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When evaluating website traffic, people often look at the volume of traffic to justify if their marketing efforts are worthwhile.  While traffic volume is an important piece to consider, you cannot measure it exclusively.  You must evaluate the quality of the traffic your site is receiving.  Even if you get thousands upon thousands of visitors a month, if their visit doesn’t convert into an action on your site or a call into your reservation desk, than what was the point (not to mention the cost)?  As web marketers and business owners we must use additional metrics to define what quality traffic on a website looks like, and take the appropriate steps to improve it.

So, what other metrics can we use? 

Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is probably one of the most typical metrics used to define quality traffic.  Wikipedia defines it as “…when a website visitor leaves a page or a site without visiting any other pages before a specified session-timeout occurs.”  Typically we look at the bounce rate for individual pages, and if the bounce rate is unacceptably high, then we try to isolate what is causing people to bounce from that page.  Are you targeting the wrong keywords, is the content poor, are the photos low quality, do you have a call to action on the page to entice people to stay, etc?

There are many opinions on what is an acceptable bounce rate, and most people tend to agree that anything over 50% is a red-flag for any website.  However, it is really important to benchmark yourself against other sites in a similar industry.  Let’s look at the average bounce rates of a large sample of two different type of lodging sites - vacation rentals and hotels/resorts:

While this is merely a sample, it provides us with good information to use when looking at your vacation rental or hotel site bounce rates.  As a Vacation Rental, you should aim to have a fairly low homepage bounce rate in the 20’s, and as a hotel/resort you should aim to have a homepage bounce rate of around 30%.  When looking at all pages on your site, aim to be in the lower 30% range.  When you define pages that have red-flag bounce rates, evaluate those pages and make sure you are offering guests a reason to stay on your site (specials, valuable content, easy to use navigation, etc.)  Sometimes we see sites that are so well-optimized and that rank so well organically that they naturally have higher bounce rates.  Why?  Because people land on their page, get the info they need, and then move on without necessarily wanting to book a vacation (for instance, your site offers an entire page about a popular event in your town, people are looking for the dates and times, they find your page, get the info and bounce.) This isn’t always a bad thing (we all know content and pages are important for SEO), as long as you are meeting your reservation goals.  If this is the case, you can still take steps to try to minimize the bounce rate for those pages.

Page Views Per Session or “Depth”
While bounce rate is standard, let’s take it one step further and look at just how many pages of your site visitors are viewing. Is it 2 pages, 5 pages, 10 or more?  This is an important question, and the answers depend on the type of product or service you provide. If you are a hotel chain that often has repeat guests, they may only need to get from your homepage to your booking engine to reserve a stay, as your offerings are much more standard and require less research and buying commitment.  But if you are a vacation rental with various types of properties spanning a large geographical region, than guests are going to shop around on your site until they find the exact home they want to rent at a price that they can afford. Taking this into consideration it is again important for you to compare the number of pages visitors are viewing on your site to sites that have similar offerings.

Let’s look at how many pages visitors are viewing on average for our sample of vacation rentals and hotels/resorts sites:

For vacation rentals, we see a higher number of people viewing more than 10 pages of a site, and this should be expected.  Depending on the size of your site, you want to see guests viewing a larger number of pages simply because you have more lodging options, prices, etc.  For a hotel site, you won’t see as many visitors viewing more than 10 pages of your site because of the limited room options.  Depending on the size of your hotel site, you will probably see the majority of your site visits in the 1-3 page range, but you should aim to give guests enough information about your city that they don’t necessarily have to research it elsewhere and may view additional pages.  For all hospitality sites, you don’t want visitors to leave your site if they can get all the info they need in one place.  Create quality info on your site, entice visitors to stick around, and this can impact the number of pages people visit on your site as well as conversions.

Conversions
Conversions are what marketers and business owners pinpoint as the most important metric to determine if their website is generating quality traffic. This is extremely hard to average out and show an average across websites, as the actions vary from site to site (secure online bookings, booking requests, calls, filling out contact forms, requesting brochures, etc.)  As an owner or marketer, measure a variety of metrics like the ones identified above, in addition to conversions, to improve the quality of traffic to your site.

