Bounce Rate

The correct definition of bounce rate is the percentage of visits that only visited a single page. It is not related to how long the visitor spent on that page, for reasons that will become clear below. A bounce could be someone viewing a page for any length of time, although it is likely that the majority of visitors not sufficiently engaged to view more than one page will leave pretty quickly, unless you have a lot of information on one page or the sort of content that people want in isolation from the rest of your site (e.g. news, free stuff, a “call us now” landing page, or your latest blog post). An average bounce rate is around 40%.

Time On Site

Time on site (or page) is calculated by subtracting the time of the second page view from the time of the first. So, if I view a page at 10:02:53 (two minutes and 53 seconds after ten), then click to view my next page on the same website at 10:03:23, Analytics will calculate that I have been on the website for 30 seconds. If I then leave the website after viewing the second page, that will remain my total length of time on the website and I will have viewed the second page for zero seconds, because there is no time for Analytics to subtract 10:03:23 from (the time of the second page view).

It is for that reason that any bounces from your website (single page visits) are by definition zero second visits, meaning that the 0-10 Seconds segment in your Engagement (Visit Duration) report will always be at least as high as your bounce rate. Similarly, the final page of every visit to your site is zero seconds too.

New Visitors

For much of the data it records, Analytics uses cookies to store information about visitors (these are text files saved on the visitor’s machine in their web browser’s cache). There is a cookie saved known as “_utma” when a visitor first visits your site. Analytics checks for the presence of this cookie and if it is already there, the visitor is recorded as returning.

So, “new visitors” are any visitor that doesn’t have the cookie in place, which of course means that they might not be “new” at all. If they have deleted all their cookies, or are using a different machine, they will be new regardless. Google Analytics uses first party cookies, which means they are much less likely to be deleted by browsers and anti-malware programs. Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik suggests a 3%-5% deletion rate.

Nevertheless, it is inevitable that whatever proportion of “new” visitors Analytics shows, the reality will be that some of them are really returning visitors.

It’s important to have a handle on what these stats really tell you, as they are likely to figure in your conversion rate optimisation efforts, amongst other things. Talk to us today if you want to know more!

Isn’t online copy all about optimising your site for the search engines? No, it’s about engaging your visitors, getting them to look around and maybe even buy something.  You should of course use any opportunities you get for optimisation but please write for people not robots.

Engage your audience

“Content is king” goes the old adage but content for content’s sake can be clumsy and unreadable. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that you need to engage your visitors to keep them on your website.

Think about your message but also think about what your customers want to know. This is just as true of the “About Us” page that describes your multi-national stationery company as it is of the unique product description that you write for your top selling Staple-matic 5400 XL.

Writing for your customer is crucial, think about why they would want this product or service then promote the features and benefits as well as your unique selling points. Be careful to avoid a “me, me, me” style of writing – focus on your customers, their needs and talk about them.

SEO and online content

In a world of SERPs it’s too easy to get hung up on SEO techniques and start writing content targeted directly at Google.

The urge to use your keywords can seem overpowering! Pretty soon you have forgotten about engaging customers and you are making the mistake of writing for the search engines rather than people.

Overusing keywords will water down the focus of your copy and in the worst cases STOP IT MAKING SENSE (which runs the risk of alienating your customers). What’s more Google can identify this kind of keyword stuffing and may even penalise you for it!

Providing the best possible customer experience is something that Google (and you) believe is paramount.

How to write for the web

Writing for the web is slightly different to other styles of writing as people’s online reading habits are quite unlike the ways in which they interact with regular media.

Writing good copy is by no means complicated and here are a few rules that will help you write great content that will be loved by both customers and the search engines:

• Prominence of keywords – your keywords should feature in headers, the first sentence and if possible the last sentence as well.
• Density of keywords – you need to see a good repetition of keywords whilst keeping your copy natural and readable, up to a maximum 2% density. If you are unsure about your keyword density you can analyse your copy by pasting it into the text box on: http://textalyser.net/. Don’t be tempted to overuse keywords as this will spoil the readability of your page.
• Readability – copy should be easy to read and not contain technical jargon. People have a much lower attention span on the web and you need to take into account different reading abilities as well. Ideally it should be understandable to an 11 year old.
• Ideal sentence length – sentences should be no more than 11 words long where possible. Re-work multiple comma sentences so that they only include one, this helps to keep things concise and readable.
• Paragraph size – keep paragraphs as short as possible in order to break up the copy and make things easier on the eye. One line paragraphs can really work well.
• Use sub-headings – this will help your readers to scan the copy for useful ideas that resonate with them.
• Highlighting - You should also make good use of bold, italic and underline to emphasise your points. Don’t forget to highlight your keywords too as Google sees highlighting as an SEO signpost.
• Write for your customer – copy should be customer focused and not use too many “I” or “we” words. The “we we” tool is very useful for testing this: http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewetext.htm.

