Off-Page SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO). The Internet has an overwhelming amount of information on this topic, discussing what it is and how to rank for higher placement on a search engine results page (SERP). 

In addition, there’s also equally a lot of content on how algorithms serve to determine which sites appears on page 1 vs page 100+ on SERPs. Understanding how algorithms work and what needs to be done to allow them to crawl your pages and rank your website above your competitors is paramount. Why? If you happen to operate in an industry that’s very saturated, like say restaurants, you’ll need to actively utilize techniques that will continually increase your businesses’ profile. Hopefully resulting in higher placements. 

With so many sources of information, this blog has also entered the arena, as this is also a learning process for me as well. Hence, two weeks ago I shared insights related to On-Page SEO.

This week, we’ll look at what may be considered the opposite of this; Off-Page SEO.

What is it? Patel (n.d.) describes it as, “…all of the activities that you and others do away from your website to raise the ranking of a page with search engines.” While it’s good to ensure that your site images are optimized, your website has included important keywords, has title tags, meta descriptions and of course, engaging content to enhance the user experience (UX) among others. Research shows that efforts to enhance what’s on the site is not enough in isolation to guarantee high rankings. One of the ways you can increase your ranking is by showing a search engine like Google that high volumes of persons are interested in your website. 

Why would this be necessary?

It’s necessary because what happens off your website/blog is just as important as was what happens on it. All activities happening off your site should be conducted with the intent of generating more brand visibility by driving traffic to your site/blog. If not, your efforts will be in vain. It bears mentioning that these activities should be complementary to your on-site efforts and in keeping with your company’s overall marketing goals.

SEMrush’s blog, cites these 13 techniques as optimal strategies to complement what’s happening on-site: 

• Link Building

• Brand Building

• Content Marketing

• PR

• Local SEO (GMB and Citations)

• Social Media

• Forums

• Influencer Marketing

• Events

• Guest Posting

• Podcasts

• Reviews

• Content Syndication (Varagouli, 2022)

While each of these elements is a useful tactic. In this post, we’ll look specifically at podcasts. 

But first, let’s look at the origin of podcasts.

Back in the 1980’s there was a short-lived phase of audio blogging. Persons were able to record their views and impart them through audio recordings. Understandably, distribution during this era would not have yielded high volume audiences, so it died a natural death. (Jabeer, 2001)

Some 20 years later, enter the iconic Apple Inc. With the introduction of a portable media player for listening to your favorite music on what was named the iPod. It provided CD sound quality on a pocket size device that could hold as much as 1,000 songs. Usable as an exercise addon while biking, running and other such activities. (Apple Newsroom, 2001) 

Imagine the excitement for this innovation back in 2001. The iPod can be considered the new and improved Walkman. For those of you who are too young to know what this is, it was a small tape recorder, used with headphones that many of us back in the day thought was such a brilliant invention. To have the ability to walk around with this device in your pocket or hand listening to music rather than those bulky stereos. 

Fast forward a few years to 2004 and Adam Curry, former MTV video jockey, and software developer Dave Winer coded a program known as iPodder, enabling people to download audio blogs to their iPod. This sparked journalist Ben Hammersley to publish the now-iconic article about the dawning torrent of online radio, eventually coining the term ‘podcasting,’ joining the words — iPod and broadcast. (Jabeer, 2021)

And just like that, there’s another innovation!  Here’s some noteworthy statistics:

• 750,000 podcasts were active in 2019

• 32% of Americans listen to podcasts at least once a month

• 54% of podcast consumers say they consider buying advertised products 

• 6.5 million adults in the UK listen to podcasts weekly

• 10% of all content listened to by millennials is embodied by podcasts

• 58% of citizens in South Korea listen to podcasts (Jovic, 2022)

What do these statistics tell us? They tell us that the use of podcasts as an Off-Page SEO tactic is an avenue that can provide both reach and listenership serving to bring increased traffic to your site.

People are always on the go and the audio recording nature of podcasts allows for listening while doing other things like driving, gardening, cleaning or even exercising. It’s even possible that some persons may decide to listen to a podcast while unwinding with a bath after a long workday. The beauty of podcasts is that they are inexpensive and don’t require a lot of user knowhow. 

Fortunately, mobile devices and desktops are now being crafted with improved image and sound quality. A good quality mobile or desktop and maybe the investment of a microphone to enhance the sound quality of your audio recording can be all you need to start joining the podcast sphere. In addition, there’s the added advantage that your podcast recordings can be placed on a tab on your website or have its own domain that links back to your site. 

Imagine you’re a restaurant owner and you’ve decided to add podcasts to your Off-Page SEO strategies. Your primary host is the chef who takes listeners through the dining journey. Sometimes, she’s joined by other chefs, or even satisfied customers who are delighted to share their dining experiences. It allows for customer feedback and at least once a month one of your podcasts is done via video and placed on YouTube.

Some lucky customers who join your podcasts may have the opportunity to sample new menu items. As an added marketing strategy each month lucky participants can dine free at your restaurant or receive a free bottle of wine with their dinner. The catch, the questions would be based on past podcasts and based on your restaurant.

Unfortunately, they are drawbacks to podcasting. The major one being that it’s imperative that when using images, music, etc. that is copyrighted you have the permission of the owner, or you’ll find yourself having legal issues to contend with. Also important, know your target audience. Podcasts are not for everyone and it’s recommended that you know your target audience and craft your podcasts accordingly.

Podcasting is a rapidly growing trend that can provide added brand value. So if you’re considering podcasting, here’s a short video by Pat Flynn on what to avoid on this adventure. 

