exclusively with those types of topical issues. You don’t need to include every single thing about your company on there, just the vital info that can lead to the sale.
Web revamp
Constant Contact
www.constantcontact.com
FreshBooks
www.freshbooks.com
Get Satisfaction
http://getsatisfaction.com
Google Analytics
www.google.com/analytics
iContact
www.icontact.com
MailChimp
www.MailChimp.com
WebTrends
www.webtrends.com
SIDEBAR
Definitions
Geotargeting: customizing marketing efforts based on the physical location of a Web site or surfer.
RSS: a method of sharing and broadcasting content. Information is automatically downloaded using news reader software or to a Web site.
ExecutiveOverview Archive
