Posted on

Why Small Business Owners Hate Google Analytics

woman squinting at screen

And Why Their Webmasters Don’t Get It

Recently I posted a question on a business networking site (Alignable) that attracted 77,000 views and generated a large number of responses. The question was directed to small business owners and asked, “Do you know how to check the standing of your website and the traffic that it’s bringing in?”

Many business owners said, that, sadly, they did not know how to check on their site’s traffic.

And a slew of web designers said, “I always put Google Analytics on my clients’ sites and ... 

read the full post
Posted on

Two Easy Tips to Increase Traffic To Your Website

web traffic chart

In a recent post, I wrote about how to find your website’s Alexa score to see if you’re getting good traffic. My advice was, don’t panic if your score isn’t so impressive. Rather, use it as a baseline to measure progress. So, let’s say you’ve checked your website’s Alexa score, and you’ve learned that your score is fair to middling (or, OK, downright discouraging), and you’d like to make some changes ... 

read the full post
Posted on

It’s a New Year: Time to Find Out if Your Website is Doing You Any Damn Good

empty store - empty parking lot ilsr-org

Many of us own our own websites, whether to sell products, promote services, or build a following for a blog or upcoming book. But do we know if it’s doing us any good? Luckily, it’s pretty easy to answer that question with Alexa.

Alexa Will Tell You How Your Website Is Performing

“Alexa, turn up my music. Alexa, dim the…” Nope. Not that Alexa. I’m talking about the “other” Alexa – a website and online tool that will tell you how your website is doing compared to all ... 

read the full post
Posted on

Jerk Alert – If You Own A Website, Beware of this Ripoff

bogus bill DNS

Let me amend that title: If you simply own a domain; you know, like “awesomestuff.com,” even if you haven’t built a website on it yet, watch out. You might get a bogus invoice in the mail one day from a company claiming you’re a customer. One of my clients got one this week:

Thank goodness my client is a smart cookie. Rather than just paying the bill, she took a shot of it and emailed it to me, asking, “Do I need to pay this?”

Absolutely not.

Since I’m ... 

read the full post
Posted on

Check Out the Before-&-After Websites for Women’s-Advantage!

Womens-Advantage-old & new websites

Woo hoo! I just finished working with a brilliant client named Jenni Gabelsberg, the director of Women’s Advantage | Men’s Optimal Health, to redesign and upgrade her website, and I had so much fun working with her not only because it was satisfying to improve her design and add the SEO and security features that her site sorely needed, but because I so highly respect the work that they’re doing at the practice. Jenni and her staff bring relief from pain, discomfort, worry, ... 

read the full post
Posted on

Poor Alexa – So Many Rumors, So Much Misunderstanding

Alexa score graph

Do you own your own website or blog? Yes? Then do you know what your site’s Alexa score is? Do  you know what an Alexa score is?

For those of you who don’t know about Alexa rank – it’s a sort of popularity score of “best” to “worst” websites, as judged by traffic to the site, regularity of fresh content, number and quality of other sites linking to the site, and more. A site with an Alexa rank  of 1 is the “best” in the world. (Yeah, that’s Google.) A site with ... 

read the full post
Posted on

Does Your Website Make You Look, Well… Elderly?

A few weeks ago, I attacked my “entertainment center” – an archaic collection of massive electronic boxes, each sprouting 50 or 60 cables out of its back end. Or so it seemed. I’d been putting this off for years. Literally, years, even though nothing in the system was up to date or satisfactory. The old receiver could pick up radio but could not handle the signal from the cable box. The VCR was, well, a VCR. The DVD was OK but I never used it anymore. The Wii worked ... 

read the full post
Posted on

Which Social Media Platform Has People You Want?

internet-usage-data-infographic

Social media specialists talk a lot about who’s using what type of social media platform, using the data to guide business people in finding their target market online.  But that data is equally useful for people wanting to connect with others for social and personal reasons. For example, if you’re looking meet people with a higher level of education, or women over 50, or those with similar interests or tastes, or men over 50, which social media platform is the best place for you ... 

read the full post
Posted on

Where is Your Target Audience On the Web?

This internet usage infographic was compiled in March 2012 so – grain of salt.  But the numbers, relative to each other, are very illuminating and certainly give you an idea of where your target audience is living on the web. Click here for a nifty infographic showing who’s active, and where, on the web, courtesy of Mashable.com. Breaks data down by platform (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc.) and within each platform by gender, age, income level, and education level.  SO useful!

read the full post