The power of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is such a powerful tool to use - it actually allows you to decide what you want to measure on your website. You can literally put this tool to work for you and personalize it as well. You can define your ideal objective, goals as well as specifics.

If all you want to know is who visited your website and how they got there - that is simple enough and you can do that. However, the power of Google Analytics lay in the ability to define goals and put on filters that will allow you to do in-depth analysis of your website.

What do I mean?

Let me break it down for you so you know how to use Google Analytics and have the biggest advantage. First of all, Google works with objectives, goals, and specifics, these allow you to really hone in on what you are trying to accomplish when managing your website.

Objectives: An objective is the big picture – what do you want your website to do? What is the purpose for your website what do you want visitors to do once they are there.

If you are an e-commerce site your objective is to sell products and make a profit. Using Google Analytics, you can actually see the products that are selling and what products are not - helping you to pull the product that is not selling or market it in a different way. This of course will translate into big profits for your business.

Goals: If objectives are the result you ultimately want to achieve with your website, a goal is a short term aim.

What has to happen for you to learn which products sell and which don't? Or perhaps your goal is to sell 30 more widgets within 6 months. You can do this using Google analytics as the tool and setting goals within the application.

Specifics: Now that you have outlined your objectives and goals you are ready to use Google to your advantage. Specifics are the “how” the action steps you will take to reach what you really want.

Example: You would set up the sales page and a funnel (using Google Analytics) to measure how traffic comes in to your sales page. Google can tell you where visitors are entering as well as what page your visitors are exiting from. Knowing how your visitors are responding to your website allows you to go to these pages and tweak them so you can get the results you want.

Google has made it easy to place the code in your web pages, they do the initial metrics for you and the best thing is it is free.If you are not particularly savvy on html or how to apply the code have your web developer apply it to every page. You can even generate .pdf to analyze the month by month statistics.

Once the code is embedded in your web pages, Google will start collecting data and within a few days you will see countless stats related to your site. Then it is time for you to become familiar with the dashboard that Google provides - you will be able to set up the goals and specifics of your website.

You access all the data through the Internet so you can login and set parameters right then and there.

Another great function of Google Analytics is that you can set up different profiles for one website. You can put different code on different websites of course, but you can also break down one website into different profiles and monitor them independently, or you can use the different profiles to see which sections of your website are effective and which are not.

AdWords and Analytics Google

AdWords is a pay-per-click advertising program. Essentially you would buy keywords and then pay them for every time a potential client (website visitor) clicks on an ad you put up through Google. You also have the option to pay for impressions - that means everytime your ad loads on a page.

If you are thinking about using AdWords as part of your marketing campaign or are using them already Google works seamlessly in providing you with the answer to that all important questions, Is this ad working, am I making more money then I am spending? You can see if the visitor who clicked on the ad (you just paid for) bought something, or they clicked away from your website without purchasing the product you are selling.

You will be able to see where your visitors entered the site and where they leave it. When you sign up for Google and AdWords us the same account number (Google uses Gmail as the login and password) you can link both accounts together. AdWords will be imported into your Google Analytics Account. This provides you with a safety net so you can watch the behavior or you visitors and change what isn't working.

The development team at Google has a way of making their tools very usable and Google Analytics is just one of many tools that live up to these high standards.

I am amazed that everyone doesn't use this tool, if you need help in placing analytics on your pages email me or give me a call.

Pamela Jacob - Artista Design 801-910-4825

Providing Creative Solutions & Amazing Results

But This Host Is So Cheap!

