Without search engine traffic from Google, your business website just cannot compete in a modern business setting. Luckily, you don't have to be groping around blindly in the dark when it comes to optimising your site for increased website traffic.

While there are a number of services that offer similar products to Google's three core website development tools (analytics, webmaster tools and Page Speed Insights) only Google tools can give you such clear insight into what the number one search engine wants from you in terms of SEO.

Google Analytics

This is the most well known of Google's web development tools and can be used in a number of ways. At its most basic it functions as a simple way to measure how many visitors are going to your website. However, its popularity and power are because of the detailed amount of information you can garner about:

– Where your visitors are coming from

– How long they are staying on your website

– How they move around your website

– Longer term traffic trends

Google Webmaster Tools

Thankfully webmaster tools now integrates well into analytics, but you still need to be using this great piece of software for faster indexing on Google. You can easily submit sitemaps (assuming you have a sitemap made) and check exact figures as to how many of your pages are actually indexed by Google. There are more powerful features such as backlink checker and this is also the place Google will notify you if your site has any problems or has breached any of Google's policies or best practice.

Page Speed Insights

Page speed is a determining factor when ranking your website pages. While it may not always be the key determining factor, having a fast loading website not only increases your chances for a good ranking, it also improves visitor experience. Google Page Speed Insights will give you key information about how to improve the load speed of your website.

If you aren't using all three of these amazing tools then make sure you give them a try; after all, they are free!

Some interesting statistics came out of the event, Magento is now used by 33% of e-commerce retailers worldwide with a 43% uptake in established countries and 23% in emerging countries. Of all the top e-commerce sites in Australia, Magento held over 50% of the market, for France it was 30%, Germany 26% and UK market share was 42%.

With e-commerce growing at 16% and normal commerce at only 5% Magento has a bright future. The extensions available for Magento now reach 6000+, there are over 3500 developers and top level system integrators number over 300.

There were various speakers covering a range of technical and business oriented topics and I particularly liked the Magento 2 technical presentation even though it was already presented at many previous Magento Live events around the world so the slide material is easy to find and review. A few things I particularly liked were the move to a solid API so a Magento store did not necessarily have to be hosted on the Magento server directly but on front end servers.

This new architecture change allows Magento to be positioned as a client-server engine. This wasn't actually mentioned in the presentation, I asked the presenter Paul Boisvert after the presentation when I ran a number of technical implementations past him and realised the direction Magento is going but its not been publicised in that way, perhaps to make it simple for people to transition before they find out the new possibilities it could open up.

Additionally the move to Magento 2 will cause a lot of third parties pain as the administration interface code now lies with the specific modules rather than a separate admin model. With a new architecture comes a newer technology stack such as JQuery, HTML5, CCS3 and so forth. A performance tool kit also comes with the release as well as CLI and Web installers and tools.

The business presentations were interesting particularly as the uptake of mobile technology is changing the shopping habits of many people. Conversion rates are low but mobile searching is very high so responsive web sites are a high priority to tap the desktop/tablet and mobile markets.

A common theme was the use of customer engagement via email. Building a database of customers and contacting them about sales, promotions and new stock as well as addressing cart abandonment and conversion rates. Numerous trade vendors had products to address this need so visits to all the vendors was a must.

A presentation on moving into Asia revealed some interesting bits of information such as the use of Cash On Delivery being very high in India along with very high product returns and major issues with distribution. It was stated that due to low wages in India it was not uncommon for some drivers to steal the money from large COD payments and disappear! So selling expensive items online was not a good idea! The presenter also went on to describe how China was a huge market and the Chinese wanted to buy genuine items not clones, so express shipping was not a good idea as the consumer often equated quick delivery as being delivery of a locally made copy, not a genuine western made item. Other countries like Korea, Japan, Thailand etc were covered each with unique issues that needed to be addressed.

I particularly liked a new session introduced which was basically a round table session of 10 people at a table with a facilitator from the eBay/Magento  team and questions presented to the room. The table then discussed the issues and these were to be fed back into the development process for enhancing Magento2. Several key topics resulted from these discussions, in list form the most popular were:

• Difficulties in calculating shipping accurately.
• Quality of extensions and extension bloat causing instabilities.
• Shopping robots building pricing tables of your web site and the issues this causes both economically and while they crawl the site.
• Multiple Inventory sites.
• Native Ebay integration.
• API for CRM and ERP packages.
• Common B2B language and interfaces.
• Payment gateways.
• Low conversion rates from mobile users.

I estimated that about 200 people were in the room so it was noisy and difficult to hear ideas from people on the table but the idea was sound and the Magento team got some great issues to follow up.