With these metrics (and others) in mind, dig into your analytics and take steps to improve the quality of the traffic your site receives.  Consider your content, your keywords, your photos, your navigation, your calls to action, and it may even be time to consider a new design to address a variety of these issues.

Just a quick note to let you all know that my partner-in-crime Mary Bowling and I will be speaking at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose next week (although I know everyone has seen the cute little banner announcement over on our sidebar ~~~>, right?)

One of the great things about these conferences is the chance to sit in a room and learn from each other.  What works for one person can work for our clients, also - sometimes with some modifications. There are other benefits also - and one of my favorites is the opportunity to give back.  This  year some great people have set up an awesome party for us to attend - all that is required is a donation to the Children’s Hospital of Aurora, CO and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

You all can give back too, even if you cant attend -just visit the website and click on contribute - it’s the easiest way to do something nice for those that need it.  A few keystrokes to a nice quantity of good kharma!

Donate online to the Internet Marketer’s Charity Party.

Read more about the people involved, the cause, and the party at the IMChartyParty website

Definition
Graphic Design’s primary purpose is to organize, plan and arrange page content into art that will influence or market to an audience.  The key ingredient to graphic art is composition which is the organization, placement, and visual appeal encompassing the ideas you want your viewers to act upon.  Graphic Design is the thread you will see throughout advertising, whether it is your logo, business card, website, commercials, etc. In any of these you will find the following essential graphic design attributes:

• Page layout – aesthetic style and positioning of page elements or objects
• Printmaking - producing printable art; prints are created from single flat medium
• Typography - assembling type or character design
• Web Design -  online appeal and communication
• Visual Arts -  primarily visual three-dimensional objects

History
The historical start of Graphic Design began with the birth of the first written language in the 3rd or 4th millennium BC.   Also, paintings found in Lascaux caves of 14,000 BC. Another significant time in history was the start of printing during the time between 4th to 7th century A.D.   These times have all contributed and influenced to our modern day advances in graphic design.

Contribution to Marketing
Bringing across persuasive ideas in marketing is the very key to having your target market take the actions you are looking for. Graphic Design is what makes it possible to apply the visual appeal of your product or service and create the ‘buzz’ and interest in your brand. The influence of graphic design in advertising and marketing is significant. Many marketing occupations require graphic design background, including Advertising & Publishing Art Directors, Production Designer, Web Designer, as well as, Film Production.

Software Tools
Obviously today’s graphic design world is strongly influenced by software tools.  They are imperative to the modern art world.  What software tools are essential to graphic designers?

Page Layout/Desktop Publishing

• Professional: Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress
• Long Documents: Adobe FrameMaker, Corel Ventura
• Business or Enterprise:  FrameMaker, Corel Ventura, QuarkXPress
• Home: Print Shop, Sierra Print Artist
• Small Business: Microsoft Office Publisher, Adobe PageMaker,
  Serif PagePlus

Graphics

• Illustration: Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Macromedia Freehand
• Photo/Images: Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo-Print

Web Design: Dreamweaver, Microsoft Frontpage

Why does Graphic Design Improve Conversion from Marketing?
We know that graphic design is a major part of marketing, but why and does it make a difference?  Design affects many parts of our life including the buildings we walk into, the billboards we see along the side of the road, to the labels we see in the supermarket, and coming home and watching television. We could continually name its influences, but why are we persuaded more with aesthetic persuasion rather than plan straightforward information. Part of advertising is repeating information over and over, but does graphic design help viewers remember or take action faster to information with visual interest?  Absolutely!  Visual appeal often drives customers to purchase products/services sooner than later.  Studies show that customers buy products/services that appeal to them rather than ones they need. 

Research has proven the psychological process behind the influence of visual persuasion. In the book Visual Persuasion by Paul Messaris, he compiles research speaking about our vision being directly connected to our emotions, which in turn influences our functional, biological, and social needs.   A strong example talked about in the book showing how images can impact emotion, is having a straight-on view of a person in an image.  This appeal’s to our tendency to look back to someone looking at us.  Basically, images are another form of communication, an essential part of language. In advertising images and graphics draw our attention to ads and we associate it to what we feel.  Seeing visuals improves viewer’s ability to figure out and understand the information presented. 

