Website Manager & Marketer Meetups are a huge success

For those of you who do not already know, we have started hosting a lively and engaging meetup for marketing professionals and website managers. The meetups usually happen every other month, but we are currently on hold, while we arrange for a new meeting location (we need more space!).

The first one focused on best practices for HTML forms and three tools for easily creating and editing them. The presentation/discussion format allowed for active exchange of ideas and feedback. There was also ample time for networking and socializing.

There were two presentations.

Dr. Fred Condo, Quinn’s chief engineer, presented a brief overview of best practices for HTML forms that addressed coding and technical standards, usability, accessibility, logic and validation, and the impact of Ajax and user experience.

Phil Quinn, compared three tools (phpForms, Formspring and WuFoo) to make building forms and gathering information easy and effective. The point of reference was for marketing professional and managers who do not have HTML experience but want to control and manage website content without relying on IT.

A copy of the slides from both presentations is available for download here:

HTML Forms: Best Practices (.pdf)

Form Management: Optional Tools (.pdf)

Website Analytics 101

Our second meetup was all about analytics. We were fortunate enough to have some very experienced professional web analytics consultants at the event and we had some insightful discussions on the topic.

Below are 9 things you should consider tracking on your site!

1. Conversions

Typical conversions are things purchases or when someone fills out a lead form. With good analytics software you can find out what other things these people are doing. For example, which ads on your home page lead to the most sales? How many pages to people visit on average before they buy? How much traffic are we getting from our online advertising that is converting?

2. CPC (cost per click) vs Organic

If you are buying search terms, like Google Adwords, you should use your analytics system to tell you how those ads are performing for you. You should know what you are paying in ad spending for each conversion. You should also see if they are doing as well as non-ad-based normal organic searches.

3. Most/Least Viewed Content

Knowing which pages on your site are the most popular, and which are the least popular, helps you answer these questions: Should I promote some pages over others? Why are some pages so rarely viewed? Are people not finding what they are looking for?

4. Most Searched For Terms

If you have site search on your website, looking at the list of most searched for terms tells you exactally what your visitors are looking for! In their own words!

You should try the searches and ask yourself if you are satisfied with what comes up. Are the top results what you want? How many results come up? Should you offer more of this? Less? Are these good terms for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts?

5. Most Common Failed Searches

This is a list of things your visitors are expecting to find on your site, but not finding! Are the wrong people visiting your site? (We get lots of people searching for an insurance product on our site which is made by a company with a similar name.)

This list can help you decide if you should: Add new content? Set up synonym matches in search? Do a better job of setting expectations?

6. How Are People Finding You?

Where are most people coming from when they visit your site? Google? Other search engines? Partners? Are they typing the URL in directly?

7. How Long Are Visits?

Are people getting frustrated and leaving? Are they finding what the want?

Sometimes more is good, for example if you are selling ads.

Sometimes more is bad, if users can’t find information quickly.

8. Tracking Offline Sources

Analytics systems can now track things like e-mail newsletters and custom URLs (landing pages) for print ads & other media. You can find out if your newsletter is getting any attention, or just getting deleted.

9. Entrance/Exit Pages

These are the pages visitors start and finish their visits on. Where are people starting? Usually the homepage, but if not, this can be important information.

Where are they leaving? If it is the order confirmation page, you're in great shape! If it is your homepage, maybe you have some work to do.

For most websites, the homepage is both the biggest entry and exit page.