URL shorteners are a dime a dozen. If you don’t what they are, they are a shorter URL that represents a longer URL. The first really popular URL shortening service was Tinyurl, but it has its drawbacks. You can’t track when someone clicks on your links is one.

An example of how an URL shortener works can be found on Tinyurl’s own website:

Turn this URL:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?t
ype=3&campid=5336224516&toolid=10001&customid=tiny-
hp&ext=unicycle&satitle=unicycle

into this tinyURL:

http://tinyurl.com/unicycles

Since Twitter has forced us all to communicate in 140 character soundbites, many other URL shorteners have arrived on the scene, some of them allowing you to track your licks. A few have attempted to offer compensation for using them. But I wouldn’t recommend most of them.

Google introduced its own URL shortener not too long ago. And now, the latest: Youtu.be.

Like Goo.gl, Youtu.be is not for widespread use. The former can only be used for Google products while the latter can only be used for YouTube videos. I guess those are selling points.

I suppose there is benefit in using Youtu.be. It has stability. You know the YouTube brand isn’t going anywhere any time soon. But can you track who’s watching your videos? Can you count clicks and see the effectiveness of your promotions? I see nothing yet that would indicate you can track your clicks. Until that happens, I’m not sure there is a real benefit to using Youtu.be. Other URL shortners, like bit.ly, will allow you to track your clicks.

The folks at Google Analytics are always trying to improve, and they usually find a way to do it. This time they’ve come up with a nifty little tool called Annotations. It’s simple, really.

Annotations allows any user with access to a Google Analytics profile to leave shared or private notes right on the over-time graph.

Why? Why would you want to do that?

Well, let’s say Bob in marketing decided to build a new landing page. He did and after publishing the landing page there was a slight drop in traffic to a previous landing page that had been doing well. If he was able to Annotate the exact date he created the landing page and the time it was published then you could see if there might be a possible connection between the publication of your new landing page and the loss in traffic to your other page. If the new page was published at 11:59 a.m. on December 26, 2008 and your traffic for the previous landing page begin to drop at 11:03 a.m. on the same day then you can determine that the publication of the landing page was not the reason for your traffic drop.

Annotations gives you the ability to make notes on key events in your marketing execution. Anyone who can access your Google Analytics account can make an annotation and that helps the whole team. Not a bad idea.

It looks like Google may start putting more emphasis on page load times. Already, Google likes sites that load faster and if your site loads faster than your competition’s you will probably rank higher. In the future, if you have huge lag times in your page load time then you may get penalized or perhaps, if it is serious enough, even de-listed.

Why do I say this? Google Analytics has recently announced a new tracking code called asynchronous tracking.

Interestingly, asynchronous tracking is based on page load times. The code itself is supposed to make your pages load faster. Which is a welcome relief for many webmasters because most of us already know that too much code, or too much of the wrong code, can slow down your page load time. If Google Analytics is building new code to make your site load faster, I think that’s a sign.

What about you? Do you think page load time is about to become more important at Google?

Google Analytics is one of the Web’s easiest and most important tools for webmasters. You can have your account set up, literally, within minutes and be tracking your website statistics within a day. Just go to the Google Analytics website at http://www.google.com/analytics/ and click the link labeled “Sign Up Now”. You’ll find it under the blue button labeled “Access Analytics”.

Once you’ve signed up for your account you should get an e-mail with an activation link in it. Click the activation link. You won’t be able to access your account at Google Analytics until you do.

Once inside Google Analytics, click the button labeled “Get Started” and follow the directions to setting up your website for tracking. You can have more than one website, but I recommend starting with just one. At the end of the set up process you’ll be given some code that includes your website’s unique tracking identification number. Add the code to each page of your website in the footer, just before the end body tag. Remember, each page of your site must have the code or you won’t be able to track statistics for that page.

That’s it. Once you have the code in place you’ll be able to track website statistics through Google Analytics. It will take about 24 hours before you see any stats as they will appear for the previous day.

One of the most important metrics for any website owner is the bounce rate. Is your bounce rate too high? If so then you’ll want to take steps quickly to fix that.

A high bounce rate could be an indicator of a number of bad elements on your website, all of which are fixable. It could mean:

• You have a poorly designed website. Web design is very important as visitors will judge you on the basis of how attractive your website is. It’s sad, but it’s true. If you have a high bounce rate and find visitors leaving your site before moving on to the second page then ask yourself if you have design issues.
• Your content might not be that great. Believe it or not, visitors didn’t show up to your site to look at the pictures. Your content has to be compelling. Otherwise, they will leave. Are you keeping your site visitors’ interest?
• Weak calls to action. A strong call to action can lead to sales, and will if you offer something people want. But a weak call to action, or no call to action, will drive visitors away fast.

The good news is you can fix all of these issues. You don’t have to settle for a high bounce rate. Fix what is wrong with your website and watch your visitors stick around longer.

Do you know what your goals are? Have you let Google know? You should.

Google Analytics allows you to establish goals for your website and will even measure your goals for you so you can determine how successful you are. If you need actionable data, you can get it by measuring your goals and using the information to make necessary changes regarding how you track and measure data and how you act on the data you track and measure.

Your sales funnel is an integral part of that process. By knowing how your traffic flow should result in a sale, you can place the proper metrics where they need to be in order to tell you where in the process you are not meeting your goals. Then you can take that information and make the necessary tweaks and changes to improve the sales process. But it all begins with tracking. Google Analytics is a great tool. You can learn more about setting goals through Google Analytics here.

There are a ton of analytics packages out there. Many of them are premium paid packages and they are very good. I wouldn’t down talk them at all. But there are just as many free ones. The one I’d recommend (if you’re going to go free) is Google Analytics. Even if you are considering one of the paid analytics packages, Google Analytics can stand on its own against most of them.