It is obvious from these conclusions why graphic design is an essential part of marketing, it is essential to improved communication by connecting to more emotions of the audience. The brain is able to convert what is seen to better understanding and comprehension. Graphic Design is not only a part of marketing but is the foundation to receiving conversions.  

Now that you have successfully implemented a Web Analytics program to evaluate visits to your website, what should you be looking at? Whether you are utilizing the Blizzard ROI Tracker, Google Analytics or another type of analytics software on your website, these resources can provide valuable information about the effectiveness of both online and offline marketing efforts.

Bounce Rate - tells you the percentage of visitors that only viewed one page on your website. There are many possible scenarios that cause websites to have high bounce rates. If the content on your website is outdated, you will typically lose visitors looking for the newest information about your business. How often do you update the content, specials or packages, local events, etc… on your website? Are your keywords reflective of what your visitors expect from your website? If the keyword phrases you are using, both in your optimization and paid advertising don’t give visitors what they are expecting from your website, they will most likely not make it past the first page.

Average Time Spent on Website - It is crucial to monitor how long the average visitor spends on your website. If your content keeps the visitor engaged, they are more likely to view more pages, which often lead to conversions or a request for more information. Pay attention to pages that show an unusually high time spent on the page, as there could be an issue with the page.

First Time and Returning Visitors - It is important to spend your time and efforts attracting new visitors to your website. It is just as important to see an increase in returning visitors, an indication that visitors are interested in learning more about what you are offering on your website.

Top Referring URL’s - This will help to determine which directories and search engines are bringing the most traffic to your website.

Top Keywords that send visitors to your website - analyze whether the most relevant keywords for your business are really the ones that are sending the most qualified visitors. Which keywords are resulting in more conversions?

Top Keywords by Search Engine - Analyzing the top keywords by search engine will allow you to determine what is working best for you in the organic rankings and your pay per click advertising.

Paid vs. Organic search engine referrals - this will help you to analyze your organic and paid marketing efforts. Are you investing enough money for Search Engine Optimization or Pay Per Click advertising?

Visitor Demographics - You can analyze where the majority of your visitors are coming from by Country, State, or City and focus marketing efforts in these areas.

Conversion Rate - The number of visitors that complete the desired action, such as reserving a room, signing up for your newsletter or filling out a request for information form. It is important that you or your webmaster define the conversion pages.

Other Links - Are the other link building efforts, such as lodging directories and authority websites, sending visitors to your website, if so, are they also converting?

Don’t forget that the purpose of your website marketing efforts are saving money, increasing traffic, increasing conversions, increasing your return on investment and decreasing the bounce rate of visitors to your website. The analysis is as important as the online marketing itself.

Bounce Image Courtesy bigwibble6

Purchase image quaziefoto

Nowadays when building a website you want it to captivate and engage the customer from first glance. Your homepage needs to be an attention getter, and you want it to usually stand out and “sell” more than all of your other pages. So what can you do to spice up a simple page that has nothing but text and an image sitting on it? Add some Flash!

Flash has been around since 1996 and the technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, various web page components, put video into web pages, and more recently, to create powerful internet applications.

Flash has gone through a lot of phases throughout the different versions that have been released. With each version it has improved, getting better and more user friendly. I feel flash started to shine when AdobeMX was released in 2002. Flash wasn’t really popular more then 6-7 years ago, if you saw it on a site you were typically kind of surprised. In the last 5 years flash has been pushed to its limits in what it can do, by communicating with other programming/html languages, animation and movie advancement, and its own build in language, Action Script. Entire sites can actually be created in flash and still function just as well if not better then other formatted and coded sites.

If you take a look at some of the major brand name companies websites, you will notice a lot of flash intros, slideshows and navigations. These alone can keep a visitor’s attention focused on your site. Sometimes just the feel of a page can keep you there. Flash also makes the page feel futuristic, more advanced, and just cooler, because things are typically always moving, glowing, animating, etc.

Flash on a site tends to clue the user in on the site being modern and updated and is a great addition to your already spectacular content, just keep in mind - we do NOT recommend full-flash websites.