Another thing to remember is people’s attention span is limited so don’t labour your point, knowing when to quit is extremely important.

In conclusion

When writing for the web just remember that you are trying to engage your audience as well as looking for opportunities to optimise your site for Google.

Note: If you’re confused about the difference between the two techniques, check out our guides to PPC and SEO before you read on.

SEO: Saint or Sinner?

Search engine optimisation is a relatively cheaper, and significantly longer term solution. SEO is all about promoting your business online and when done right you can find that not only does your traffic from search engines improve, but also that direct and referring traffic increases as more and more people get to know and love your company.

One downside to this type of work is the time taken – Amazon wasn’t built in a day. SEO is a slow burner, and it can take time to hit the high spots and really start to see a return on your investment. And yet, if you have the patience, the work you do now should still be showing a return in 1, 2 or even 5 years time.

Search engine optimisation can be a less predictable marketing technique, as search engines closely guard their secrets to avoid spam. And yet, thanks to rigorous testing by search engine professionals there are established best practices that have been proven to help companies to achieve great rankings and an excellent return.

It’s worth noting that even with an unlimited pay per click budget, by focussing on paid search alone you always run the risk of missing out on a large proportion of traffic simply due to users preferring to click on organic listings.

Pros

• Relatively cheaper.
• Long term investment.
• Potential to increase exposure outside of search engines.

PPC: Profitable or Pointless?

Pay per click wins many fans for its speed, ease of reporting and directly attributable ROI. Assuming that you have no technical problems with your website, it’s a clear path from keyword X to sale Y, and that straight forward reporting is essential to any business.

For companies looking for an instant boost in visibility and with specific financial targets to meet, pay per click advertising is the obvious choice. With clear data at your fingertips it’s easy to kill under performing keywords in a matter of moments to ensure you get the maximum conversions for your spend.

While Google likes to introduce new features and mix things up as with organic listings, it is much easier to maintain a top ad ranking spot long term.

And yet, the big drawback to PPC is the ongoing cost involved. Unlike SEO, the pay per click model means that literally if you aren’t prepared to pay, you won’t see any traffic. And with ever more advertisers joining the market, many businesses do see their costs increase over time.

Clever management can ensure that any increase in spend is profitable, but even the most skilled Google AdWords consultant cannot stop the force of inflation caused by an increasingly competitive market place.

Pros

• Instant results.
• Directly attributable ROI.
• More control over placement and appearance in the search engines.

Cons

• Relatively expensive.
• Costs more likely to increase over time due to market inflation.
• If you stop advertising, you cut off your traffic source.

SEO or PPC?

More and more online marketing professionals are coming around to a new way of thinking – that actually the two techniques should be used together for maximum impact.

While this approach can be used to great effect by many organisations, budget constraints, business objectives and time scales should all be factors that ultimately help you to decide the right approach for your online marketing campaign.

The simple truth is that there is no one right way to spend your online marketing budget – and both search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising can bring excellent results.You need to consider your marketing objectives carefully to weigh up which technique can help your company to meet your goals.

If you are having any trouble deciding what your company needs, don’t forget that Boom offers both SEO services and PPC management, so we’re ideally placed to help you make the best decision for your business.  Call us on 0845 474 0974 or use our contact form so that we can discuss your business needs.

Rather than throwing time, resources and money at a website that is always going to haemorrhage sales, the smarter money would be invested into Conversion Rate Optimisation.  

“If a bucket has holes it will always leak water. Instead of constantly filling the bucket, why not fix the holes!”

In my previous article What is Conversion Rate Optimisation I gave an insight as to the benefits of CRO and why you need it. Today I am going to take that a little further and look at 3 key reasons why people do not buy from a website. I use the term ‘buy from a website’ very loosely this is really a conversion of any kind i.e. a potential client picking up the phone and calling you, it doesn’t have to be a physical sale.

To make this a little easier we should try and put ourselves in the visitors mind set. Try and view your site constructively from a potential customers point of view and think of their experience. Whether it is consciously or subconsciously they will need to satisfy the following before they become a customer.

Can I find what I am looking for?

This may sound obvious but if people cannot find what they are looking for they will soon click away. Consider the layout and the navigation of your site. Is it easy for people to navigate round? Are there clear signposts?

