Onward Internet Marketing, Inc.

Author: OIMAdmin

  • Log Analysis to improve your website!

    Web server log analyzers take information about every single request, the who, what, and when and provide detailed reports on it. You cannot, however, draw conclusions about what path a single visitor took to get to a web page, unless the visitor started their browsing session of your site there.

    Log analyzers based on browser actions can provide information on what paths, how long, and which buttons a visitor to you site used. There is powerful information in either approach or in combining them, if you know how to use it, and what to do with it.

    The key is A – B Testing. In this type of testing, we create two different versions: Versions of content, versions of paths, versions of offers.


    Fuzzy Pink Dice hanging from a car's rear view mirror

    As an example, imagine an ecommerce site selling fuzzy pink dice. Write two different versions of the sales copy. Post one. Let the world react to it for a time. Then swap in the other version. Let the world react to it for a similar amount of time. Which one kept visitors on the page longer? Which one converted better? There’s the winner!

    Now rewrite the copy again. Perform another A – B test. Repeat until you’re happy with the results.

    It’s not just copy that can benefit from A – B testing. Any page element can. Buttons, page design, color selection will all benefit from testing and analysis.

  • Web Analyzers come in two flavors

    Web statistics are of two types. There are server based statistics and there are user based statistics. Web server statistics come directly from the hosting (company’s) server, i.e. the computer that sends out the web pages to your browser over the internet. User statistics come from your browser.

    Each time your web server gets and answers a request for a page from your website, it generates an entry in its logs. Log entries are very simple things, barely more than:

    • Who asked (in the form of their ip address)
    • What file(s) they asked for
    • When they asked (a timestamp).

    You don’t want to look at that, so a web server log analyzer summarizes this raw data into pictures, graphs, and tables. When you look this information it will tell you when your server is busy with your visitors. A log analyzer looks at EVERY request, but it doesn’t get a lot of information about EACH.

    Browser statistics come from the internet browser that you are using right now. Right now, right here, you’re browser, be it Firefox, Internet Explorer or Chrome, is talking to one of my servers. It’s letting my server know the who, what and when. The browser, though is capable of telling my servers a lot more. It will tell how long you stayed on a page, and how, exactly, you left. Did you press a button, fill out a form, click a link? It will give me much more information about how you behave on my site (or yours), but there are many ways for you not to give me that information. Browser statistics, like Google Analytics and others, are based on programming scripts. When a web page loads in a browser, the browser often is asked to run several programs, specific to the page. In addition to providing info on where and what you browse, these programs often make menues cascade, fill in select box options, rotate slides, and expand text areas. When javascript is turned off, you don’t see these nifty visual effects, and your browser doesn’t report to Google that you just browsed a page.

    Careful analysis of how your website is performing requires the analysis of both types of statistics, not just one. Contact this Twin Cities web marketing expert to find our how you can get more out of your website through the use of web analyzers.

  • Website Statistics

    Your website is different than any other advertising or marketing campaign. It offers comprehensive statistics on exactly how it is performing.
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  • The Most Important SEO Technique

    The single most important action you can take to make a web page rank with the search engines is to create the right title tag. The title tag is in the <head> section of the HTML. It is contained between the <title> and </title> HTML markers. Making sure that the page title is correct for the page will have a profound impact with the search engines.

    Many webmasters will just allow this tag to contain the name of the business. If your entire site has been designed and built correctly, the search engines will already rank your web site #1 for your business name. If you do not rank #1 for your business name, you have bigger problems and need to do the work to make sure that the website for your business ranks #1 for the name of your business.

    The second mistake that is made with the title tag is to have too many word and/or multiple keywords and phrases included. Although the search engines accept as many as sixty (60) characters in the title tag, less is more. Hone your title down to the bare minimum that includes your key phrase and is reflective of the content of the page.

    The third mistake that is frequently made is to only stuff keywords and phrases in the title tag. The title tag should genuinely reflect the content of the page. While it is important that the title contain your key phrase, it should act as a title to the page, uniquely identifying the actual content of the page.

    Finally, the page title is different than the main headline for the content on the page. The main headline, often between the <h1> and </h1> tags, should be the headline for the content. Now it may seem that the two are one and the same; they are not. If you spend some time, you will think of two distinct things, the title and the main headline. Both should contain you key phrase, and both should be different.

    Let’s look at this from the other side.

