Tag Archives: events

12 Simple Mistakes You Might Be Making on Your Website

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Hosting

When creating a website, it’s quite easy to get swept up in the trap of putting creativity before the end user’s needs. Practicality can be understandably boring. However, an unusable website is about as much good as a car with no engine. See if you’re making any of these common website mistakes, then go fix them!   Unscannable Content The average person comes online to find what they want, and find it quickly. If your content isn’t easily scannable, it will lose you readers and fast. The fix: Use headings, bullet lists, and numbered lists whenever possible. You should also use images to break up the monotony of a long read.   No Search Box This is especially important if you have a large website with lots of content. The internet is a big place, and people have come to depend on search engines to find what they need. The fix: Add a search box to the top right corner of your website, since that’s where people are used to finding the search option.   Not Using Analytics Analytics is the tool that keeps your finger on the pulse of your website. If you don’t know what people are doing on your site, then you can’t truly know how it is performing, or what is working for your company. The fix: Stop putting it off. Go to Google Webmaster Tools and install Google Analytics on your website for free. If you need help, visit Google Analytics Getting Started page .   Cluttered Pages Cluttered websites are universally unappealing. When faced with sidebars stuffed with ads, an abundance of images, and unorganized text, most people will simply leave the website. The fix: Simplify the layout of your website by getting rid of what you don’t really need. Be sure you’re utilizing the space above the fold with your header, sign up form, and the welcome text of your page.   No Clear Direction Every page of your website should work toward a common goal. Is the purpose of your website to promote your product? To showcase your talents? To raise money for an organization? The fix: Establish the aim of your website, and make sure all of your content is in alignment with that aim.   Poor Readability Text that is too large, too small, or made up of difficult-to-read fonts and glaring colors can easily put off your visitors. The fix: For the body of your text, use 12-point font, and colors that contrast with the background. Also, stick with fonts you can read easily yourself. It helps to have a second pair of eyes. Hard to Navigate Your navigation is the window to the rest of your website. If it’s difficult to find, ambiguous, or gives no cues to the user, then they could easily get frustrated. The fix: Put your navigation bar in a visible place on your website. Use simple, easily recognizable words like “About,” “Services,” and “Contact.” The navigation should also give the user cues as to which page they’re on, such as the color of the current page turning color. Bad Screen Resolution Your users shouldn’t have to scroll horizontally to see the full contents of your website. That was okay back in 1996, but not anymore. The fix: You can fix this problem by using relative width to make the page fit any screen. Use the tag in your HTML to set relative width, or use the body{width:100%;}tag in the style sheet.   Non-Cohesive Pages If your layout, color scheme, and overall theme vary from one page to another, it makes your website seem disjointed. The fix: Treat your website like a book. The pages should look like they’re all somehow related.   Music or Video Loads with Page Video that automatically plays on page load can be annoying and even startling. Music that loads with the page is just as bad. The fix: Disable the automatic play feature for all of your site’s content. Give your visitors a choice as to what they want to watch or listen to.   Browser and Device Incompatibility This is one simple yet important aspect of web design that too often gets overlooked. Just because your website looks flawless in Firefox doesn’t mean it also looks great in Safari. The fix: Test your website across all browsers and devices. Mobile emulators are good for testing, but use the actual device whenever you can.   No List A huge mistake a lot of website owners make is not having a way to keep in touch with the people who visit their website. The fix: Sign up for an email list service like Mail Chimp or Aweber , then add a simple sign up form to your website. An even more effective approach is to offer an incentive for signing up, such as a free ebook or report.   Every website has something it can improve on. A user friendly website is a great asset to an organization, so be sure that yours is as mistake-free as possible. Continue reading →

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3 Steps to Getting More Out of Google Analytics