How can you use flash to help spice up your page?
Try taking some high quality pictures that match the look and feel of your website. Pick a good order for them to be displayed in and have your design company put together a good 4-8 image flash slideshow for you. Unlike JavaScript, flash slideshows are a lot more flexible. JavaScript slide shows just fade in and out nothing more. Flash slideshows can zoom in/out, pane from left to right, fade at more specific rates, have fancy fade in/out effects rather then just the basic fade, and much more. Typically a flash slideshow will work best on your site’s homepage, without slowing down the page load time.

How much flash do you need?
As great as Flash is, you never want to overdo it on your site. Too much movement on a page can distract the user from making buying decisions or from finding the “booking” or “buying” buttons. That being said, having a flash slideshow added to the header of your page can really “class it up.” It’s important to appeal to the eye, but still maintain a minimum of 150 words on that page to make it rank for your best and most competitive keywords. If you add more than an accent, it’s going to cost way more than its worth, scare your viewer away, or make the site too animated by taking away the focus of your sites original goal with the visitor. Making a site in complete flash with no actual links to other pages and having all links internal in the .swf file will tank your search engine rankings. Google has admitted that they are starting to index flash, but there is some controversy around how much, and exactly how they do it.

How do you know if you really need flash on your site?

• If you feel like your page doesn’t have that extra touch, feel, or presence that your competition delivers.
• If you feel like your ready to leave your site the moment you arrive.
• Your page feels stale and needs some motion, action or more images to it.
• Your homepage hasn’t changed in months/years.
• You don’t have any flash on your site!

What it really boils down to, is that most up to speed, newer generation sites have and use flash on a regular basis on their website in some form or another. You’re really putting yourself above the competition and maintaining and increasing your visitor rate with this new technology. So what are you waiting for?

Every website needs some graphic representation. Let’s say for instance you’re searching for a Florida vacation resort. You find a link and click on it. The first thing you see on the website is this beautiful picture of a beach; white sand, the ocean and a blue sky. It gets your attention right?

A description of the scene can summarize, but cannot replace an image. Images are used to establish a brand, a visual identity for a website. The purpose of including images is to provide information, establish context, and create a look and feel unique to that website.

Your eye is drawn to the images, they invite interpretation. When you look at a page with an image and text, your eye is drawn to the image first. We then try to interpret why it’s there and what it means. When the meaning and purpose of an image is clear, the images are communicating very well.

Although hundreds of graphic file formats exist, web browsers only support a few of them. These are the Graphic formats that are available to web designers.

The graphic file formats supported by most popular web browsers are; Graphic Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Portable Network Graphics (PNG) and vector graphics.

GIF

GIF originated in 1980 and was adopted by web designers in early 1990 as the preferred graphic format for web page design because of its efficiency and widespread familiarity. GIF files use LZW compression that keeps file sizes small for fast loading.

GIFs are limited to 256 colors (8 bits) and support transparency and interlaced graphics. It is also possible to create animated graphics using the GIF format. All browsers can display GIF files.

Advantages:

• Most widely supported graphic format.
• Diagrams look better in this format.
• Supports transparency.

JPEG

JPEG files are compressed and support “true color” (24 bit). JPEGs are the preferred format for photographers, artists and graphic designers where image quality matters. JPEG supports a progressive format that allows for an almost immediate image that will improve in quality as the image loads.

Unlike a GIF file, the compression for JPEG files produces a sliding scale of graphics compression, and can be controlled by the web designer, which allows for different levels of picture quality and file size. All browsers can display JPEG files.

Advantages:

• Larger compression means faster download speeds.
• Produces excellent quality for photographs and complex drawings.
• Supports 24-bit color.

PNG

PNG is a fairly recent format that was introduced as an alternative to GIF files. PNG supports up to 24 bit color, transparency, interlacing and can hold a short text description of the image’s content for use by search engines.

Unfortunately, most browsers do not support PNG and the ones that do support it, don’t support all of its features yet. This should change over the next few years, but do not make a commitment to PNG graphics until you are sure that most of your viewers are using browsers that support PNG.

Advantages:

• Overcomes the 8-bit color limitation of GIF.
• Allows text description of the image for search engine use.
• Supports transparency.
• Diagrams look better than they do in JPEG.

