Tag : research

  • The Lost Art of Conversion Optimization

    Posted Jan 21st, 2011 By in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website With | 2 Comments

    Commercial websites aren’t cheap to build and maintain, and if you own a business with a website you probably want something to come from that expense. For some businesses that means a sale, for others a lead, and for yet others it’s clicks on paid advertisements.

    Regardless of what you want from your website, it seems obvious that more traffic to the site would help with all of the above…right? Yes and no.

    Before you drive more traffic to a website, it is important to make sure that your website is doing what you want it to do as efficiently and effectively as possible. There’s no point pouring more water into a leaky funnel. Enter conversion optimization.

    If one were to define conversion optimization, the definition would be quite simple: making a website simpler and easier for customers to use.

    Have you ever made a purchase online? Filled out an online form for more information? Signed up for an online service? If yes to any of these, how was that experience? Easy? Frustrating? Keep those experiences in mind as you read the following.

    Though conversion optimization techniques can range from the ridiculously simple to the incredibly complex, the process can be broken down into 3 steps: Research, Measure and Test.

    Research

    One of the most beneficial things you can do, both for your business in general as well as your conversion rate is to exactly define and then thoroughly research your target audience. Only when you really know the people you are trying to reach can you craft a compelling message that will get them to do what you want them to do.

    Visit successful websites in your industry, as well as successful websites in different industries that cater to the same demographic, and make notes about the site. Go through the following steps on each site:

    1. Start at the home page, search for and locate a product you want, and add it to your cart (or start at the home page and find a contact form, if lead generation is your goal.) Make a note of how many steps were in that process, whether it was easy or hard to find the product/form, and anything else that stood out to you.

    Also pay attention to how you feel and the colors being used for backgrounds, headers and buttons. Colors can evoke an emotional response, so keep that in mind. (more…)

  • 15 Paid Monitoring Tools That May Be Worth Every Penny

    Posted Sep 24th, 2010 By in Business, Internet Marketing, Social Media With | 11 Comments

    You’ve heard social media gurus say that you must listen online before getting involved with social media, but you don’t understand what that means.  So, what does it mean to “Listen” in social media? To listen also means to monitor, to lurk, or to observe what is going on online because it is essential to do your homework before you leap.

    A couple months ago, I listed 25 monitoring tools that will not cost you a penny; however, there are tons more that may be worth including into your budget.  Below are 15 monitoring tools that have a price, but will help you ensure that nothing online will escape your radar.  They are listed in no particular order.

    Radian6: One of the most comprehensive tools out there, Radian6 allows you to listen in on conversations that involve you and gives you the opportunity to put the information into quantitative formats, which allow you to create an action plan to improve your strategy.

    Visible: This platform comes in at the higher end of the spectrum of social media monitoring services in both price and functionality. Get not only updated trends on online conversations, TruCast will make you aware of all the influencers that people listen to when looking for new brands to try out. It also offers very strong customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities.

    Trackur: One of the more affordable social media monitoring solutions. Trackur provides conversation trending, email alerts, custom filters, a nifty AJAX dashboard and the ability to monitor brands, execs, employees and competitors. (more…)

  • 25 Monitoring Tools That Will Not Cost You a Penny

    Posted Jul 6th, 2010 By in Business, Internet Marketing, Social Media With | 5 Comments

    Your brand, industry, and competitors are being discussed online whether you use social media or not. Actively monitoring what people are saying about you, your brand, your industry, and your competitors has many benefits, including protecting your brand reputation, discovering what customers want and need, learning of new opportunities, staying on top of competition, avoiding disasters, and measuring ROI.

    Below are 25 monitoring tools that won’t cost you anything to use, and will help you gain a wealth of knowledge about your brand, influencers, prospects, customers, competitors, and much more.

    1. Backtype – Get alerts of where your competitors are promoting their website and who they are interacting with.
    2. Bit.ly – Shorten and track how many clicked on and retweeted your links.
    3. BlogPulse – Get data from blogs, news posts and other online content that include you or your competitors in the conversation.
    4. BoardTracker – Search forums and discussion boards or set up alerts that will tell you when and how often people mention a particular search term.
    5. DomainTools – Get a report on a website’s domain information.
    6. Google Alerts – Set up email alerts of target keywords or phrases that are important to you, your brand, and industry.
    7. Google Analytics – See where your website traffic is coming from, what pages are being visited, what keywords are being used to find you, etc.
    8. Google Video – Find videos on a specific topic, competitor videos, etc.
    9. Jodange – Track consumer sentiment about your brand or product across the Web.
    10. Klout – Measure who a person influences and the specific topics they are most influential on.
    11. Knowem – Check and reserve your brand, product, personal name or username on social media websites.
    12. Monitter – Find out what people are saying in real-time on Twitter.
    13. Oodle – Discover competitors’ plans for the future by monitoring the types of jobs they post online.
    14. Quarkbase – See traffic data, similar sites, social comments, description, social popularity about websites.
    15. SEO for Firefox – Find out a site’s PageRank, age, number of links at a certain domain/page, if it’s listed in certain directories etc.
    16. SEOPro Link Checker – Find out which sites link back to your website as well as your competitors’ sites.
    17. SocialMention – Check and get alerts on what people are saying about a term across different blogs and social outlets.
    18. Technorati – Find industry bloggers, influencers, and monitor who mentions you or your competitors in the blogosphere.
    19. Trendrr – Find out how your brand or product is trending in real time compared to others.
    20. Tweetburner – Shorten and track URLs on Twitter and Friendfeed.
    21. Twendz – Track conversation and user sentiment on Twitter in real-time.
    22. Twinfluence – Measure the combined influence of tweeps and their followers.
    23. Twitter Search – Using keywords and phrases, search what people have discussed on Twitter.
    24. Xinu – Find out how well your site is doing in popular search engines, social bookmarking and other site statistics
    25. Yahoo Site Explorer – Discover who is linking to you and your competitors.

    Of course, it does not stop with these. There are hundreds of tools out there! In another blog post, I will discuss the paid monitoring tools.

    What tools do you use? Which free tools did I miss?

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