Friday, June 29, 2007

Traffic reporting tools

Traffic reporting tools




There are a few traffic reporting tools to see your web site traffic.
I will mention 3 that I like

1. The software that is used by your hosting company.

Your hosting company might have webTrends or similar software.
I prefer these, since they are accurate and show you (almost) everything.

2. Google analytics - a very popular solution and rightfully so.

You can register here http://www.google.com/analytics/.
The reports are for savvy users and the new reporting version is even more complicated. Overall this is a wonderful (free) solution.

3. Another solution in Beta is "Enquire", you can find it here Enquisite.

It gives you great reports, but only about traffic that came from search engines.
There is nothing about traffic that came from "referring sites".



You can have them all or just one.

They are all good traffic reporting tools.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Pay per click (PPC)

Pay per click (PPC)




Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines
where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website.
When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser's keyword list, the advertiser's ad may appear on the search results page.
These ads are called "sponsored links" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to, and sometimes, above the natural or organic results on the page.
The advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad.


Pay per click advertising is a search engine marketing technique.


To make the most of this medium the advertiser needs to "steal eye balls".
The advertiser needs to refer traffic to his/her web site.
The best way to do this is by assigning the Pay per click (PPC) to another web site.


For example,

The Google ads on this web site Driving School are "stealing" the quality traffic that this web site is getting.
Every click they get is a quality click, since the "eye balls" are already focused on "Driving Schools".


Find a web site that has quality traffic, and locate your ads there.




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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

User interface design

User interface design





The "User interface design" is very important in the SEO world. if the SEO company gets the traffic to the site, the "User interface design" will keep the clients or make the leave the web site.
The user interface design is based on:



  • Functionality - what is the web site supposed to do?

  • User analysis - analysis of the potential users.

    The user interface design needs to answer:

    • What does the user want the web site to do?

    • What would be the web sites normal workflow?

    • How savvy is the user and what similar systems did the user already use?

    • What interface look and feel would appeal to the user?



  • Information architecture - the flow of the web site.

  • Prototyping - development of wireframes.

  • Usability testing - testing of the prototypes on actual users.

  • Graphic Interface design - actual look and feel design of the graphical user interface (GUI.) It may be based on the findings developed during the usability testing if usability is unpredictable, or based on communication objectives and styles that would appeal to the user. In rare cases, the graphics may drive the prototyping, depending on the importance of visual form versus function. If the interface requires multiple skins, there may be multiple interface designs for one control panel, functional feature or widget. This phase is often a collaborative effort between a graphic designer and a user interface designer, or handled by one who is proficient in both disciplines.

  • Consistency, consistency, consistency.

  • Navigation between items is important.

  • Navigation within a web page is important.

  • Expect your users to make mistakes.

  • Your design must be intuitive.

  • KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid




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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization



Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality of web traffic to a web site.
The quality traffic can come from search engines, industry related sites etc.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is not about increasing the number of web clients, it is always about getting you the right clients for your web site.



Search engine results are very important, and being on the first pages is one of the objectives.

But, it is not the only objective.




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