Most Companies have ample opportunities to add banners throughout their sites. This can be a blessing and a curse. It does in fact give you a place to place information you want your customer to see, use, or call out. Sadly customers are being bombarded with information from all directions and they get banner blindness.

Banner n is not a new issue, it has been around as long as there has been web sites.  One of the reasons that people seem immune to the banners on your site could be that you expect them to “see” the banner as content for the site.  Recently I had a conversation with a client that wanted to put product information in the banner space on the side of the page. The reason was because they didn’t want to overwhelm the customer with information in the content area on the page and lose a sale.  (thankful, after many conversations we did NOT do this)

Many different researchers have concluded that the users eye will go to the content area of the page first even before they look at navigation.  No matter what colors, fonts or how large the banners are, customers equate banners as promotions and they get ignored.  Customers are tired of being burned with pop up banners that are unnecessarily distrating and not having the information they are interested in.

While this is a common issue that you can run into on your site, you should by no means discount banner ads all together. Well placed and  well worded banners will still attract the people you would like. Tips you should keep in mind:

1. Dont use the same banner on every page, this really will increase banner blindness.

2. Using links within your banners will give the banner the feel that the information is important.

3. Dont put content in the banner that is critical or and extension to the content on the page. (While you can use this area for complimentary information or for the logical next step you want a user to take, you dont want to have this be the only place for key info on the page)

4. Think about what the real goal of the banner is and design and distribute appropriately.

While we aren’t going to remove banner blindness anytime soon, there are ways to increase the usefulness of the banner location and how you display reasonable next steps for your customers.

The explosive growth of social networking sites in the past few years has led to quite a bit of clutter, and people are starting to notice. Whether you choose to go on a manual de-friending spree on Facebook, or use a tool like UnTweeps to ax followers on Twitter, you aren’t alone.

In his post Six Social Media Trends for 2010, David Armano says…

With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more “exclusive.” Not everyone can fit on someone’s newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it’s likely that user behavior such as “hiding” the hyperactive updaters that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common. Perhaps it’s not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks — while filtering out the clutter.

This makes sense, paring down your networks can allow you to get real value out of them. But now Sean Silverthorne at Bnet is asking what does this mean for all the companies flocking to social media as a marketing tactic?  Well, as so often is the case, if you’re doing it right it shouldn’t matter.

Yes, the fact that your target audience is paring down their network connections will undoubtedly make them harder to reach. Sending out a few intermittent tweets and counting on your customers to find and connect with you on their own just won’t cut it.  Social Media has become such a big trend that it may seem like the answer – or that easy button from the Staples commercials – when in reality it is simply just another tool in the toolbox. Companies who have success in the space realize this, and use the social media networks as tools to build up a loyal customer base – and actually continue to interact with them regularly. Which is why they make the grade the next time that particular customer goes to clean out his or her network. It’s about becoming a relevant resource and providing real value to your followers/customers.

Which is what quality online marketing teams have been telling their clients all along.

A few weeks ago Google Analytics became even more useful.  Instead of a measly 4 goals, webmasters are now allowed to track up to 20. It’s a given that you can probably think of more than 4 things you’d like people to do when they visit your site, now you can track and access that data without creating multiple profiles and switching back and forth. It’s welcome news to say the least.

There’s really no excuse for not having goal tracking set up within your analytics account. It’s essential to know how your SEO strategies are improving your site’s overall performance and your online marketing ROI. Setting up goals will allow you to judge this, not just by visits, but by the actions those visitors take.

Each profile in your account can have up to four “goal sets”, each of these sets can contain up to five goals.  In addition to the standard URL destination goal, analytics now has the option to track engagement goals – such as time on site and pages per visit.

