Today it’s rather hard to surprise someone with the fact that ‘online marketing’ is one of the top search requests. Surfers of different age and occupation type this keyword phrase into their search bars in order to find more information on how to start an online business and to succeed in it. A vast number of free and paid information about online marketing, web analytics and its methods and tools can be found over the Internet, but how can you be absolutely sure that these methods and tools can be of any use for you?

Obviously, nowadays when we are obsessed with Internet, it’s hard to imagine cyberspace without online marketing and e-commerce. Everyday more and more surfers all over the world find new reasons to log in and go online in order to search for and purchase this or that product of service. Internet enabled us to buy whatever we need without leaving our homes and make money online by selling products and services. One can easily handle his/her online business, or even several different businesses, from any place in the world and this is actually the main reason why online marketing is such a popular topic today.

No matter whether you already have your own online business or just plan to start making money online, this article will help you learn more about web analytics methods and tools which are nothing else but online marketing essentials. Have you ever though why there are so many online shops, but only some of them rank high in search engines, drive more and more clients everyday and successfully convert average surfers into customers? Unfortunately, many online business owners don’t bother themselves with web analytics, considering it to be boring and relatively not beneficial, though it’s not as hard as it can seem.

Before you deny the necessity and profitability of web analytics, you should analyze your business, define your goals and image its perspectives. There are myriads of web analytics methods and tools (both free and paid) for any online business owner. Basically all these methods and tools are used to analyze website statistics which is the heart of your business. Web analytics tools available in the market can help you:

1) Analyze your visitors, their behavior and interests and convert them not only into one-time customers but also into life-time customers.

2) Drive search engine traffic and enhance searchability.

3) Determine your problem areas and start working on necessary improvements.

Those online businessmen who still have some doubts about the ultimate importance of website monitoring, and particularly heat map tracking, should read the following notes very carefully.

What is heat map tracking?

This technology is meant to show you how prospects behave on your site, namely what they look at, which internal navigation they use, what they search for and what links they click. All this data is processed by a clever tracking tool resulting in a heat map that shows you the “hottest” sections of your website.

Why is heat map tracking so significant?

That’s obvious: knowing how people surf throughout your site and why they do so and not otherwise, you can influence their behavior, increasing your conversion rate and making profit.

Imagine that you are organizing a party. You want your friends to feel comfortable in your house, don’t you? That is why you try to arrange things so that your guests can easily find whatever they need: thus, you won’t put a table with beverages in the garage because no one can reach it there. So, knowing where to place the necessary objects beforehand is a powerful asset – both in partying and in Web marketing.

How can I use my site’s heat map?

Supposing you have already realized how effective heat map tracking is, applied the tool to your website, and now you are analyzing the colored map of your home page. You can see that some sections (painted in orange and yellow) are highly attractive for visitors, while others are hardly looked at (painted in dark-blue and black.) So what?

First you can use this information while positioning ads. Track the conversion rate of an ad, then change its location and track again. By testing different positions you will find the best one, increasing your revenue from advertising.

Secondly, you can earn more from link building, as you see the most effective places for new links in your post.

Moreover, using heat map tracking you can compare different elements of design and navigation, resulting in an eye-catching and easy-to-use website. You will also determine the optimal place for your new post or selling proposition.

Finally, you can perform visitor analysis, learning what people need and where they look for it within your site.

So, do analyze where and what your prospects click – and heat map tracking will make your business thrive.

Actually, can success be measured? Is it estimated at dollars, thumbs-ups, inbound links from .edu and .gov sites, or at some other metrics?

Here is a short list of factors which are critically important for your business development.

1. You website traffic. While tracking the traffic you should pay particular attention to its sources, as without knowing where people come from you won’t be able to build a powerful traffic strategy and will just act at random. Fortunately nowadays there are many advanced tools to track website traffic quickly and efficiently.
2. The conversion rate of your landing page. The term “landing page” refers to the Web page(s) where clients arrive after clicking a link. You should track the conversion rate of your landing page to see whether it is effective and brings profit. Try to experiment with its structure and design, so that you can discover which elements are good for converting people and which are not.
3. The bounce rate (or abandonment rate) of your home page. Once your home page gets indexed by search engines, you should check its effectiveness by tracking the bounce rate. How many prospects leave your site as soon as they come to it, without visiting other pages? In case you notice that your bounce rate is rather high, it means that your home page should be modified, or that you chose an unappropriated advertising source. Tracking the bounce rate will shed much light onto your website’s success and can help you to find more efficient business solutions.
4. If you have an e-commerce site, what really matters is the shopping cart completion rate. According to the stats, about 75% of shopping cart transactions aren’t completed, so the number of customers who drop off is very high. You can decrease it by analyzing the whole checkout process. Maybe some steps have to be changed or even eliminated. Try to avoid sophisticated registration requirements – your prospects may lose their patience and leave your site. Remember that short forms are more preferable than long, and thumbnail images of the product increase the shopping cart completion rate. Make sure that you offered many payment options and didn’t forget to mention the extra charges for shipping etc.

So, there exist different metrics to measure your website’s success, and it makes sense to apply them all – this way you will get the full picture of your positioning in the market.

Some website owners believe once they created a good site it will conquer Olympus of the Internet community automatically, and they don’t have to worry about such complicated things as promotion. However, on the Web nothing happens spontaneously: if you want your site to move to the top SERPs positions you should work really hard. Traffic doesn’t grow like weeds, usually it takes much time and efforts to attract repeat visitors to your site. The point is that making a website popular isn’t only about creation, it is also about advertising. There exist millions of sites on the Internet, and this number grows every day. You can be absolutely sure that while you are reading this, dozens of other webmasters are launching more or less competitive sites in the same niche. So, to achieve success one should know the main on-page optimization strategies.

Can you guess what will the first one be? Of course, it’s about content. There is no need to explain why web content is ultimately important – it’s obvious to every Web business insider. Nevertheless, not everyone is aware what “good content” implies. Professional copywriters write both for search engines and people, that means good content is not only keyword optimized but also information-rich and helpful for prospects. Moreover, you should update your content at least weekly, yet 2-7 times are preferably.

The second important point is choosing the right domain name. Without a doubt, it should be relevant to the site’s content and easy to read, but the key is that it should be also memorable. Take measures not to let your prospects go to a competitor’s site by buying a similar domain name. For example, if your domain name is DogBreeding.com, buy the name DogsBreeding.com as well, to help people find your site on the Web. Call on Whois[dot]net and NameBoy[dot]com to check which domain names are currently available.

Keywords, as well as title tags and meta descriptions, are another powerful tool for website’s promotion. SEO experts advise to use extended informative phrases rather than separate words, because they are more effective. While choosing appropriate keywords tape them into search space to see how many competitors you have on the Web.

Finally, you should pay particular attention to design and navigation of your website. Is it easy to find the necessary data? Does it look like a pro? To analyze the effectiveness of your site’s structure you can use special tracking tools, like heat maps.