Everyone has a website. Every business has a website. Many dogs have websites too.
How is your website doing? When was the last time you took its temperature? Updated its content? Hugged it for making you so much money?
For many people, especially small business owners, having a website is a chore. They have no time for it. Making changes is too complicated and time consuming. And if they get hacked - forget it! They wish they never had to deal with it.
It is possible that a lot of business owners do not feel they understand their website. They also rarely know how much money their website is making them, how much new business is a direct result of their online presence.
If you want to simplify your life, listen up. Use these tools once a month for reporting and as needed for updating. Track your success and fix problems quickly. Give your website some love and care. Then, watch it give back in ROI like you never seen before.
Content Management System
Big or small, your website needs maintenance. And by maintenance I mainly mean new content. You might need to remove or change content as well. In the past maintenance required a webmaster. No more!
Content Management Systems (CMS) changed everything. Anyone with limited knowledge of HTML can now not only create and operate a good-looking website, but add functionality that last century took weeks or months to develop and implement. If you are not technical, you will still require some guidance on what system to install, but if you are a small site, it is very likely that you will choose WordPress.
CMS come in different shapes and sizes. If you do not have a dedicated website hosting platform, you can use Tumblr or Blogger or WordPress to share your thoughts with the world. If you do have a host, you can install WordPress on your server and use it to run your website. Same is true for Drupal, Joomla, PHP-Nuke and others. The full list of content management systems is quite large.
The bad news is that you might still need a webmaster to get the website theme designed, CMS installed and configured. You might also prefer a webmaster to handle all website updates and new features. The good news is that your content writers now can directly access the website and post new content. And as a bonus, changes will take all but a minute in most cases because you do not have to parse thousands of pages in search for that text to change.
Google Webmaster Tools
If you are serious about your online presence, you have to care about your website performance. First step in caring process is to install Google Webmaster Tools. And here is why.
The reason you have a website is for people to find you online. People use mostly Google to find stuff online. Wouldn't you want to know how Google sees your website and when it shows it to searchers? If you do, Google Webmaster Tools are your friend.
First step is for you to verify your website. Then, you will see reports on how many pages Google found on your website, if there were any problems, what keywords were the reason your website showed up in search results, who links to you, etc. You will also receive alerts if something went wrong. One of the most valuable features is to show you which pages are not found on your website, so you can fix them.
I would also install Bing Webmaster Tools. They have similar data. Comparing the two you can see how two major search engines see your website. That way you will monitor both.
Analytics
Finally, if you want to make any money with your website, you absolutely have to install an analytics package. Google Analytics is free. There are other options available. But you have to look over your data to know what is working and what does not. You need to know what people are doing on your site in order to help them give you money.
Analytics will give you a very good idea which marketing campaigns are profitable. You will easily learn which social media efforts are paying off. And it will be very clear what keywords people are typing into search box to come to your website.
After installing Analytics, make sure you set up your goals. Your website has goals, right? Right. If you have a Google AdWords account, connect it to your Analytics. If you have an e-commerce website, make sure you set your Analytics for e-commerce.
Even if you have to hire someone to install Analytics correctly, it is well worth the investment. You have to track your progress, otherwise there is no reason for you to have a website. Don't let your website look like a pile of garbage on your front lawn. People will judge you.
Tools your website cannot live without
Webmastering became much easier and much more complex over the years. Times where just having a website put you ahead of your competition are over. Get used to the fact that if you have no website you will not be taken seriously. If you have a badly designed website, it will damage your business reputation. People will laugh at you, seriously.
Your business website is your online face, your reputation and your virtual reception area. Your prospects will make assumptions and will judge you based on their impression of your online presence. What message do you want to communicate to them?
Website tools allow business owners polish their websites quickly. Content management systems lets you push your content in front of your audience without delay. Webmaster Tools alert you of any problems "under the hood" of your website. And analytics will show if your assumptions were correct about your visitors. Use these tools wisely.
Now, be honest - did you just told your webmaster to install Analytics on your website? Good for you.
Any other observations you would like to share?
Sat, 09/24/2011 - 14:37 | Lyena
Everyone has a website. Every business has a website. Many dogs have websites too.
How is your website doing? When was the last time you took its temperature? Updated its content? Hugged it for making you so much money?
For many people, especially small business owners, having a website is a chore. They have no time for it. Making changes is too complicated and time consuming. And if they get hacked - forget it! They wish they never had to deal with it.
It is possible that a lot of business owners do not feel they understand their website. They also rarely know how much money their website is making them, how much new business is a direct result of their online presence.
If you want to simplify your life, listen up. Use these tools once a month for reporting and as needed for updating. Track your success and fix problems quickly. Give your website some love and care. Then, watch it give back in ROI like you never seen before.
CMS come in different shapes and sizes. If you do not have a dedicated website hosting platform, you can use Tumblr or Blogger or WordPress to share your thoughts with the world. If you do have a host, you can install WordPress on your server and use it to run your website. Same is true for Drupal, Joomla, PHP-Nuke and others. The full list of content management systems is quite large.
The bad news is that you might still need a webmaster to get the website theme designed, CMS installed and configured. You might also prefer a webmaster to handle all website updates and new features. The good news is that your content writers now can directly access the website and post new content. And as a bonus, changes will take all but a minute in most cases because you do not have to parse thousands of pages in search for that text to change.
If you are serious about your online presence, you have to care about your website performance. First step in caring process is to install Google Webmaster Tools. And here is why.
The reason you have a website is for people to find you online. People use mostly Google to find stuff online. Wouldn't you want to know how Google sees your website and when it shows it to searchers? If you do, Google Webmaster Tools are your friend.
First step is for you to verify your website. Then, you will see reports on how many pages Google found on your website, if there were any problems, what keywords were the reason your website showed up in search results, who links to you, etc. You will also receive alerts if something went wrong. One of the most valuable features is to show you which pages are not found on your website, so you can fix them.
I would also install Bing Webmaster Tools. They have similar data. Comparing the two you can see how two major search engines see your website. That way you will monitor both.
Finally, if you want to make any money with your website, you absolutely have to install an analytics package. Google Analytics is free. There are other options available. But you have to look over your data to know what is working and what does not. You need to know what people are doing on your site in order to help them give you money.
Analytics will give you a very good idea which marketing campaigns are profitable. You will easily learn which social media efforts are paying off. And it will be very clear what keywords people are typing into search box to come to your website.
After installing Analytics, make sure you set up your goals. Your website has goals, right? Right. If you have a Google AdWords account, connect it to your Analytics. If you have an e-commerce website, make sure you set your Analytics for e-commerce.
Even if you have to hire someone to install Analytics correctly, it is well worth the investment. You have to track your progress, otherwise there is no reason for you to have a website. Don't let your website look like a pile of garbage on your front lawn. People will judge you.