URL Destination Goal Tracking

This type of goal is used when you want to know how many visitors came to a specific page on your site.  Webmasters can use this method for something as simple as keeping track of how many people visited a blog page.  It can also be used to track form submissions or registrations by entering the ‘thank you’ or confirmation page as the URL goal. When you set up a URL destination goal you have a choice between 3 different ‘Goal Types’, also known as ‘match types’. The type of goal that is appropriate will vary based on how your website is built and the page you are interested in tracking. Here’s a basic breakdown to help you decide which type is best for your goal:
Exact Match – to use this type of goal the URL entered as your goal must match the URL shown in the reports exactly. For example, if you want to track the page www.mysite/contact-us_thank-you.html, you need to enter /contact-us_thank-you.html as your goal.
Head Match – use this type of goal when the URL is the same for this step of the goal, but is followed by unique session or user identifiers.  Enter the URL but leave out the unique values. For example, if you want to track www.mysite.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=528, but the ‘id’ changes for each user, just enter ‘//checkout.cgi?page=1′. This will cause the goal to be counted no matter what id number is assigned.
Regular Expression Match – use this type to match your URLs. This is useful when the url is dynamically generated and can vary between users. For example, if a user could be coming from one of many subdomains, and your URLs use session identifiers, use regular expressions to define the constant element of your URL. For instance, ‘page=1′ will match ’sports.mysite.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=002,’ and ‘football.mysite.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&language=fr&id=19.‘

Time on Site Goal Tracking

A new goal available in Analytics is the Time on Site goal. This allows webmasters to create goals based on how long users stay on their site using hours, minutes and/or seconds.  For example, if you notice that visitors tend to become customers if they spend more than 5 minutes on the site, it may be worth keeping data on those visits that last. In this case you would simply select ‘Time on Site’ as the Goal Type and select greater than 5 minutes as the goal. You can also track visits that last less than a determined length of time.

Pages per Visit Goal Tracking

The pages per visit goal allows webmasters to keep track of visits that browse through a specific number of pages. Also known as ‘depth of visit’, this information can be valuable when determining how engaging your site is. Options of ‘more than’, ‘equal to’ or ‘less than’ a number of visits are available so you can completely customize how you’d like to use this goal.

While the data for these engagement goals has been available in Analytics for quite some time it’s nice to be able to set them up as goals and gain the ability to analyze it further. Obviously this is just a basic overview – there are many way to customize and break down your goal data, such as using filters, funnels, advanced segments and custom reporting. Google Analytics is a wonderful (not to mention free!) tool, stay tuned to the Stone blog for more tips, tricks and updates on using the program wisely down the road.

image from here

While Rachel Kuptz, who really is a big deal (@girlydrinks) wrote this a while back, the advice she gives is sound and still accurate today. While we miss her here at Stone IG we do know the wisdom of her online marketing passion. This was original posted October 2008.  I’m posting it again today as a refresher…

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So you have a great website name, wonderful design, perhaps a blog, and a few pages of content – you’re ready to go! A quick glance at your analytics, however, shows that only a few people are reading your blog, and you’re pretty sure that the IP address that keeps on showing up is actually your mom.

On top of word of mouth promotion to your clients and building up content, creating a few pieces of link bait can bring in additional visitors as well as establish links to your site – something that, in the long run, will help with your site’s SEO.

While you’ll still have to do a little bit of promotion after creating any of these pieces, a quality piece of content will help you to get your website – or blog – to the place you want it to be traffic wise. And won’t your mom be so proud….