There is a misconception that websites should never go more clicks deep, meaning that customers should always be able to find what they are looking for in 2 clicks. In reality this is often not possible and as long as you are clearly pointing people in the right direction that is fine

Think about where you are driving traffic to. If you are driving traffic to your homepage, would be possible to drive traffic to more relevent inner pages like category and sub category pages, or specific service pages? For example we try and drive all of our Conversion Rate Optimisation traffic to our Conversion Rate Optimisation page.

Is there enough information for me to make an informed decision?

When visitors find themselves in the right place, they will then need to make a decision about that product or service. You need to make sure that you are giving people enough information for them to decide that this is something they want/need.

Good quality, detailed, unique descriptions are a good way to do this. If you are running an ecommerce store you need to remember that when shopping online we lose the ability to touch and feel an item like we do when we are in a shop. We need to somehow replace that. And do not for one minute be naïve enough to think that your brand is strong enough to compensate for this. I was recently looking for a bag and decided to take a look at Next. I quite liked the look of the bag below.

Needless to say the lack of description meant that I had no information whatsoever about the bag and, it won’t come as a big surprise when I tell you this, I didn’t buy the bag.

High quality images with zoom features, product data and technical specifications are also really good ways of helping the visitor make that all important decision that they want/need this product.

Am I confident enough to give these people my credit card details?

A lack of confidence is the main reason why a website will not convert. A visitor must gain trust before they part company with their credit card details or decide that they are going to do business with you. There are a number of ways we can install confidence in people to help make them feel more at ease about doing business with you.

This is something I will cover at a later date in a subsequent article as I feel it needs covering in much more depth, but the bottom line is your site needs to look professional for people to perceive you as a professional trustworthy outfit. Avoid hiding contact details away in the darkest depths of you site. People need to feel that you are approachable and contactable.

For those new to the hashtag phenomenon, it’s a trend exclusive to Twitter than involves preceding a word with a hash symbol.

In essence, the purpose of a hashtag is to help people find Tweeters and Tweets relevant to their interests – in effect, to create the idea of a ‘group’; a concept that otherwise doesn’t exist on Twitter. For example, someone posting a piece of business news might end the Tweet with #business. Someone searching for business news should then be able to find this by searching for #business.

What Can Other Companies Learn from Best Western?

That social media isn’t all about exposure and increasing profits. Social media is about building relationships with your customers and needless to say, trying to cheer them up is a great way to do this!

Other companies would benefit from following suit and thinking outside the box to do something a little different with social media, even if it offers them minimal publicity. The use of the #cheerup hashtag shows that Best Western care about more than just profits, they care about their customers too – something many large corporations could learn from.

Using Hashtags

If you want to use a hashtag, it’s advisable to do a little bit of research first to see if an established hashtag for the topic already exists. While you might be able to start your own trend, if you’re talking about a popular subject you may well fare better to use an existing hashtag; particularly if you’re a small brand trying to build your social media presence. Tagdef is a fantastic resource for finding relevant hashtags.

If however, you want to create a buzz around something in particular, such as an event you’re running, then the use of a new hashtag is ideal.

It’s also worth remembering this unwritten rule regarding hashtags: don’t overuse them. It might seem like a good idea to turn every word of a Tweet into a hashtag but in reality, your post will be flagged as spam and ignored.

Surpassing all expectations, the firm’s rapid expansion instigated the critical need for a move into larger premises. Boom’s previous office, located only a few miles from the new site, offered limited capacity for growth, and with the firm on the hunt for two additional employees a need for more spacious surroundings called.

Boom first made the transition from remote working to office life just nine months previously in April of this year. After the company formed in July 2010, the employment of two full time staff members meant that directors Robert and Ian felt remote working no longer suited the needs of the company.

Company director Robert Deans said, “when we initially moved into the Long Eaton office, we had no idea our time there would be so short-lived. At first we were thrilled to have simply made the progression from a team working remotely at home into a space where we could all work together on a daily basis.

I’m stunned but equally thrilled to say that in only nine months our client base has grown to such proportions that we need to take on additional members of staff and make the move into larger, more permanent premises.”

Boom’s previous office formed part of an office building that was shared with a number of other Nottinghamshire companies.

The new premises are self-contained, with the style and space needed to reflect the professional stature of the company. Boom hope to be settled in the Beeston office for at least the next five years.

Below is a poll featuring five charities, each one carefully chosen by a member of the Boom team. All we ask is that you cast your vote for who you would most like to receive a donation.

The one with the most votes on Christmas Eve will receive £150, so you have until then to make your choice!

If you do this a lot; you’re far from alone. Countless companies rely on numbers as a measure of success when the reality is: numbers mean very little.

The fact is, it’s interaction that showcases your success. What’s the point in having 2,000 Facebook fans or 10,000 Twitter followers if none of them respond to your company’s messages or share the super-cool things you post?