      Your page title should

    1. be short- definitely not longer than 60 characters
    2. include your key phrase
    3. be unique too your web site
    4. be distinct from the main heading of the page
    5. be true to and reflective of the content of the page

  • Outline of the Perfect SEO page

    The outline of the perfect SEO page has a lot in common with a high school essay: Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em; Tell ’em what you’re telling ’em; Tell ’em what you told ’em. That’s what you should be doing in the three section of an essay: the beginning, the middle and the end. The beginning and the end are shorter than the middle, in a high school term paper both are probably just a paragraph. The beginning and the end use the words of the theme of the term paper more often than the middle.

    The theme of the high school term paper translates into the key phrase of the SEO’d page. Use the key phrase more at the beginning and the end of the “content” of the page: give it a greater key phrase density than the middle of the page.

    Title and Headings

    The term paper has a single title. The perfect web page has a page title and a main headline. Both should include the key phrase for the page. The title and the main headline – though slightly different contain the key phrase close to the beginning. The page title would be the shorter of the two. Stripped of adjectives and adverbs, the title is short and concise. The page title is at the top of the page, inside the <head> </head> of the HTML file.

    The page has only one main headline, though it may have several sub-headings. The main heading is in the <body> of the HTML file. It is enclosed within the <h1> and </h1> tag. Like the page title, it should include the key phrase for the page. Placing the key phrase closer to the start of the headline is best. The headline can be a little more flowery using adjectives, adverbs and additional phrases.

    Usually the middle of the high school term paper has a couple of sections, and those sections might be separated by sub-headings. A web page uses sub-headings as well. Sub headings like the main headline are enclosed between the appropriate tags. These tags h2 .. h4 are of decreasing importance, and usually of decreasing size. Use these tags liberally, but with purpose.

    Underlining, bolding, italicizing your key phrase will also highlight important concepts for both the reader and the search engine. Use these typographical techniques as well, in moderation.

    A web page that is more about the use of these techniques than the content you really wish to be presenting will be ignored by your readers and the search engines.

  • Do You Know ALL your keywords?

    Every business has its buzz words. Many have their own lingo. They use their own vocabulary to brand themselves, or describe intricacies lost on the public at large. The use of this private language is great when everyone in the conversation is an insider. The broader public though may have a different, simpler vocabulary to talk about your products and services.

    And the searches the public performs, hoping to find your website will be based on their language, not yours. When preparing to optimize a web page, make sure that you’re using the language, the keywords, that the public uses. Stay away from insider speak. Just because you have plenty of 50¢ words to describe your business, doesn’t mean the public uses those words, uses them the same way, or will search for your business using them.

    When considering how your website will be found, stick with the plain vocabulary of the public. Know what search phrases will be used to find your site, not which ones you’d prefer to be used.

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has Outstanding Results – Increasing Sales.

    Search engine optimization can turn listless response into targeted high-volume traffic, the definitive milepost to increasing leads, sales and profits. Increasing the visibility of YOUR web site is NOT a one-size-fits-all proposition. Each web site is unique. Let us show you how to use search engine optimization to make your web site gain more visibility, build brand recognition, generate more leads, make more sales and drive profits ever higher. With 8 Billion competing web pages your site needs to stand out not just to your customers, but also to the major search engines from where over 84% of all first time visits start.

    Tap into thousands of customers who start their journey from search engines. These customers know what they want. Make sure they find your site! High listings with Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, and AOL bring more qualified customers to your web site. There is no single secret to attracting those customers. Rather search engine optimization identifies the keywords and search phrases that will be used to find your web site, and use them to bring top placement in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

    There are probably thousands, if not millions of web sites competing for the same search phrases as yours, each hoping to break onto the first page of search engine results. Make sure your web site stands out! Even with the highest quality products and services, and rock-bottom prices, without placing well in the search engine return pages (serps), no one will ever know you are there, and no one will ever find you.

    For considerably less than a traditional advertising campaign, traffic to your web site can be increased up to 300% with careful search engine optimization. In as little as 3 months you can see your investment returned.

    Unscrupulous experts tout web marketing books for $49.95, and if these ebooks really could tell you how to make tens of thousands of dollars a month, why I’d be selling one here. But the ‘secrets’ they describe are already overused, and with millions using these same secrets they have been rendered ineffective. Other search engine experts would have you believe that submitting your web site to the hundreds of search engines out there is enough. Really? No longer will this move your web site to the top.

    What phrases do people use when looking for your products and services? Follow the link below to request a report on where your web site is positioned, your competition is positioned and what search engine optimization can do for you. This analysis is valued at $199, and can be yours, without charge or obligation. In addition, request a search engine optimization quote for your web site and Onward Internet marketing will also send you our five-point analysis of your web site’s overall effectiveness, an overall value of $500. Get this now from a premier Internet Marketinng firm located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.