Vector Graphics

Most web graphics are raster images or bitmaps, which consist of a grid of colored pixels. Drawings and illustrations, used mainly for repeat backgrounds on websites, should be created as vector graphics with programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand. Vector graphics consist of mathematical descriptions for each element that make up the lines, shapes and colors of an image. These programs are the graphic artist’s choice for creating drawings. Vector graphics must be converted to GIF, JPEG or PNG format to be used and placed on a web page.

It is recommended that a web designer should choose to use either the GIF or JPEG format as these are supported by most internet browsers. However, since the file size of a GIF is usually smaller than the file size of a JPEG, most web designers tend to lean toward the GIF format for non-vector based background images, frames and any other graphical elements that look fine using 8-bit color.

Designers may select the JPEG format for photographs and illustrations where the compression doesn’t change the visual quality of the image.

As PNG becomes supported by most web browsers, it will probably replace GIF as the web designer’s choice for non-photographic page elements. However, GIF will still be used for animation.

swirl graphic  flikr

Flower Image:  SantaRosa OLD SKOOL

Fish Image  tarotastic

Blogging can be very habit forming, but could lead to having great website success. By having a blog, you are providing your visitors a new medium to connect with your business or industry. With the evolution of website technologies and the social networking trends of the infamous Web 2.0 generation, having a blog is essential.

Many non-techie business owners get the mindset that a blog is where teeny boppers write an entry online discussing their current love relationships. If you are one of these people, it’s time to think differently. A blog is where you will keep your visitors informed and up to date on what is going on with your business or in your industry. It is also another great way to get visitors to return to your website.

There are many free blogging solutions online today to get you started. But for the best results, you should attach a blog to your current website. Wordpress is a well supported and widely used blogging platform. Wordpress along with a select few of quality plugins can be the best tool you can use to improve your website’s search engine rankings and entice visitors to come back for more.

Your blog’s design should match the look and feel of your current website. Consistency is the key to remember for your site’s visitors. Although the page layout of a blog varies differently than the regular web pages on your site, it should still resemble the same brand you want your visitors to trust and recognize. Make sure that your blog is customized and coded correctly for best performance in different browsers and screen resolutions.

When it comes to writing blog posts, think of a blog as an online magazine. Write posts that are of high quality that people would like to read. By only writing a few words every other week, you are not using your blog to its full potential and your visitors won’t stand for it. Write frequent and full featured posts that are interesting and that will keep your audience on the edge of their seats.

With the growing number of RSS feed readers online, more people are subscribing to blog feeds to stay up to date. Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed so they will be enticed to return. For those of you that do not know, an RSS feed is a teaser for your blog that lists the last number of posts. This is a great way to secure and track returning visitors to your blog.

A blog is designed to allow your site’s visitors to read and comment on your posts. Encourage your readers to post comments and be sure to reply to those comments. The more you can get your visitors to engage on your website, the more likely they are to return. Not interacting with your readers is where many blog owners go wrong. Be sure to moderate and reply to comments often.

The unique advantage that blog posts have over regular web pages is the awesome ability to get indexed in Google within a matter of minutes. When a post is published, you can set Wordpress to “Ping” or inform Google that you have added something new to your blog. Google will then take the necessary actions to get your post listed in their index. In a search engine marketing advantage, if your post is optimized for a non competitive search term, you may have the possibility of securing a top 10 ranking in a matter of hours.

By having a blog that is frequently updated with great information, you are opening up new horizons for better online marketing. In a search engine standpoint, the more content you can produce, the more likely you are to gain more search engine traffic from long tail search terms. A long tail is a non-competitive, yet very popular search phrase.

If your posts are really good, you should consider utilizing the social media scene. Social media sites such as Digg can have the potential to produce thousands upon thousands of site visitors. Some sites that have reached Digg’s homepage have actually shut down due to the overwhelming amount of traffic. Encourage your readers to submit posts to Digg and to share it with their friends.

So why should you have a blog? Let’s review. By having a blog you are expanding your website into different marketing mediums by utilizing social media websites and RSS feeds, gaining search engine traffic potential, keeping your visitors informed and up to date, creating a new way to interact with your visitors and taking a gigantic leap ahead of your competitors. Not to mention the ability to become a leading expert in your industry just by blogging about what you know. With these great reasons, why don’t you have a blog?

image courtesy anniemole