Posts Tagged ‘search engine watch’

Something practical and fun for a Friday post.
If you’re uninitiated to dim sum ordering, here’s your bible, your dim sum 101. I found this via a tweet by Avinash. As he pointed out, the last step on this infographic is the funniest.

How to order dim sum for the uninitiated

How to order dim sum for the uninitiated

Don’t know Avinash? He’s Avinash Kaushik, author, blogger and super analytics evangelist at Google. Some call him a “guru.” As always, he’ll be with Incisive Media‘s Search Engine Watch and ClickZ at Search Engine Strategies Chicago (or SES Chicago) this month.

This post is intended more particularly for owners of small- to medium-sized businesses. The hands-on info comes from guest contributor Linky van der Merwe, founder of Virtual Project Consulting and social media strategist. Linky is based in South Africa.

Similar to any work situation where you need to measure the Key Performance Areas of your employees, it is also a good strategy to have Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for your business website/blog. KPI’s are the goals you want your visitors to complete on your website:

1. Fill in a contact form to be contacted by a consultant
2. Sign up to a news letter
3. Subscribe to a RSS feed
4. Download a brochure, request for more information
5. View the contact page

Each website’s goals depend on the type of industry you are in and what you want to achieve through your website.

Here is a possible list of indicators to measure your KPI’s.

1. Number of visitors
2. Visitor demographics (countries visitors are from)
3. Sources of visitors (search, forums, social media sites etc)
4. Number of page views
5. Number of new versus returning visitors
6. Visitor loyalty
7. Bounce rate
8. Top content on your website
9. Searches conducted in your website
10. Goal conversion rate: What percentage of visitors convert into leads or sales

If you haven’t started measuring your website’s performance, make this part of your business online maintenance strategy. You need to meaure how visitors engage with your website. Google Analytics is an essential management tool to use on your website. To find out how to make the most of Google Analytics visit Google’s Conversion University.

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Warm thanks to Linky for sharing her insights.
I’d say Google is the most well-known service but you can also turn to other providers. If you want to find out more about those, come to Search Engine Watch’s Search Marketing section where I report on them on a regular basis, and in the easiest possible way for everyone to be able to understand without having to be a technical honcho (and ‘honchette!’).

Follow Linky on Twitter @virtualpm.
As always, feel free to connect on Twitter, I’m @merrybubbles

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Last week’s summary in order of recency… Click on headlines to read stories. No stories on Monday, May 29th, Memorial Day.

First, a thank you note to and from our editor, Jonathan Allen aka @jc1000000
Search Marketing Thought-Leadership Recap, May 2010

Friday June 4th
Local Search Localeze Launches Business Registration Manager To Boost Customer Confidence
DoubleClick Invests In Real-Time Online Ads Bidding With Invite Media Buy

Thursday June 3rd
U.S. April Mobile Searches Get 90% Boost Via Apps, 50% Via Browsers; Social Networking Still Biggest
Online Video Is Really The Next Big Thing [Study]
Marin Software Raises $11.2 Mln To Boost Development

Wednesday June 2nd
WordTracker Partners With Majestic SEO To Create Link Building Intelligence Tool
World Cup 2010 Sets UK Searches Abuzz
Advertisers’ Budget Splurge On “Lost” Finale Well Worth Their Money – And Yours
–> this is my favorite ! Amazing numbers, if you ask me

Tuesday June 1st
Apple Faces Multiple DoJ And FTC Inquiries Over Music, Adobe And Mobile Ads
Facebook Under U.S. Judiciary Committee Scrutiny Over Privacy Issues
Foursquare Inks Refinery Media Deal in Singapore

Happy reading !

A quick look at ‘where on earth’ my Twitter followers are located…

Compared to the previous graph, the spread has changed again to refocus more on the U.S., now even with the U.K., which had been heading last month’s spread.
It’s quite logical since content was retargeted towards that geographical area, especially with my daily Search Marketing News contributions on Search Engine Watch.

Let’s see where this takes us next month.

In order of recency… Click on headlines to read stories

Friday May 7th
Social Networking Scores Biggest Rise in Q1 U.S. Mobile Use
“World Wide Web” Now A Reality With Non-Latin IDNs
Bing Wants to Socialize Shopping Experience
MSN China posts FY09 profit on operating sales of US$50-70m

Thursday May 6th
Dwell Time As Ad Campaign KPI: Yes, But…
38 Apps in the Google Analytics App Gallery

Wednesday May 5th
Yahoo Answers Hits 1 Billionth Milestone
Sysomos’ Audience Slaps Dollar Face Value With Influence Analysis To Measure Social Media ROI
Google Bets US$38.8M On Wind, Solar & Geothermal Clean Tech

Tuesday May 4th
Embeddable Tweets Likely to Create Signals for Twitter Search

Monday May 3rd
Steve Jobs May Need Anti-Scrutiny App As Spat vs Adobe Backlashes
Nachofoto Real-Time Image Search Lives Up to The Hype
How Much Will Google Bank On U.S. Real Estate Market Recovery?

Happy reading and … wishing you all a great weekend !