Be Interesting!

If you want people to engage with you, you need to give them a reason to engage. Ask questions, post a poll and if appropriate, be controversial.

You need to give your fans a talking point. If you want to share something interesting, ensure to ask what everyone thinks – don’t rely on your fans to take the initiative to air their opinions without a push in the right direction.

Post at the Right Time

Facebook (and Twitter) move quickly. Post when all your fans and followers are in bed and chances are, most of them will never see what you have to say. Post in the evenings and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and you will probably experience a far greater response.

There’s an interesting infographic here that goes into more detail.

Acknowledge Your Best Fans

People like to be recognised for their achievements, whether it’s climbing a mountain in aid of charity or simply participating in an online community.

Booshaka is a free application that awards points to your fans when they interact with your page. It also allows you to display a leader board so you and your fans can see who your top contributors are.

An application like this gives your fans an incentive to interact more than they might otherwise do.

Reward Your Best Fans

If a name at the top of a leader board isn’t enough to get your fans fingers typing, offer the incentive of a small prize to whoever is at the top of the leader board at a certain time.

This could just be an occasional competition, or you could give away a prize to the top contributor each week.

However, ensure your fans know that they won’t be winning any prizes for spammy or pointless contributions! Only messages that offer some value to the community should be counted.

What you see to the left will be gone by the next time you see me, so savour the picture and as you do so, please donate to Movember through my page here.

Let me know if you think I should keep/develop it – I quite fancy something I could twirl…

Fake websites, created for no other reason than to collate and use honest shopper’s bank details, are everywhere. Sadly, spotting them isn’t always as easy as we might assume. 

To help, online security expert at Xibis, Simon Perry, offers his top tips for shopping safely online.

Look for a phone number

All reputable Ecommerce sites should provide a clearly placed phone number for customer use. However, don’t just check the phone number exists – ring it too. This ensures that the line and number is definitely active, and that a member of staff is actually going to pick up.

Check for a geographical address

Is there an address supplied and is it easy to find? All genuine and reputable companies will have and show a geographical address on their website, and they shouldn’t make it difficult for customers to locate it.

Remember that it’s a legal requirement to provide a geographical address, so if there’s no address offered, or it’s hidden within the deep depths of the site, you might want to steer clear of handing your bank details to this one.

Shoppers should also be aware of P.O. Box addresses – these are not ‘geographical addresses’ and they signal that the company doesn’t operate from a fixed or registered location.

Read reviews religiously

While the internet has made it easier than ever to steal unsuspecting consumer’s bank details, it’s also made it much easier to research a company before deciding whether or not to trust them.

Before buying anything from an unknown online retailer, Google the company name along with the word ‘reviews’.

Read the reviews carefully and keep an eye out for any of the following signs that some of (or all of) the reviews are fake:

• The reviews were all published within a very short space of time.
• The reviews are really short with little detail about the company, products or service.
• They don’t read naturally. This may be because they’ve been written by or on behalf of the company for SEO purposes.
• The reviews are very similar.
• Each ‘reviewer’ has only published a single review.

Be particular with passwords

Using the same password for all your online accounts is asking for trouble. Doing so means that the interception of one website could result in criminals having access to your email, your favourite shopping websites and even your online banking.

 If, like most of us, you would struggle to remember scores of different passwords, try using  an application such as LastPass. With LastPass users can create countless complex  passwords while only needing to remember one ‘master’ password.

LastPass not only helps keep hold of your passwords securely, but it will never fall foul of phishing attacks – where one website pretends to be another and fools you into giving them your password.

If you use LastPass, make sure you lock it with a secure password and set it to automatically log off when idle.

Look for trust symbols

There are a number of ‘schemes’ that site owners can register with to help to verify the security of their site and showcase this verification to the sites visitors.

 The VeriSign Seal and the McAfee Secure signs are the big ones to look out for. Display of the  symbols should mean that the site has passed a ‘malware scan’ within the previous 24 hours.

Trust your instincts

Many of us don’t give our instincts the credit they deserve. The truth is that our instincts tell us a lot and when it comes to who and what to trust online, we ought to listen to them.

If you get a ‘bad feeling’ from a particular site, investigate alternative methods of payment. ‘Payment gateways’ such  as SagePay and PayPal allow shoppers to complete online transactions without giving the merchant access to their bank details.

It’s also worth using virus scanners which can check for malware such as key loggers. While such an Ecommerce scam is much less common than the simple ‘take your money and keep the goods’ trick, key loggers can steal your card details directly from your computer and thus caution is always advised.

• For more articles from SEO agency, Boom Online Marketing, please visit the Boom Blog.