One of the things that I find confuses a lot of my clients is what type of hosting package to buy. If you are new to the Internet business world and your have never had a website – a host is a foreign word to you, even if you do have a website you may not know what you need in a hosting provider. I hope this article will help clear up some of that confusion. I have met the most brilliant business people who have been confused by terminology so let me first start by explaining the difference between an ISP and an Internet hosting provider… ISP – Internet Service Provider This is the company that actually provides you with a way to access the Internet – if you have a dial-up then it would be something like PC People or Earth Link. If you have cable modem it would be Comcast, Quest – etc. This is the connection that goes from your computer to the Internet. Internet Hosting Provider Which is where you place your website – if you were/are a business owner that had a brick and mortar business you would rent a store and place your goods in that store. The same holds true with an Internet host they hold all the pages of your website, graphics, scripts and everything else. This is a simplified explanation, but you get the picture. Now that we have that out of the way lets talk about hosting packages and what to look for. As a web developer/designer I have worked with the best and worst of hosts. I have found hosting companies that look inexpensive but nickel and dime the customer to death by the time they are done. They look great in the beginning and even sound like a fantastic deal but are really not a great bargain. I have found hosting companies I have loved in the beginning but later have gotten so big or changed hands and the customer service was so bad I had to go else where. I want to warn you of the one stop shop hosting companies that do everything – they will register your domain name – build your website (usually template websites) and host them. Saving you money and touting the convenience of all they do… Ultimately you feel like you are hostage to them – they own your domain and website. Please see this article for more … Promotional Designer: I thought it was a good idea... What do I do now? I know as a business owner you want to save money where you can – which is just good business sense, there are a lot of choices – do your research - make sure that host will meet your needs. I want you to chose carefully – be wise about the host you pick this is so important because all hosts are not created equal.

Factors to look at when selecting a hosting company

• Live Tech Support This is one of the most important aspects of a host I want to be able to talk to a live breathing person – through chat on the Internet or phone. I do not want to rely on an email period. Which is my position – if my store (website) is down or my email is out of order my business is going down the drain. This is #1…

• Do they use a C-Panel What is a c-panel you say? A C-panel allows you or your web developer/designer to be able to control different elements of your website. You can add emails, change passwords, even point domain names and many other important tasks. It gives you control over many aspects of your website.

• What is the up Time If the the server is down and your website is not up on the Internet 24/7 then what happens when your website visitors go to your store? You lose business ! I look for a 99% up time guarantee . There are ways to monitor your up time go to www.artistadesign.com/resources.html you will be able to get a free website monitor. Just click on the monitor you see on the left hand side of the website. You will be able to register and get a monitor to put on your website - best of all it is FREE!

• Disk Space - Depending on how large you website is will depend on the disk space needed. If you have a logo and a lot of text you will need very little disk space.

• Bandwidth - If you are running a site with lots of images or downloads you will need a lot higher bandwidth than a small site with mainly text. If you go over your allotted bandwidth you will usually pay a lot of extra money or visitors may not be able to download files you need them to download.

• CGI Bin - It is very rare you will see a host without a CGI bin. It is important that you have one. If you do not have you own CGI bin you cannot install scripts and programs.

• MySQL Database - Some programs require a data-base. If you are going to have a shopping cart, a customer log in or a number of different functions for your website in the future you may want to store the information. Some hosts will want to charge you extra for MySQL included in a hosting package - but you will fine most good hosts will include it. Even if you don't think you will ever need it, I would find a host who has it in a hosting package even one which is an upgrade from the one you are purchasing. I find most websites grow as the business grows, and eventually you may need a database for something.

• PHP - Many dynamic scripts and programs require PHP support. Again, this feature can be extra with some hosts but most good hosts will offer this free. With this you will find free blogging scripts (WordPress) shopping cart scripts (Zen Cart) and many other things. As a matter of fact in the host that I use and would recommend these things are right in the C-Panel and can be applied with a click of a mouse!

• Perl - If you do not have Perl, you cannot run Perl programs. Many good scripts that you can get for free or buy are written in Perl.

• SSL (Secure Socket Layer) - If you intend to accept credit card orders directly from you website, you will need Secure Socket Layer included in your plan. This is an easily overlooked feature. To use this feature you need a merchant account – there is no essential need to make this a priority if you have no merchant account – or if you use a 3 party processor such as PayPal.

• FTP Access – Unlimited and unrestricted ability to transfer files to your site is essential. You will need an FTP program to transfer files.

• Statistics Program - I use to say have a great statistics program and it still is an essential tool to have. Most good hosts provide this as well.

  My preference is Google Analytics it is an impressive tool and you would not believe how much information you can gain from having that on your website. It goes way above and beyond anything I have seen a hosting package provide. Google provides the code for free you just need your web professional to place it on the pages of your website. You will be able to fine tune your marketing it is outstanding. Pamela@artistadesign.com