We’ve heard it time and time again – successful public relations campaigns begin with research. This adage holds especially true for online campaigns. Whether you want your organization to appear highly in search engine rankings or gain thousands of followers on Twitter, you have to do your research.
Start by thinking about your organization’s goals, objectives, publics and current image. A thorough SWOT analysis should do the trick to get you started. Then, turn your thoughts to your organization’s Web site. In a world where smart phones, laptops and wireless clouds prevail, your Web site is your organization’s face to the world. Of course, most of us know this, but few of us know the crucial information that can help us better understand how well our Web sites are performing. For example, do you know the answers to the following questions?
- How much traffic does your site get?
- What are the most popular pages on your site?
- How long do users stay on your site?
- From what pages do users exit your site?
- Is your site user-friendly?
- Is the most important information easy to find?
- How often do you update your site?
- Is there a call to action on every page?
If you draw a blank on any of these questions, you need to find the answers STAT. Check with your hosting provider or your Web master to see how you can access these stats. Here’s why:
1) How much traffic does your site get?
Knowing how much traffic your site attracts gives you a more realistic picture of how many folks are finding you online. It also serves as a baseline measure so you can determine whether the strategies you develop to drive traffic are effective. Your hosting provider or Web master can most likely guide you to an analytics portal that tracks this information, but if you want another tool to see how you or your competitors are doing in terms of traffic, Alexa provides some great stats and allows you to compare sites too.
2) What are the most popular pages on your site?
Knowing which pages are the most popular and which are the least viewed gives you an idea for what your publics find interesting. If your publics frequently visit a page devoted to a particular product or service, chances are there’s something about that page that they find appealing. Perhaps you should produce more content about that popular product or highlight it more in your advertising. You should also try to identify the key characteristics about that page that make it so popular and, if possible, try to apply them to the pages less traveled.
3) How long do users stay on your site?
Do your visitors stay on your site for a while, visit several pages and scroll through content? In other words, do your visitors stay longer than the time it takes to find out contact information or make a purchase? Hopefully they do. A high “click through” rate (or the percentage of pages users visit) helps you make a better connection with your publics because it means your content is of interest to them. If you find users are only visiting a few pages and then leaving, perhaps you need to rethink and revise your content.
4) From what pages do users exit your site?
This information is crucial to know. It makes a big difference if people are leaving as soon as they see your homepage or if they’re leaving after they make a purchase. Find out which pages are making your publics jump ship and see if there are improvements that can be made to the content. Remember the old acronym – WIIFM? – check your frequently exited pages and make sure there’s content there that addresses the “What’s In It For Me?”
5) Is your site user friendly? Is the most important information easy to find?
While there are a ton of wonderful Web designers who foreground usability in their designs, some do not. If you find your click-through rates are low or folks are exiting your site at the first page they visit, there may be an issue with your site’s usability. Try to imagine yourself as a visitor to your site. Does the navigation make sense? Can users easily find the information they’re looking for? Is your contact information and/or shopping cart and/or call to action easy to find? If the answer is no, it’s time for some updates.
6) How often do you update your site?
Gone are the days where it was enough for organizations to simply supply static information about who they are, the products and services they provide and how to make a purchase or get involved (a.k.a “brochureware” sites). Today, Web sites must have fresh, relevant, frequently updated content in order to be indexed and highly ranked by search engines. I’ll discuss more details about how search engines work in a later post, but for now, you should know that it is extremely important to update your Web site frequently, but cautiously – because the information you include should be relevant to your publics. Whether it’s through a blog or user-generated feedback or press releases, new content should be added regularly.
7) Is there a call to action on every page?
I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a call to action on every single page of your Web site. More often than not, publics are finding you via search engines and as such, they can enter your site on any page, not necessarily your homepage. Today, every page is your homepage! So, whether your goal is soliciting sales or asking folks to sign-up for email alerts, make sure your call to action is on every page. I’d also suggest you put your contact information on every page too. We all know how frustrating it can be to search and not find a way to connect with a human being when you’re interested in learning more.
Now that you’ve given your Web site the critical eye, it’s on to the next phase of research that will put you on the path to increased traffic – key word research. I’ll address this topic in-depth in my next post.
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