It Is Dazzling!
Written on December 14, 2012 at 6:11 pm, by admin
I have just reviewed our new website. Let me say at the outset, it is dazzling. I am trying to stay on an even keel emotionally, but I am very, very excited about how it looks, and how it operates.
Tom L. Dickens, Ph.D. – CPElite.com
CPElite Transformation
Written on December 14, 2012 at 6:07 pm, by admin
From CPElite…
I have just reviewed our new website. Let me say at the outset, it is dazzling. I am trying to stay on an even keel emotionally, but I am very, very excited about how it looks, and how it operates.
Watch the video to see the transformation!
Can Someone Please Explain Bounce Rate?
Written on July 26, 2012 at 2:24 pm, by admin
One of the most common questions we get when looking at Google Analytics data is “What is Bounce Rate?“. Bounce rate is a tricky little metric that can be deceiving at first glance. Let’s go ahead and define a “Bounce” as “when a web site visitor only views a single page on a website, that is, the visitor leaves a site without visiting any other pages before a specified session-timeout occurs. There is no industry standard minimum or maximum time by which a visitor must leave in order for a bounce to occur. Rather, this is determined by the session timeout of the analytics tracking software.” In other words, a bounce is a visitor who goes to one page, doesn’t find what they want, and they leave. “Bounce Rate” is a metric to describe the percentage of people who “bounce” verses the visitors who visit more than one page.
So, bounce rate is really a metric to show how engaging a website is, generally speaking. If most visitors are clicking through multiple pages, your CTR (Click Through Rates) will be pretty good, and your bounce rates will be pretty low. Although this can be an indication of positive click through and user engagement, there are a lot of factors impacting bounce rate that can make this metric difficult to understand and useless when viewed by itself.
With some of our websites, we have created really good landing pages for service oriented businesses. These pages have info about the company, service info, and contact info. Some of these pages even have a quick contact form to capture leads. If a user lands on a landing page, likes the info, and makes a phone call, that is a conversion from the business side of things. On the other hand, this “conversion” (converting a visitor to a lead), can actually register in analytics as a bounce, which is a traditionally negative stat. If lots of people hit good landing pages and make a phone call, the website bounce rate will be higher that expected, and if you don’t understand what is going on with the whole picture, you can start to think you have a website engagement issue.
Another thing we see that can really affect bounce rates negatively is pages within secure areas of the website that don’t have tracking code on them. If a user comes to the home page (where there is tracking code) and immediately logs into a page that does not have tracking code (such as a portal, secure info website, etc), then that visit will also register as a bounce. Some pages that contain sensitive information may not have tracking code for security or privacy reasons, which can throw off the stats.
Bounce Rates
In this example, we see that bounce rates were at 84% – a very high number. When you see high bounce rates, the first thing to look at is what pages are being tracked, and where are the points of losing analytics data. Anytime a visitor goes from a page that is tracking them to a page that isn’t is considered an “exit” and if that “exit” is after visiting just one page it is considered a “bounce”. When we worked with this website, we had some exit points on pages that didn’t have tracking code, and we discovered some engagement issues. Putting exit points with engagement issues can create bounce rates as high as this. We worked on the content and increased user engagement significantly, and the result was an almost 40% decrease in bounce rate, even while allowing those “exit points” to remain.
Page views increased by over 400%, and average time on site increased 344%. These metrics, when considered together, show a remarkable increase in user engagement on the website, and consequently, so did the lead generation and sales for the business. Website traffic as a whole increased also due to more relevant content and better on-site SEO.
When we talk about “websites that work” – we don’t just mean working functionally. Yes, we are good at that, but when we talk about putting your website to work, its about generating better results, driving more traffic, and converting more website visitors into leads and sales. The process isn’t magic – but rather it is a strategic approach to better content, better calls to action, better design, better user engagement, and better SEO.
Hopefully that helps make sense of Bounce Rates and how to understand what it actually means. You have to understand the metrics around the bounce rate to see its real value, and understand how your website is tracked and interacts with users.
Converting More Customers With Better Funneling
Written on June 25, 2012 at 5:02 pm, by admin
Increase Website Conversions with Featured Content
One of the best ways to capture the attention of your website visitors is to quickly show them what they are looking for. When a website visitor visits your website, you have just a few seconds to capture their attention. During that brief first impression period, they have to feel like they are in the right place. The biggest things people notice immediately are page load speed, design elements, and dynamic (or moving) content. It has become a best practice to implement some sort of featured content to quickly display your most important items in a way that grabs attention, and gets them navigating the website.
This segment will focus on the featured content of your website. We recommend almost every website have some sort of featured content, as it gives you a few great benefits. 1) You get additional content in a dynamic area, allowing for additional SEO relevance without having a lot of text visible. You can use sliders or rotating html blocks to display a lot of content in a way that makes it unobtrusive and easily navigated. 2) You show your website visitors what they are looking for within a few seconds of arriving at your website. If your featured content covers your most sought after services or products, then you are going to engage most of your visitors right away. 3) You can immediately funnel visitors to specific pages about your products or services and give them more information quickly. If they don’t have to search for what they want, chances are they will convert at a higher rate.
