Using Google Analytics Data to Improve your Website –

It’s important to review your Google Analytics data in order to improve your website for optimal performance in SERPS. 

When you look at your data, take particular notice to High Bounce Rate or low “Page/Visit” as these are red flags.

High bounce rate, low “pages/visit” and low “average time on site” suggest that visitors coming to your website are not finding what they were looking for on your site.

High bounce rate, low page visits, and minimal time spent on a website can be the results of the wrong keywords, content that is lacking important details or is not compelling, or poor navigation and site layout.

Look at Content in the dashboard and look to see which pages on your website have the highest bounce rate, or the least amount of visits.  Then go to the actual page on your website and look at the key words you are targeting on the page. 

Perform your own search and look at several other sites coming up for this specific search term.  Is the content on the pages of these websites similar and relevant to what your website is offering?  If your content is not the same as these, re-evaluate the message /purpose/intent of your information and think of other search terms that describe what you are offering.

In terms of increasing the number of pages/visit on your website, you need to look at the page in terms of a visitor – where do I get what I want.  Make sure you provide direction to help visitors navigate easily with the fewest amount of steps possible to what they want. 

Improving your website is an ongoing process of analysis, discovery, edits and analysis again.  Google Analytics offers a free means of tracking important performance data that you can use to continually improve your website and the internet experience.  Read more about Web Anayltics.

Harbour Light builds new identity for Flanders & Company – Exceptional Homes

 
(PORTSMOUTH NH) August 17, 2010--Harbour Light Strategic Marketing is pleased to unveil a new corporate identity and website for Flanders & Company custom homebuilders, based in Meredith, NH.

Harbour Light, a Web Design and Marketing Agency, completed a brand remodeling for Flanders & Co. (formally known as Flanders Enterprise, LLC), outfitting the Custom Home Builder with a new corporate logo design and web site. Flanders & Company has been custom building and remodeling homes throughout New Hampshire for three decades.

“Mark Flanders, the owner of Flanders & Company, came to us looking to rebuild his company’s image to reflect the quality craftsmanship and attention to detail demonstrated in their work,” said Ned Savoie, Creative Director at Harbour Light.

In addition to the new company logo, Harbour Light’s branding endeavor included custom designing a new website (www.flandersandco.com) powered by Savvy Content Manager, print ad designs for industry trade publications, business stationary, vehicle and construction site signage, as well as supporting marketing collateral.
 
The new website designed by Harbour Light is powered with easy to use content management software (CMS) developed by Savvy Software, Inc. The CMS software gives Flanders & Company the ability to update their own website with images of their latest custom homes and renovation projects, as well as keep their site current with important information on green building and suggestions for homeowners on ways to improve home energy efficiency.

To view the new Flanders & Company website at http://www.flandersandco.com.

Google Analytics – Visitor Traffic Data

Every website has its purpose - provide information, build a brand, sell products services online and or offline.  To often website owners’ focus on the quantity of visitor traffic measured in analytics in terms of measuring website performance, when in fact the focus should be on quality of visitors engaging on the site. 

Before logging into Google Analytics to access your website data, take a moment to reflect on “What it is you want visitors to do on your website?”

How are visitors coming to my website?

One of the most important data elements to obtain insight into about visitors is determining how visitors are finding your website. Within “View Report” select “Traffic Sources” located on the left of your screen to display the websites and keywords sourcing traffic to your website.

3 Traffic Sources Categories

1. Direct Traffic - This reflects the number of visitors who came to the website by typing the URL into their web browser.  Direct traffic also measures the popularity of your website.

2. Referring Sites - These are other websites that have a link that points to your website. Referring visitors are then the number of visits landing on your website via clicking through a link provided from another website. This data can provide valuable information in terms of measuring return on investment for paid advertising links, as well as judge the success of social media marketing efforts.

3. Search Engines – This list the search engines and the number of visits coming from each as a source of traffic to your website.

Additionally, Google Analytics allows you to drill down further to view a list of the keywords that visitors clicked through to access your website.  A high percentage of visits from search engines indicates successful SEO efforts in terms of SERPs visibility.

What are visitors doing on my website?

To take a look at what visitors are doing once they come to your website, look at the “Content” category.

Top Content- identifies which pages are most popular in terms of visits.

Top Landing Pages- are the content pages visitors land on. You can also view the path of pages visitors explore on your website, and look for popular patterns.

Top Exit Pages- lists the web pages that visitors used as point of exit off your website. The pages with the greater percentage of exits presents a red flag that warrants reworking the information functionality of the content to align with your site performance goals.

You can use this visitor traffic insight to improve content pages on your website that are under performing, as well as target referral efforts with websites similar in nature to those referring high volumes of quality visitor traffic.

When you approach Google Analytics data with thoughtful goals, the information at hand becomes invaluable.  Read more about Website Analytics.

Harbour Light Strategic Marketing is pleased to announce the launch of the new Kittery Land Trust (KLT) website.

KLT is a non-profit organization that manages nearly 400 acres of conservation land comprising unaltered woodlands, sensitive wetlands, and stretches of undeveloped coastline that many amphibians, animals, and migratory birds call home.

Harbour Light, a local advertising and web design company, volunteered creative talent to help design a new user-friendly website to highlight the beautiful coastal lands the Kittery Land Trust organization work so hard to protect and preserve.

"Our access to open land in this region is unique and one of our greatest assets" asserts Ned Savoie, Creative Director at Harbour Light. "We are proud to support KLT and the tireless work they do to keep lands protected and accessible for everyone in the future."

The new website (www.kitterylandtrust.org) is both aesthetically and functionally pleasing.  The straightforward navigation structure makes it easy for visitors to access information, and simple, elegant design serves as purposeful backdrop for viewing photos of the land and the natural habitat.

Additionally, the website is powered by content management software developed by Savvy Software, Inc (parent company to Harbour Light), allowing KLT to efficiently update the website and upload images with limited technical expertise.

“We were so fortunate to have Harbour Light at that helm of our new website redesign,” states MJ Blanchette, member of Kittery Land Trust Board of Directors. “They not only created a highly functional site that beautifully enhances our identity, but enabled us to easily make our own edits so we can maintain — and grow —kitterylandtrust.org into the future.” 

The mission of the Kittery Land Trust is to work creatively with landowners, residents, community, and the town to conserve and steward important natural areas that improve the quality of life in Kittery, Maine today and for the future.  For more information on the Kittery Land Trust, visit www.kititerylandtrust.org.

Here is a simple starting point for those looking for advice on how to build a successful website.