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Hosting

Google Analytics is probably the most popular free tool to keep track of how your website is performing, and for good reason. It offers a lot of great features, though they can be intimidating at first glance. This program has a lot to offer, so wrapping your head around it all might seem a bit daunting. However, once you pick on how to use some of its more advanced features, you’ll have more valuable control over your digital marketing efforts.   1. Read the Reports Analytics reports give you a very clear picture as to how visitors are interacting with your website. When you log in, you’re brought to the audience overview page by default. This general overview breaks down your website stats, which include total website visits, page views, unique visitors, average visit duration, bounce rate, and percentage of new visits within the given time frame. Though this information is helpful, there are other reports you can check out to get more detailed information about your traffic. Content Overview: When you click on Content> Overview in the left navigation panel, you’ll see a report that tells you what people are specifically looking at when they visit your website. You’ll see specific information about you page traffic, including which of your pages are most popular. This is helpful in identifying which pages you might want to get rid of, improve, or downplay. Traffic Sources Overview: Knowing where your traffic is coming from allows you to fine tune your online marketing efforts. Analytics sorts sources by search traffic, referral traffic, direct traffic, and traffic from AdWords campaigns. Click on Search Engine Optimization and you’ll see what keywords lead users to your website, as well as what pages users are landing on and what geographic areas they live in. Intelligence Events: This nifty tool allows you to set alerts for when specific events happen on your website. For instance, you might want to be alerted once a certain number of people make a purchase or download a free resource in a given month. Google will calculate the actual performance against the expected performance. You can set intelligence events for both web analytics and AdWords. Conversions: This section allows you to set and monitor conversion goals for your site. You do this by specifying the goal URL to track. For instance, if your goal is to get people to sign up for your newsletter, then set the confirmation page as your goal URL. You then set up a sales funnel consisting of all the pages your visitor will go through to ultimately reach the confirmation page. KISSMetrics has written an excellent guide to using this feature.   2. Use Reporting Tools Reporting tools let you use and control your analytics data in a variety of ways. If you’re a WordPress user who’s hungry for more analytics power, you’ll be happy to know that there’s more than one plugin for that. For example, Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast lets you track things like views per category, views per author, and can automatically track pageviews and outbound clicks. If you aren’t a WordPress user, there are also other tools that give you more control over your analytics. Google Analytics Evolution allows you to plug your data directly into an Excel spreadsheet. Bringshare.com allows you to merge your  data with other sources to generate reports, white papers, and other company documents.   3. Explore Advanced Features Advanced segmentation. This feature gives you more detailed information when it comes to where your traffic is coming form. For example, you can create and view the segment of people who bounced from your website in a given month, or only visitors who made a purchase. You can even create multiple segments and compare them on the same chart. Custom Reporting. Just as the name suggests, custom reports allows you to create customized reports based on specific criteria and metrics. You can create reports that tell you things like bounce rate per city and Page Views by browser. You can find this option under the Customization tab. Flash Tracking. Tracking Flash content on web pages has always been a major challenge for web developers. Google addresses this with Flash Tracking . It translates your tracking code into ActionScript 3 language, making it easier to track Adobe Flash content like forms and buttons. Customized email reports. You can schedule reports to be emailed to you once, daily, weekly, monthly, or on a quarterly basis.   If you’re fairly new to analytics, then Google is a great place to start. Even after you learn your way around, you’ll find that there are still more features to learn about. The best way to learn is to tinker around and see which ones serve you best. Soon enough you’ll be rocking graphs and spreadsheets like the pro that you are. Continue reading →

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WHIR Events Woos Washington, DC Five Years in a Row

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Hosting

August 23, 2013 — Last night we hosted our WHIR Networking Event in Washington, DC for the fifth straight year in a row, and despite the August “recess” that DC takes, it didn’t seem to slow down the 100 or so attendees from joining us for drinks, food and fun. Keep on reading: WHIR Events Woos Washington, DC Five Years in a Row Continue reading →

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Keep it Classy: How to Handle Negative Social Mentions

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Hosting

Social media is a powerful tool for engaging your customers, but it can also be a double-edged sword. Web 2.0 has largely put the fate of businesses’ reputations in the hands of the consumers. Arizona restaurant Amy’s Baking Company learned this the hard way when they engaged in perhaps the most out-of-control brand meltdown in Facebook history. Take some cues from the fiery owners of Amy’s so that you know what not to do in response to negative social mentions.   What NOT to Do Never reply in all caps The owners, Amy and Samy, posted quite a few of their status updates in all caps, no doubt to add emphasis. This is basic online etiquette and should go without saying, but on the internet, typing in all caps is considered shouting. Not only that, but readers don’t take you seriously when you do it. You don’t need to add extra emphasis to your message. Let the words carry themselves. Do not reply to everyone Amy’s Baking Company quickly gained popularity on Reddit when a member posted a video of the restaurant when it was featured on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. The video drew a slew of comments, which the owners drew attention to on Facebook. This in turn drew a slew of Facebook comments, which drew more responses from the owners. You can see how this can escalate quickly. Not all negative comments warrant a response. Do not name call The owners called respondents names like “idiots,” “little kids,” and even went so far as to use profanity in their Facebook updates. This should also go without saying, but don’t call your customers names. Even if they insult your product, insult your wife, and question your parenting abilities, just don’t do it. Leave out your personal views The Amy’s rants contained quite a few uncomfortable comments about religion. Your goal should be to resolve the problem, not to have a rousing debate or convince others of your beliefs. Even if the customer is the one trying to engage you in discussions about religion or politics, stick to the issue at hand. Do not engage in public arguments As Amy and Samy have proven, public disputes tend to draw attention. You don’t want your customers to see you as unprofessional and combative. Avoid hashing out disagreements for all of your followers to see. Do not blame the customer Samy ended one status update in which he was defending the restaurant’s prices with “Do not blame us because you cannot afford quality.” Even if the customer is scathing in their rebuke of your practices, avoiding putting the blame back on them. You don’t want to come off as a business owner who responds to criticism by avoiding responsibility. Do not go on television and behave badly Viral video is real. If ever your business is featured on television, put your best face forward and avoid unprofessional behavior. Otherwise, you could find yourself with more negative social mentions than you can handle.   What to Do Instead Reply with empathy Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and try to understand why they’re upset. Try to imagine how you would want a business owner to respond in that situation. Ask questions Amy and Samy are also notorious for their indignant replies to negative restaurant reviews on Yelp. Instead of being defensive, try to clarify on the situation and why the customer is unhappy. This also shows that you’re serious about getting the issue resolved. Stay professional Avoid injecting your personal opinions and beliefs into the conversation. Make the goal to resolve the conflict at hand, not to win an argument. Hold conversations privately Instead of handling the negative mention in the comments section, invite the customer to call or email your customer support department. If necessary, encourage them to contact you directly. Moderate your social media Trolls do exist. Just because someone is dissatisfied with your business doesn’t give them permission to post spam and flame your Facebook page. Create a social media policy, make it available to the public, and boot those who violate it. Take advantage of constructive criticism Sometimes a customer’s negative social mention can help you to improve your products and services for the future. Use feedback to your advantage when it is constructive instead of dismissing it. Apologize when needed Never act too big to apologize if the problem was on your end. A simple apology can do a lot to diffuse the situation.   For the most part, social media is meant to yield positive results for businesses. However, as in the real world, businesses should be prepared to deal with unhappy customers from time to time. This isn’t always a bad thing. Constructive feedback can help you improve your business in the future. As for destructive feedback, you can always hit the block button. Continue reading →