Another audience involvement session was a “Pitchfest” where you had 2 minutes to pitch a new idea, not yet on the market. The panel of 3 judges then gave a score at the end and the winner received a certificate to cover the registration for the next Magento Imagine conference in the US. The winning idea was for a Multiwarehouse/MultiInventory support module.

The buzzword for the session was omni channel marketing/retailing, engaging the customer no mater the channel they used to reach you.

Another key point that came out of the business presentations related to customers who had moved to Magento, was the role the web hosting provider played in providing a stable scalable hosting platform and being contactable as the first line of support when performance issues arose. Regardless of the size of the business the Magento product hosted in a quality environment scales from small merchants to large corporations selling across multiple countries and currencies.

In order for the customers to find their way to your site, search engine optimisation (SEO) must be undertaken, so that Google and all other search engines recognise your blog as offering the best of the information the consumers are searching for.

Here are five of the most common mistakes business bloggers can make:

1. You don’t know who your blogging audience is

The internet is a big, big place. Millions, of people make use of it everyday, and within these millions there is an ever expanding range of demographics and psychographics, so knowing who you are writing for exactly can be difficult.

As a small or medium business owner, it is your duty to clearly define the market segment you are targeting through your blog, so you can write accordingly and in a way that will engage that segment.

Addressing the key questions, queries and concerns of this particular market will keep them interested and keep drawing them toward wanting to do business with you.

You can also use a number of SEO tools to assist you with understanding your audience. Google has provided two of the best FREE tools available for a website owner.

They are Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics. Both can be used to test and measure your content by looking at who your actual audience is that is landing on your website. You may have a strategy and think you know who your target audience is but the reality is, without looking at your data you may be fishing for whales but only having sardines turn up.

Google webmaster tools can give you a list of search queries used to find your content this alone is very useful. Google Analytics gives you a broad amount of information that you can drill into. Some of the key areas of focus is Audience Demographic and Audience Acquisition.

These two areas in Analytics can give you some great insight to what social channels are working for you, where your geographic audience is coming from (e.g. if your target is local and your only traffic is international) and referrals.

2. You don’t post regular, relevant content

By analysing the usage of keywords, Google can prioritise blogs for the search engine user according to the emphasis certain blogs place on topics.

The more you make use for the phrases and words that the consumers are looking for, with regards to certain industries/fields, the more likely they are to find your blog. A blogger should not fall into the trap, however, of decreasing blog post frequency once traffic to the blog has increased.

Research has shown that small businesses that make blogging a priority are more than ten times more likely to see marketing success than those who rely on more traditional methods of connecting with their target markets.

For more blogging stats read 45 Reasons to Blog

3. Your blog is hosted on another domain

Blogger, Blogspot, WordPress, etc. This may seem like an easy and inexpensive way to host a blog, but who is getting the content, the links and the traffic? Not you!

With using a website other than your own you are not in control of your own destiny. The blog host is legally able to close down blogs, or charge bloggers to use their services, both of which can be detrimental for the small business blogger. What is a short term gain in savings can be a long term expense.

You can take advantage of your SEO potential long term by using the generated traffic to your advantage and not some else.  You can also easily secure your blog and site using https:// which gives you another small boost in SEO.

4. You’re not getting the word out

It simply is not enough to create a blog, and then sit back with your feet up waiting for the traffic to come. Without promotion and or advertising, no one will ever know your blog exists. A good rule of thumb is that bloggers should expect to spend as much time promoting their blog as they do writing and developing it.

Share your content by posting to your social media channels such as your Facebook page or twitter feed. If you are part of other professional groups such as Linkedin or Yelp then share content there as well.

Also look at Google + as a great way to target your content. Find Google+ communities that are relevant to your target audience and post your articles to different circles or community groups. Google+ also creates great relevance for you and your business which aids in Google Rankings.

Find some great blogging or news communities that you can share your content directly with them, there are a number of big sites such as Business2Community, Digg and Reddit that can give you credibility and a wider readership audience.

5. Not installing social sharing buttons

Gone are the days when you called a friend, or waited to see them to let them know you had read something interesting. It is blatantly obvious that social media has become the global information sharing hub, so not installing social sharing buttons is pretty much asking your readers not to share the information with others.

Nobody wants to copy and paste the address link, they want to be able to, with a single click, share the link to their Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account, and then move on – it’s a fast paced world!

If you run your site using WordPress you can install a number of plugins that will automatically give you sharing options one of the most popular plugins for WordPress is Jetpack it is free and has a number of social sharing options from Google+ to simple Likes on Facebook.