While there are some specific data that Google Analytics doesn’t track. For instance, it won’t tell you which specific link people are clicking on to go from page A to page B. But it will allow you to see which pages people navigate from and to within your website. For most small business, that’s enough.

But Google Analytics has other cool features too, including:

• Site Overlay – a cool feature so you can see what percentage of visitors click all of your links
• Benchmarking – You can see how you stack up against the general competition in your field
• Browser Percentages – You can see what percentage of your visitors use Firefox, IE, or any other browser
• Traffic Sources – You can view where your traffic is coming from
• Custom Reports – Create your own reports based on data that is important to you
• Set Goals – Meaure your success against your own goals
• Top Content – See which content is getting viewed the most

Google Analytics has plenty more great features as well. If you are a small business owner you can do well with Google Analytics. You don’t need fancy software that costs a lot of money. If you do then you know you do. If you’re not sure, Google Analytics is probably enough.

So many small businesses pay a service to create their website, and they think they can place a big check list beside that to-do item and never think about it again. So wrong. Everything online is a process, and thank goodness it is. You can always update your site, add content, tweak your profile and improve your Google rank.

The good news is that there are some great online tracking tools that can help you improve your site, draw viewers, and know which of your webpages draws them in–and which ones are tanking. Knowing your bounce rate can make all the difference.

What’s a bounce rate?
It’s not how fast you can jump on a trampoline–it’s when someone visits your site and literally bounces in–and bounces out. They don’t go any further. They’re a one page wonder. Usually that means they either thought your site was about something else, or you didn’t hold their interest.

When measuring your bounce rate on Google Analytics, be sure to check several things:
Your Page Visits
Time on Site
New Visitors
Each tells you something different. For example, if a new visitor comes to your site, stays less than 30 seconds to a minute and leaves, you’ve got a bit of a problem. It may be in your title, your keywords, or with the graphics of your site, lack of content…in other words, you failed to hook your viewer. Consider making some changes.
If a new visitor comes to your site and stays more than a minute, you can consider this somewhat of a success. Even if they didn’t click to other pages, you held their interest. Perhaps they’ll revisit later. I call this “circling the camp.” Oftentimes, a visitor is itchy–they’re not ready to commit, they want to know what else is out there, but they did circle the perimiter–they know who you are and where you are. Success.

How to improve your bounce rate?
Make sure you page is navigable. Can they find where to click through easily? Are you links underlined and a contrasting color? Is your site too jumbled? Has it been a while since you added new content?
Try improving just one of these areas and watch your bounce rate for improvement.

Be sure to check out your content report and analyze every page of your website. Chances are, you’ve got a wink link. Find out where you’re losing your viewers, and you just figured out where to start implementing a few changes.

Attracting quality visitors to your small business website isn’t easy, and you won’t always know what exactly worked–but your efforts will garner results if you’re tenacious. I bet you thought I was going to say patient, but patience isn’t enough. Dogged determination and hard work are just the beginning and the key to your success is in setting goals, making plans to get there, and then tracking your results so you know when you’re doing something right.

What are your initial goals for your website? Do you want to shoot for sheer volume to start off? Or would you rather judge the online presence of your success by sales? Both are valid.

The first step most website owners use is to sign up for Google Analytics. You need to watch your traffic for about three months to get a good idea of how you’re doing. Are there certain days that traffic spikes? Is it after you send out an e-newsletter or email promotions?

There are two kinds of visitors: one time visitors and repeat visitors. Both are important, and knowing how long they visit, how many pages they view, and how often they return is very helpful to understanding what you’re doing right and what you can improve. The more people who know about you, your products and your services, the more you build your reputation–and this approach will eventually lead to sales.

A couple of great features on Google Analytics you might want to check out are the Visitor Trending section and the Average Pageviews section. Get familiar with this portion of Google Analytics because this is where you learn the most about your visitors–how long they stay, how many pages they visit, and over time, you want to improve your average.

Next, visit the New vs. Returning Visitors section. Here, you’ll learn everything from bounce rate, unique visitors, and time on site. It’s like having a webcam showing you which items a customer picks up, and which ones they bring to the register to purchase. You won’t begin to understand it until you’ve let some time pass as you track your website’s visits.

As you get comfortable with Google Analytics, you can begin to make form a solid plan of action. You can brainstorm about ways to build viewer loyalty and gain those wonderful return visits, as well as reaching out to new viewers that help spread the word about your business and business website.

Something great happens as you continue to build your online presence. You become proud of what you’ve accomplished. You set goals and then get to celebrate achieving them–and every small success cheers you on.

A hit is a hit is a hit…or is it? How many hits does your website get? You’ve probably been asked that before, and even if you can brag you get a million hits a month, does it mean what you think it means? How do you measure traffic on your small business site, and more importantly, how do those hits turn into sales?

To understand how to track your website traffic, you have to understand what a hit is.
A website “hit” isn’t as simple as you think. It’s not when someone types in your website name, or find you on Google, Yahoo, or MSN and clicks on your site. That’s not the only definition of a hit.
A hit is a file–and your webpage may contain one, or one thousand. A hit can be an image, written content, or order form. One of your webpages could contain many “hits.”

But what matters is not how many hits you get, but if the hit leads to interest–a sale, a contact, or a networking opportunity. A simpler page with only one hit might just do the job.

Ways to Gauge Your Site Traffic:
Visits, Pageviews, Unique Visitors, Time, and Referrers.

These five tracking tools are essential to any website owner. You need to know who comes to your site, how many times they return, how long the stay, and how they got there. Take a few minutes and visit your dashboard and take note of who your visitors are. This knowledge can help you create a website that’s worth visiting. and is a great marketing and networking tool.