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Google Issues New Info on Backlinks: Is Your Site Safe?

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Hosting

Backlinking is somewhat of a touchy subject in search engine optimization, especially since Google launched its much-publicized crack down on blackhat SEO last year. The search leader encourages a “proceed with caution” approach when it comes to backlinking, and understandably so, given the history that Google and backlinking have with each other. Last month, Search Engine Journal published a story on Google’s recent cautioning on using unnatural backlinks, particularly in “advertorials,” massive guest posting, and optimized anchor text in press releases.   A Brief History of SEO Back in the “Wild West” of the internet age – the mid 1990s – websites started popping up faster than people could keep up with them. Search engines were invented to help web users find what they wanted quickly and efficiently. Back then, all a webmaster had to do to get his or her site indexed was to submit their URL to a search engine. A spider would be sent out to crawl the website, searching for any and all outgoing links as well as relevant keywords to report back to the search engine for indexing. Eventually, people started to see the value in getting higher up in search results, and the term “search engine optimization” was coined. Since search engine algorithms relied so heavily on backlinks and keyword density, people began to come up with all sorts of ways to trick the system. One notably underhanded technique was the use of link farms. Link farms were networks of websites created with the sole purpose of hosting backlinks. Webmasters and internet marketers would commonly buy and trade backlink space. Search engines responded to such tactics by developing more complex algorithms to determine the relevance of a website. Google PageRank is one such example. While employing PageRank brought some much needed order to things, Google’s subsequent algorithm updates were what made the biggest difference. In 2011, Google released the Panda algorithm update, which lowered the ranking of low-quality websites. In 2012, Google unleashed the Penguin update to penalize websites that violated Google’s webmaster guidelines. Recently, changes made to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines provides even more insight into how Google is continuing to work on creating an environment in which natural backlinking is rewarded and unnatural backlinking is penalized.  Specifically, the changes addressed concerns about guest posting, article directory marketing, advertorials and more.   How Much Guest Posting is Too Much? In its recent update, Google didn’t specify how often a blogger should or shouldn’t guest post. A better approach would be to consider the reasons for the guest posting. To clarify, Matthew Cutts, Google’s Head of Webspam, released a video on the topic in October of last year. Basically, he says that there is a difference between guest blogging to add value to a blog and guest blogging to get backlinks. Generally, tactics like spinning and distributing the same blog post to multiple websites for the sake of backlinks is a no-no. Cutts advised to use the rel=nofollow attribute for backlinks included in guest blog posts.   What is “Rel=nofollow?” “Rel=nofollow” is an HTML tag used in links to tell a web crawler not to crawl that particular link. It was originally developed to discourage spammy blog comments. When you use this attribute, the backlink won’t count toward PageRank. You’re essentially saying that the link is for human eyes only, not for search engine consideration.   Backlinking from Advertorials Advertorials, also know as native content, is content containing backlinks that a company pays a webmaster to publish. In essence, this is paying for backlinks, and it’s also an SEO no-no. The reason is two-fold: It’s misleading to the reader, and It’s misleading to Google, which has always used “editorial votes” as a way to rank websites. If a piece of content is an advertorial, it’s best to disclose this, and also use the nofollow attribute for outgoing links. Again, not using the attribute could work against you.   Optimized Anchor Text in Press Releases Optimized anchor text is anchor text that includes keywords that you want to rank for. Google considers “links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites” to be in violation of their webmaster guidelines. Since the links within the press release or article aren’t a true indication of your website’s relevance or popularity, make sure you nofollow them. What all comes down to is this: It’s fine to use online content as a promotional tool, but you should use the nofollow attribute if you’re using backlinks in said content. Backlinks within your content should only be used to drive readers to your website, and if the readers like your content, hopefully they’ll link to it themselves. Yes, it sounds like a long workaround, but anyone in search marketing will tell you that building a great online reputation takes time. Ultimately, your goal should be to get your readers to like you. If readers like you, then they will leave a trail back to you for search engines to follow creating an optimum SEO experience without the manipulation that Google loves to penalize. Continue reading →

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