If you use custom code you can easily add social sharing tools such as Add This and Share This they are both paid services but are very affordable. Both tools give you different social sharing options and a great cloud login to see how many shares your articles have had to the different social media groups you have chosen.

Conclusion

SEO is crucial for small business bloggers, and can be achieved readily by following the aforementioned tips to ensure business blogging success.

Relevance

I am going to say this word over and over again. Relevance! Everything you do on your website must be relevant to you and your business. If you create blog content or web pages about space shuttles but you sell fruit, Google won’t treat your content with relevance and over time you will lose any ground gained by the positive things you do. Create relevance with good readable content, that can be consumed easily by your target audience, and Google will rank it.

Name Images Appropriately

It’s pretty standard stuff that the best sites have attractive layouts and images, but people and businesses often slip up by forgetting to name the images, often leaving them with names like ‘screenshot127563’. Not only does this look unprofessional, it’s not exactly something someone will ever search for on Google, so you’re potentially missing out on a lot of traffic. You are also limiting the relevance potential of the image to your article.

ALT Text

ALT text goes hand in hand with naming your images. Using ALT text adds a description of the image – once again creating relevance for your article. Google does in fact read this text and uses it as part of its ranking system. However Google is smart at picking up keyword stuffing that has no relevance to your image or article and can and will have the reverse effect.  If you want to see if your page has ALT text on it use this useful tool from Feed The Bot.

Remember to Use Social Media

Linking your site with various media channels adds legitimacy, professionalism and will ultimately direct more traffic, especially if you remember to add share buttons to content on your site, letting web visitors do some of your work for you! Don’t forget, this goes beyond the standard Facebook and Twitter. Depending on your business or website focus, other social media platforms can be utilised, such as LinkedIn if you’re targeting other companies or professionals, and Instagram if you’re targeting Millenials. Two great sharing tools are Add This and Share This  which can be added quickly to any site, there are also numerous WordPress plugins available that do the same thing.

Keep Your Blog Local

Many companies run separate blog sites to their main site either by splitting their blog into a sub domain i.e https://blog.yoursite.com or using another platform all together that is not even related to their domain name or website. By splitting the blog you lose any benefit and traction from relevancy, traffic created and link backs. If your blog is not on your domain even as a sub domain you are only really benefiting the blogging site you are hosted on.

Keep Up with Your Blog

A blog can do wonders to add new content to your site. When Google searches the Internet (known as crawling) it looks for relevant content, keywords and phrases. A blog is a fantastic way to do this, especially as the Google algorithm now prioritises high quality and relevant content over an abundance of keywords (so, no, spamming your blog post with the same word over and over again won’t help). This makes your SEO tactic slightly more labour intensive, but increases the legitimacy of your site and lets your customers know that you know what you’re talking about!

Your domain name Geographic trust

With Google introducing Geo based searches over time it is going to be an important factor for your business. If your business is located in Australia and you use a .com domain you may not get as good a result from as opposed to using a Geo specific .com.au. Google is doing a lot of experiments in this local search area and it is always best to represent yourself and once again create more relevance for the searcher.

Security

Just recently Google announced that a secure website using HTTPS over HTTP will rank slightly higher. Although Google did not give a metric on this ranking effect, every bit helps. So not only do you get the added benefit of trust for your clients using your website, you now get a Google benefit too.

Link, link, link

Links to your site from other sources are the ultimate votes of confidence, and a good one can send your traffic rocketing – as long as it’s a credible source. Spamming your web address on an obscure forum sends alarm bells ringing in the minds of consumers, which a reputable blog or partnership website is more trustworthy. Never value quantity of links over quality, but don’t fall into the trap of being afraid to promote your website and build links.

Wrap Up!

When it comes to Google and being found there will be no single thing you do that is the magic bullet. You need to do a lot of good things right. If you just follow some of these basic tips you should be well on your way to having a successful Google Friendly website. Remember it takes time to build trust with Google. Get the hang of these introductory tips, and soon you’ll have a reputable website with plenty of traffic! Isn’t it amazing what a few simple changes can do?

For more detailed information see Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

If you were to disregard the analysis of your website’s traffic, content and visitors, how would you ever understand how to further develop and improve your website? Without web analytics, you as the web developer or content sharer are simply throwing away opportunities to expand your offerings and to best meet the needs and desires of your target market.

Not only the world’s most used and trusted search engine, Google also offer Google Analytics, a site devoted to ensuring users have the best analytical information on hand to improve their website’s content, conversions and user experience. Google Analytics is capable of informing you as the website’s developer of many things, and answering any number of questions, including the following.

Is there any traffic, and are they interested?