Featured content needs to be visually appealing, concise, and linked to internal pages or a contact form. We see the best conversions from a featured content area that highlights the best selling points of a product or service and highlights the companies competitive advantages. If you are a price leader, show pricing in the featured content. If you do exceptional quality work, show your images first thing. If you are great at making your customers happy, then lead with testimonials around each product or service. You can leverage your successes to gain the trust of future customer.
One way to know how your featured content should be structured is by looking at visitor data and analytical data. You can look at searched terms, page views per page, and other metrics to identify which pages people are searching for and using often, and feature content for those products and services. Google has (for years) been fixated on getting their customers the right data as fast as possible, and if you help meet that need, then your conversions are sure to increase. And in many cases, doing featured content right can also help you win in the SEO game.
Creative and “Eye-Catching” Website
Written on June 4, 2012 at 10:19 am, by admin
When we started our small business, we knew that a professional yet creative and “eye-catching” website would become the cornerstone of our marketing plan. We were right! Working with Matt and his design team has allowed us to provide critical information to our customers while promoting our passion of saving lives. We have been extremely pleased with SEOteric’s focus on customer service and cutting edge technology. These two things, we believe, have set our site and company apart from others in our industry. Thanks Matt and SEOteric…we’ve truly enjoyed our partnership with you and look forward to many more years of growth!
Cindy Murphy & Elise Johnson – Open Road Driver Services
Google Getting It Right
Written on May 24, 2012 at 12:10 pm, by admin
Google has been rolling out updates and changes for a while now, and every time there is a “significant” update, the web stirs up with analysis and break downs on what the changes are, who got penalized, and what percentage of websites are affected. These changes really affect the SEO industry as a whole and the firms that provide SEO services, but they also affect every business that employs an SEO company to handle search engine optimization for them.
First off, if you are reading this, just relax. Google makes updates and changes daily to their search algorithms. Occasionally there are “major” updates which affect a large number of websites. From my perspective, Google really has 3 main goals in doing any updates to its ranking factors: 1) increase the speed of delivering content, 2) deliver the most relevant results, and 3) reduce the amount of spam and manipulative practices in the search results.
Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz summed it up best when he said “I personally care less about what Google actually uses as ranking elements in their massive algorithm than on what kinds of sites and pages tend to perform well.” I commented on that, saying “Going back to keyword density percentages all the way up to the debated 60% anchor text threshold – who cares what the percentages are or where the line is. The reason sites rank well is that they follow actual best practices in design, development, hosting, backlink profiles, and social influence. I’ve found that if you can provide users value in those main areas, the rankings and organic traffic will be in your favor.”
What Google is trying to do is to create a search engine that imitates real life. If something is relevant in real life, it should be relevant online. That is why branding has become so important. So much so in fact that brands tend to do well in Google because of the established trust and credibility that comes with being a recognized brand. Branding is the whole package – your look, feel, message, influence, and reputation. Your ranking in Google is leaning towards those items as well, but in search engine terms, its trust, authority, backlink profiles, content, website architecture, social influence, and user metrics (to name a few).
SEO isn’t about just knowing how to adjust titles, meta data, and add some backlinks anymore. Its becoming more difficult and requires a knowledge of real marketing tactics like branding, advertising, conversion rate optimization, outreach, networking, and engagement.
In the end, I think Google is getting it right. Yes, it makes our jobs harder as SEO consultants, but it rewards those that are actually good at marketing and branding – and that creates long term sustainability for our clients.
You are the first to get me leads…
Written on May 2, 2012 at 4:34 pm, by admin
“I’m so glad I am finally getting leads after 8 years of being in real estate. You are the first one that has been able to get me leads through my website.”
Marie Dinsmore, Real Estate Partner, The Dinsmore Team
These guys are like SEO Jedi…
Written on May 2, 2012 at 4:33 pm, by admin
“SEOTERIC provided exceptional service and great results in getting my new business online and visible in the Google search engine rankings. These guys are like SEO jedi. The results speak for themselves.”
C. David Rowe, PC, Athens Attorney
I am very happy with Seoteric…
Written on May 2, 2012 at 4:30 pm, by admin
“I am very happy with Seoteric – they are my third SEO company and have done the best job so far. They seem to know the SEO business and I am getting good results”
Mark Mahoney, Founder and CEO, Jackrabbit Technologies
SEOteric is the best value we have seen…
Written on May 2, 2012 at 4:29 pm, by admin
“We are an IT company and we encounter website and marketing companies every day in this business. Out of all the ones we have encountered, we chose SEOteric. They are the best value we’ve seen.”
Joe Moon, Founder and CEO, Velocity Technology Partners
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