1. Top 10 Lists
   Whether it be a Top 7, Top 10, or Top 100, lists tend to be a fan favorite when it comes to earning back links. Lists can also earn you expertise status if packaged correctly and can be a start to a series to expand on in future blog posts. Take for instance Time’s list of 50 Best Websites in 2008 or Web Worker Daily’s list of 12 Free Tools for Online Collaboration. Make the list as silly or as serious as you want, but make it unique. Hair Salon? Top 10 Cuts for Fall. Law office? The Top 5 Craziest Lawsuits in History. Restaurant? Top 100 Things You Can Use a Fork for Other than Eating. Make it fun, make it unique, and make it interactive. A good discussion piece will bring in quality links for time to come.
2. Checklists
   A few minutes of keyword research shows that people regularly look for terms such as SEO Checklist or Travel Checklist. Create a quick checklist of items your clients and potential clients would find valuable, then PDF it or make an interactive html page that can easily be printed out. Examples of link worthy checklists include a travel agency that puts up a To Pack List and the magazine that puts up a wedding registry checklist.
3. Contest
   Any contest will bring in a few back links to your site, just make sure to make it something people want to enter. Have a product that you can give away? A service that you can offer for free? Heck, money always works, as do gift certificates. Just tie in the contest to your business somehow. You can also use the contest as a way to gather additional email address by allowing contest entrants to subscribe to your rss feed or newsletter sometime during registration. Check out these sites that increased readership just by having a contest.
4. Competition with another blogger
   Friends with another blogger in your industry? Suggest holding a competition, such as bloggers John Chow and Shoemoney did, that cross promotes both of your sites. Whether it be a competition to see who can write the most posts in a month, grow the most traffic, or even sell the most of a specific product, a friendly competition can earn you some links as well as promote your site to a target audience.
5. Calculators and Widgets
   Since web visitors are often in the research stage when they’re visiting your website, offering up a tool that allows them to answer questions on their own can draw in a variety of links to your site. A bank could put up a calculator that allows people to calculate interest or try something silly like this Web 2.0 URL generator. Visit Widget Box for already created widgets and calculators that might help to conjure up some ideas. Perhaps our developer could come up with a Top 10 List generator
6. Resource List
   Create a page on your site that lists out every quality resource you would recommend in your industry. Examples of resources could include free tools, magazines and blogs relevant to your industry, or case studies and white papers that would be valuable to clients. Check out Agency Tool’s Web Design Directory that lists out a plethora of web design resources, or this fun list of “National Days.”
7. Offer Something Free
   Free consultation, free fonts, free images – people like free. Whether you offer a free consultation, product/sample, or even a download of advice or tips, promote the free item as something unique and valuable that only you are offering. This online fax company offers up a free fax service for those who don’t (yet) need regular online faxing services and this software company offers up a free trial download of their quality control software. You can also offer up a free eBook, online tool, or even email address.
8. Review a product
   Review a product, brand, or website that is related to your industry then let those people know that you reviewed them. Have a grocery store? Review some of the latest foods out and give them a rating. Attend an industry conference or convention recently? Review the latest and greatest in new products or recap a speaker’s presentation. Become the CNET, PCMAG, or TechCrunch of your industry.
9. Capture a Round Up of News
   Do you have a list of websites or blogs related to your industry that you frequent on a daily or weekly basis? If so, your potential customers may be interested in learning about them. If you have a blog, a weekly or monthly round up of all the blogs or news articles in your industry that interested you can garner in quite a bit of attention. Check out YumSugar for a fun example of a round up of restaurant and food related posts.
10. Expose a Trend
    Have you noticed a new trend in your industry? Keep an eye out for clients that are asking for something out of the ordinary, products that are selling out quickly, or ideas that you think may take off eventually – trends do have to start somewhere. You can also pick out trends from industry publications that clients may not read or visit sites like Google Trends or Digg to discover items that people are talking about.

If you were to pick something to do to your web site, that would be helpful, then Keyword Optimization should be on your list. Looking at the keywords or keyword phrases on each page can help you to Optimize your site and get better search results. A good rule of thumb to follow is to optimize each page on your site with no more than two keywords or keyword phrases. If you find that your page information could use more than a primary and a secondary keyword phrase then take the time to evaluate the page. Are you trying to say too much for the this page? Is your message getting muddled in too many thoughts?

Keyword phrases can range from two to five words and for your primary phrase you should think in terms of what you could say about the page in a minute or less. (Sometimes known as your elevator speech) It should be a sample of the most frequently searched terms for a given page. Your secondary phrase is still used in search although not as often as your primary phrase.

Doing this one thing on each of your pages should help you get higher page rankings and give you a good opportunity to really look at your content for updates that may be needed. (Sadly we don’t do this enough) Something to keep in mind though is remembering that you should speak to your customers FIRST and search engines second. If you forget about your target audience it won’t be helpful and it won’t matter who finds you.

Social media can be a fantastic marketing medium to keep in touch frequently with your website audience and notify them in a timely fashion of important updates. But, how do you find the time? Here are some ideas to help.

1. Use your news; reformat the same topic as an informal blog post, informative article, discussion topic, tweet, FaceBook post, YouTube script, and website page.
2. Maintain a monthly publication calendar with reminders to give a little nudge where needed.
3. Keep it short and sweet to make it easier to update often; the frequency of publication is more important than the length.
4. Make it real. If you want to keep people’s attention, make it informative and timely.
5. Create simple templates for each type of update (blog, press release, tweet, article, podcast, etc) so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time.
6. Enlist your colleagues. It only takes 4 people for weekly updates.
7. Don’t forget to include Search Engine Friendly links back to your website on your top keyphrases so that new web visitors can find and connect with you.