The analytical system allows you to see what the traffic to your site is interested in visiting. Visitor engagement can be tracked to determine the length of time visitors are staying engaged in your pages for, and as the website’s admin you are able to set the “goal time” for duration of stay, in order to understand whether you feel users are staying engaged for a long enough period of time. You are also able to find out what keywords are drawing users to your site using Google Analytics, via a Site Search, that assists you in learning what it is your target market are in search of.

What data is giving you the most success?

Google Analytics allows users to determine what the most successful campaigns in retaining traffic on their pages are, by selecting Pages under Site Content, in the Content menu. Pages gives you the chance to visualise the percentage of clicks that have happened on each internal link on the site, in turn revealing which pages keep visitors on the site and have the lowest bounce rate.

What pages are giving you the least success?

Have you ever wondered what is driving users away from your website? Also found in the Content menu are Exit Pages, which reveal how many visitors are arriving and leaving on a certain page. This is a helpful tool for web developers, as it allows you to define what content you should no longer produce.

If you long to understand what your target market are after, what they like and dislike about your site, and just how much traffic your site is ascertaining, Google Analytics can provide all of this information, and much more.

1) By adding customer testimonials to your web content, visitors can see real-life endorsements, rather than simply have you tell them about your products or services. When visitors see people like themselves offering approval, they find extra confidence to take that same action.

2) Provide complete and clear contact information – you’d be amazed how often companies don’t. This is usually because, working inside a business, all this information is already in their automatic subconscious and it’s then easy to forget what others have still to find out.

3) At the same time, make sure your online purchase process is as clean and simple as you can make it. Allow people to purchase as a “guest” if they want – without having to sign-up. The moment any of these processes become awkward or time-consuming, you simply start to lose customers.

4) Website security seals are a terrific way to add that extra degree of trust and confidence for first-time or prospective visitors to your site. No-one really likes journeys into the unknown!

5) Offer guarantees and warranties for your products or services. These display your own confidence and high standards and provide surety for others. The longer the term you can offer, the higher the confidence level tends to become.

6) Display honesty throughout your site. There is nothing more annoying – and business losing – than to work through a purchase process and then suddenly find a substantial delivery, shipping or handling fee added.

7) Provide as many different, and widely accepted and used, payment options as you can. Being able to use credit or debit cards, PayPal and the like is now always expected. If the customer can’t pay with ease, they probably won’t buy at all.

8) Remove any distractions that can divert people from working through the buying process or when they have arrived at your shopping cart. Keep banners, pop-ups and extra links in their right places.

9) For each of your products or services, look for the unique selling point or key benefit gained from using it. These will encourage the customer to buy, so be sure to then promote them boldly.

10) Make sure you quickly add an enticing call to take action, and to do so now, as this helps move people on through to your buying area.

Ten tips, none of which cost more than a little time and attention, but each of which can make that vital difference to your overall conversion rates!

1. Follow K.I.S.S

The best advice to writing any content is to follow the Keep It Simple Stupid principle, otherwise known as KISS. Your content should be to the point, clear and understandable to your target audience. You’ll lose your visitors' attention span if you jam pack your website with fluffy and vague content. The best way to write is as if you are speaking to a friend on the subject. Above all avoid long winded paragraphs, they belong in novels not on your website.

2. Stick to the point

Know what your message is and stick to it. Try to limit how many ideas are presented on the one page to just the one! If you need to create additional webpages to cover over other topics then do so. It’s better to have 10 pages each with its own clear positioning then one with 10 different messages on it. Do this by having a clear heading and subheading on each page that describes what that page entails. One page can be about your team, another about your products/services and another with your contact information.

3. Write like a Journalist

Your content should be engaging and informative. To start you off, ask yourself the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why) for each page. And end it with ‘how’. Always start with the most important information towards the top of the page and work your way down.

4. SEO basics

Create a list of 5-10 keyword phrases that are necessary to your business, if used properly these keyword phrases can assist with your overall SEO. When writing your content visitors to your page should always be front of mind, but don’t completely forget about the Google bots that will come visit too. If it reads naturally use some keyword phrases in your headings or subheadings. For example change “Cheapest Hosting” to “Australia’s Cheapest Web Hosting”. Small changes like these aren’t likely to rank you top spot in Google but will help you get ranked for what it is you do.

5. Know your audience

By now you should have a good understanding of who your customers are. Think like your customers and put yourself in their shoes. What information would they consider valuable? What is it that they are visiting your site for? Check out your competitors’ sites and see what they do right and wrong and how you can use this research to make improvements to your website. And don’t forget if you find the content boring chances are so will your visitors. 

