TECHNOLOGY
MAKE YOUR WEBSITE WORK HARDER
Al Keck, founder of award winning digital agency toinfinity, gives us his top tips for making your website perform better and achieve results.
Where would you start? I’ d begin by getting a good understanding of your site’ s analytics. Google Analytics is the best platform to use, it’ s free and easy to use.
There’ s the ability to set up a dashboard and tools to set up KPIs, allowing you to monitor, measure and understand everything that’ s happening on your website.
It’ s a fundamental thing. After all, you wouldn’ t employ a sales person and not set them targets, would you?
Think of your website like perusing a store. Analytics show what has driven people to the‘ front door’, you can see what people are‘ picking up’ through their user journey. You can see where they’ re turned off and where they’ re inspired and driven to purchase or contact you.
Proper analysis allows you to make informed business decisions, paving the way towards faster growth.
What would be your top Google Analytic tips?
1. Ensure you’ ve set the right Timezone for where you are in the world. If the timezone is set incorrectly, you will be analysing the wrong data. Knowing the optimum time for users visiting your website is a powerful tool.
2. Exclude your own IP address from the results. If you don’ t do this, and you’ re visiting your own website all the time the results will be skewed!
3. Make sure e-commerce is setup and then track marketing activity.
4 Set‘ Goal Values’ for contact points and A / B Test. See what customers are completing and do more of this!
5. Know how many visitors are converted from the user journey. Then work out your ROI through average sales. You can then formulate an investment strategy to get you the best return.
6. Core Stats reporting. Get to know how long people are staying on your site.
7. Improve your Bounce Rate. Ideally, it should be lower than 50 %.
THE AWARDS KEEP COMING FOR SWINDON’ S EXCALIBUR COMMUNICATIONS
June was a month of celebration for Excalibur, picking up not one, but two high profile awards.
At the beginning of the month they captured the coveted Mobile Industry Award for Best Unified Communications Dealer. The company was judged to be a UK innovator in the way that it integrates communications for customers. James Phipps, CEO said:“ This is a tremendous landmark in our company history. It recognises the extremely high levels of service that we strive to provide for our customers.”
The Mobile Industry Award judges said:“ The attention to detail and level of commitment to ensuring every customer had a positive experience was what made Excalibur the winner. They also showed a very impressive investment their staff.”
On June 14, Excalibur was celebrated at the Prince’ s Trust Business in the Community South West Annual Dinner at St Georges, Bristol.
They scooped South West Responsible Small Business of the Year, recognising the firm’ s commitment to corporate social responsibility. Business in the Community works to build a fairer society and a more sustainable future, recognising companies that help create vibrant communities where people can flourish.
James added:“ At Excalibur we support a large number of causes in Wiltshire and beyond, as well as helping organisations hold events in our Cloud space at Arclite House. We enjoy bringing people together, so it is heartening to be recognised by Business in the Community as a good neighbour.”
Throughout September, October and November Excalibur is demonstrating its commitment to being an industry leader by hosting Discovery Days, enabling local businesses get the most out of their technology. They will demo products to help your company become more profitable and efficient. There will also be an opportunity to play with cutting edge gadgets including the Oculus Rift, virtual reality headsets and 3D printer technology. To find out more and to book your free space email: sara. witham @ ex-c. co. uk
8. Device type. Know how users are: – browsing your site. – How many customers are using a mobile rather than a laptop? Through our research we have identified that 65 % of searches start on a mobile. So having a website optimised for mobile is crucial.
9. Know that Desktop, Tablet and Mobile analytics can be split out by device.
10. If there is a core time / day( ie 6pm) when customers are viewing your site, ensure your customer service is prepared to handle the traffic. We work with Chippenham based Expolink to ensure out of office call handling is in place for any customers that might have queries that can’ t be dealt with online.
By understanding your weaknesses you can create a conversion funnel identifying the‘ leaky pipe’ in the system. If this article throws up lots of questions about the way you are trading online, get in touch for a chat to see how we can help.
Local expert legal advice for you, your business and your family
• Accident and Injury Compensation
• Commercial Property
• Company and Commercial
• Consumer and Civil Disputes
• Divorce and Children Matters
• Employment issues
• House Sales, Purchases, Mortgages
• Wills and Estates
Cambridge House, 4 College Court, Regent Circus, Swindon, Wiltshire SN1 1PJ
T: 01793 610466 F: 01793 511505 www. bowerandbailey. co. uk
26 Bower THE & Bailey BUSINESS _ TBE _ Swindon EXCHANGE _ 59x210mm 2016 _ Ad _ v3. indd 1 06 / 11 / 2015 08:23