Once you’ve set up Google Analytics for your site, you’re ready to get started using it to develop your site and understand your visitors. Google Analytics is a very powerful and feature-rich tool for examining every askpect of your site’s usage. Here is an overview of just some of the possibilites that are open to you when using Google Analytics:

Use your creative energy wisely.  By using Google Analytics to examine how your visitors are navigating your site and where they’re spending their time, you can quickly determine which pages are already working for you, and which ones need a little extra attention. Expand the content that draws new visitors to the site in the first place, and adjust your other content  content to funnel your visitors into becoming new clients.

Google Adwords. If you’re taking advantage of Google’s Adwords then there’s no better way to review the effectiveness and adjust your ads then through Google Analytics.  Find out exactly which ads are bringing in the users and adjust your content or ads accordingly to maximize your results. By logging into your AdWords account you can link your Adwords to Analytics under the Reporting section.

See What Works. Google Analytic’s Top Content report displays exactly which pages are being used most by your visitors. Make your site easier to navigate by adding links to your most commonly used pages to a prominent location.  If clients are spending a lot of time on your Calculator’s page, move that page to the top level of your naviagation to make it easier to find, or use it to funnel users to your contact or appointment setting page.

Alternatively, as you make edits to pages that get fewer visits, pay attention to the Top Content report. Over time you can view how well those edits are working by watching how much more – or less – traffic that page receives.

Month to Month Comparisons. As your business shifts over the year and over time, your users activity changes too.  With Google Analytics you can view reports from month to month and get an idea of the potential changes.  By watching the trends of your usage reports over time, you can be prepared to make changes and updates that reflect those trends.

More Customizable Reports. You have more than 80 customizable reports at your fingertips.  It’s simply to drag and drop to change the data and display whatever information you need.

It’s free. Signing up for Google Analytics is easy and costs nothing. It includes all of Google’s excellent  documentation and help.  CHeck back here for more posts and tips as we dig deeper into the possibilities and features of Google Applications

How do you get the most out of your CPA website and your marketing budget in today’s economy? First you need to know your budget and use that amount as a guide. Your target customers need to hear a marketing campaign approxiamtely 6-9 times to to get them to commit. Using marketing strategies outside your budget, doesn’t allow you to repeat your message often enough to make an impact.

COSTING MORE  DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN IT ‘S BETTER!

Expensive ad campaigns don’t necessarily translate to increased sales. You need to be able to evaluate what the ROI is going to be on your campaigns to judge whether the money you are spending is going to accomplish your goals by connecting with your target market.

The chances of your marketing campaign succeding, greatly improve when you can get into more channnels. Potential customers will likely become buyers if they: see your add in the newspaper, see you at a conference or local business expo, pick up a brochures, post your business cards on local bulletin boards and visit your CPA website. The more you can strech you marketing budget to reach your target clients, the better chances of you connecting with potential clients.

DEFINE YOUR TARGET MARKET BEFORE YOU BEGIN THE CAMPAIGN

A critical part of your marketing plan is targeting the right customer. Once you have determined who is you target audience what form of media is going to give you the best chance of reaching that audience. If you are trying to target a younger market then internet advertising is most likely one of the more likely choices. If you are targeting retirees then maybe focusing on local papers would be a better use of you marketing dollars.

Don’t try to market to the whole country unless you have defined that as you target market, go for small niche markets. Focus on the immediate area where you are doing business. With your CPA website make sure that you keywords contain your address at least city and state. When a potential client is looking for a tax planner they are going to look close to home. If you are targeting TV ads then focus on the local channels and not Cspan or CNN because you like them.

BECOME PART OF THE COMMUNITY

Become part of the community get out and support local sporting events and fundraisers. All of these will get your name on flyers, t-shirts and banners. Be cautious not to select events that are controversial with in the community as this can generate a negative . I know that people say there is no such thing as bad publicity but, there is if you are losing business and you are in a small community.

CREATE AFFILIATES

Creating affiliates is a great way for small business to start building a local web of people that trust each other. Developing a relationship with your clients beyond the taxes. This creates a sense of belonging that will ultimately improve retention. Maybe you don’t have a plumber that is a client of yours but, you have a contractor that is a client. Ask that contractor who they would recommend?

The most cost-effective method of reaching new customers is by referrals from satisfied customers. A satisfied customer telling others about your small business is more effective than any fancy ad campaign. Spend time to get customer testimonials on your CPA websites.

You don’t need a large budget to achieve your goals,  you need to stay focused on the target market and give your budget it’s due attention. Be creative and ask other people for testimonials if they indicate that they are happy your service. Give them some of your business cards so that they can’t pass them out to their friends. Remember personal referrals are your best for of marketing.

There’s a simple concept for this new blog: we’re here to share with you what we’ve learned about search engine marketing, how we’re using it and maybe help you use it too. Check back here for frequent updates on new techniques, link building help, web marketing, site optimization and useful links, services and answers to common and uncommon questions.

If you’re just starting out with us and want to follow along from the very start, there’s no better way to start than by installing Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a free tool for analyzing the traffic coming to your website. Once it’s installed, you can view detailed information about how visitors are using and navigating through your site.

Best of all, it’s free. Even if it weren’t free, I’d still reccomend it. Google Analytics is just that useful.

To get started using Google Analytics, signup here. You’ll need a Google Account, but that’s easy enough to set up using the “Sign Up Now” link.

Once you’re signed in, you’ll need to fill out some information, your name, your domain name, country, and similar information. Once that setup is complete. Google will provide you with a little block of code. With that, you can start having Google track your web site stats.

As you’ll see on Google’s instructions, you just need to add this code to the bottom of every page on your site that you want to track. If you’re using a website provider like CPA Site Solutions it’s probably possible to add this code to every page on your site from one central location. Just paste it to the bottom of the page’s HTML code, just before the /body tag.

We’ll dig into the details of Google Analytics in a later post. Now that you’ve added that code to all the pages you’re interested in, Google will start tracking your traffic. With Google’s data, you can carefully examine how well everything you’ve learned with us is working for your site.