1. Decide your theme or topic

If you’ve already decided that you’d like to give blogging a go, then you may already have a topic or theme in mind for your blog. Do you want to share your health secrets, start a mummy blog, share home renovating ideas, or share your world travel journeys? Whatever the theme of your blog it must be something you are passionate enough about to write about it. Finding the topic would be the hardest part to starting your own blog.

2. Choose a platform

So you’ve got your amazing topic for your blog, now you just need the platform to publish your blog on. There are heaps of free blog platforms available to blogging newbies. For example Blogger, Tumblr and WordPress. Our favourite is WordPress due to its simplicity and user-friendly navigation. It also has thousands of website themes available so you’re bound to find one that suits the feel of your blog.

3. Find a host and get a registered domain

To give your blog a professional appearance it’s always best to register your domain name and get paid hosting for your blog. This will remove all those pestering ads that pop up on your blog page. You will also have a registered blog name that appears like www.yourblog.com instead of www.yourblog.wordpress.com. Looks much more professional.

4. Build a following

Build your blog through social media, find bloggers similar to you and see where and what they’re posting for inspiration. Getting your name on social media is free so give your blog a voice on the top social media channels Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and watch your followers join the conversation.

Starting a blog can be a seamless and exciting process. Make sure you do your research and see who else out there is blogging on the same topic and how your blog will be different. Pay a little extra to get a quality blog that will standout from your competitors. And above all don’t forget why you started this blog, and keep your message consistent.

Happy Blogging! 

Although these platforms differ substantially they do have a few similarities in common. Firstly all three are free to download and the constant updates makes them easy to use and customise. They also all offer access to online communities to a growing base of online technical support that provide the expertise to get your website where you want it. Below we delve a little deeper into each of these CMS platforms and what they offer.

WordPress

Let’s start with the most popular CMS on the Internet today. WordPress takes the title as the most used CMS platform with over 60 million websites. The system is packed with themes, plugins and add-ons that assist you in creating your own unique website. It provides non-techies the ability to create their own website in a matter of minutes the core is already there all you have to do is insert your own images, text and logos. There are thousands of themes to choose from and these are all customisable to your company colours. So much more than a blogging platform, WordPress plays host to some well-known brands like CNN, Sony, Ford and Ben & Jerry's.

Drupal

Drupal is a little more complex than WordPress. It was designed to provide web developers the opportunity to build complex websites. Drupal is a more versatile and customisable platform than it’s competing rivals which means there is more expertise and time required to develop a website on this platform. Drupal sites mainly consist of online stores and data rich websites. Of the three, Drupal is the least popular, mainly due to the level of expertise required to develop on this versatile platform. Some well-known brands that use Drupal are Mattel, McDonalds Australia and Universal Music.

Joomla

Joomla slots somewhere in between WordPress and Drupal based on popularity. Joomla is best described as a user-friendly version of Drupal when it comes to design and maintenance. It allows users to create a more complex website with the ability to sort and share content in a flexible structure. Joomla gives users access to customise the system to suit their requirements. It is widely used for ecommerce sites that feature a larger, more complicated shopping site. Here are some popular websites using Joomla; Harvard University, Linux and MTV Greece.

The above is a quick overview into the three main CMS platforms used today – WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. These are all available for free download and use. Once you know what type of website you are after it will be a matter of finding the best CMS platform that fits your requirements.  

Look & Feel

How many emails do you receive a day? How many of these do you actually read? The look and feel of your email attracts a lot of attention and engagement from your readers, if done well. Your email should be created with your target reader in mind and follow a design that will be engaging to them. Ensure your email stands out of the other emails your reader is receiving and allow for an appropriate and professional design.

Readability

First thing that will capture your readers attention is the subject line. This is almost all the information a reader requires to see if the email is relevant to them.  It is proven that if you use the recipients name in the subject line the chances of your email being read increase dramatically. Ensure your subject line is engaging and makes the reciepent want to find out more by opening the email. Once you have their attention the spotlight is turned to the content of the email. You have less then 5 seconds to convince your reader that your email is worth their time. Do it wisely and do it with a tagline or head liner. Avoid lengthy paragraphs and fluffy talk. Get to the point of what you want to say.

Call to Action

There’s a purpose behind every email, we refer to this as the call to action. What do you want your readers to do once they read your email; call you, sign-up, redeem an offer, click a link, visit your website, etc. Know what your call to action is before you start working on the readability and design of your EDM. Don’t try hide your call to action, make it prominent on the design so your readers know what the next step is.

Test it!

Before you send out your email to your whole customer base test it with just a handful of emails and see the open rate and click through rate. This will give you a good indication of any areas for improvement and anticipated results you may recieve from your campaign.