References:

Apple Newsroom. (2001, October 23). Apple Presents iPod. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2001/10/23Apple-Presents-iPod/

Flynn, P. (2022, January 22). Every failing podcast does this. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOEG7x8YRw

Jabeer, Z.A. (2021, September 13). A Brief History of Podcasting. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://medium.com/paradeim/a-brief-history-of-podcasting-2e73cfbca7d0

Jovic, D. (2022, March 17). 40 Powerful Podcasts Statistics To Tune Into. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/podcast-statistics/#gref

Patel, N. (n.d.) Off-page Seo: What Is It & How Can You Take Advantage of It. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from https://neilpatel.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-off-page-seo/

Varagouli, E. (2022, March 14). What Is Off-Page SEO? A Comprehensive Guide. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/off-page-seo/

AMAZON CASE STUDY

INTRO 

Web analytics is crucial to operating in our digital landscape. 

It becomes even more important if you are an ecommerce retailer. This week, we’ve been tasked with examining how web analytics and seo are used to fuel the actions of ecommerce retailers that we're interested in. Ideally, using a case study scenario. For me, this means determining who are the shinning stars of the ecommerce retailer industry and deciding which one is best to explore.

To properly assess the dynamics in play that distinguishes top brands from the pack in their respective industries, let's consider:

• What determines a top performing company (Brand)?
• What special resources do the top companies have over their competitors?
• And how does web analytics help with top performance?

Short answer? 

Excelling at search engine optimisation (seo) to successfully increase your online presence. Quick Google searches using different variation keywords of top rated ecommerce retailers all seemed to point me in the same direction. Amazon! One such example is Similarweb where Amazon appears in the top 5 spots with Amazon.com ranked first. 

Given that I am a very satisfied Amazon customer, I decided what better company to use.

But what makes Amazon stand out?

THE AMAZON BRAND

Before we dig deeper into this, let’s take a brief look at Amazon’s history. “Amazon was begun in 1994 in Seattle Washington by Jeff Bezos, and was initially little more than an online bookstore.” (Ecommerce Platforms, n.d.) 

In addition, “Not only is Amazon the most valuable internet retailer in the world, it is the most valuable retailer period, having surpassed Wal-Mart back in 2015. It is also the fourth most valuable company in the world, topped only by Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft. (ibid) 

Think what it means that you can boast that your company is in the same high performing category as Apple and Microsoft. Isn’t this type of kudos impressive? 

TRAFFIC ANALYSIS BREAKDOWN

To further appreciate Amazon’s dominance here’s a look at its website traffic analysis from popular software tool SEMrush:

What do we see? In May 2022, Amazon enjoyed 3.3 billion page visits. Of this, nearly 840 million were unique visitors. Further, page visit duration averaged 16 minutes. With a bounce rate of less than 50%. While the optimal percentage would be between the 20 to 40% range. (Lahey, 2020) A bounce rate of 49.68% is moderate and still considered acceptable.

Now look at this image below which shows a breakdown of Amazon’s website traffic even more. 

In this we see that of the 3.3B visits, slightly over 81% (2.7B) were directly to amazon.com. In other words, people knew that Amazon was where they wanted to go and typed in its URL. 

The second most popular way persons accessed the site was through conducted searches at 12.13% or 397.8 million people. 

Plus, the data also shows that 70% of Amazon’s web site traffic is via a mobile device. This trend is noteworthy, given that mobile devices are continually being used to access the Internet in significantly high numbers since 2019. (Galov, 2022) 

What’s more, in May 2022, the data revealed that the 25-34 age group was the dominant visitor to Amazon’s site; as seen here.

Also of note, is that of the 839.6M unique visitors to the site, just over 65% (547.7M) were male. 

This is the type of web analytics that a company like Amazon values and tends to investigate. For instance, analysis could be done on the higher male visitor count in May 2022, looking at:

• Was it only unique to this month?
• Or do males usually visit amazon.com in greater numbers than females? 
• Even more, when they visit the site, where are they spending their time? 
• And do these visits result in conversions (purchases)?
• If they do, what is being purchased? 
• When purchases are made, how much is spent? 

In reviewing the image, did you notice that the highest number of visitors were in the US (81.17%, 2.7B)? 

Did you also notice that the second highest though only at 2.36% totaled 77.2M who were in India? 

Amazon's thought process would be: What are persons in India purchasing? How much are they spending? And how can we assist in their future purchasing needs?

Another notable observation of the traffic distribution is that with all five countries, mobile was the device of choice for accessing the site. Amazon's possibilities are endless in terms of using a tool like SEMrush to analyse their online presence and determine where improvements are necessary.

AMAZON AND BIG DATA

This wouldn’t get to the core of what the Amazon brand is all about though. A well-established brand like Amazon uses Big Data Analytics. With billions of people visiting Amazon regularly, regular relational database analysis would not be able to handle this volume. 

Especially when considering that big data analytics is a primary tool driving Amazon’s recommender engine. In fact, Amazon has it own seo algorithm. Amazon SEO is the practice of optimizing your product listings for Amazon’s ranking algorithm, A9. These optimizations include using keywords (or search terms) in a product listing’s title, uploading high-quality photos, setting competitive prices, and more. (Berry, 2021)

AMAZON SEO

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so rather than explaining how the algorithm works I share from my own account what happens when I conduct a product search.

Notice anything? By simply typing in iPhone look at the recommended options provided? Doesn't this resemble a Google search? Now let's see what happens when I make a selection.

I decided to select iphone pro max case

You will notice that I can select the brand  I want and then price range I'm looking for. Once this is done I will get more options to choose the material, my preferred seller, whether I want a new or used case and the case color. Once I've made my selection and I choose the one I want to buy, this is the screen I'll see:

So now I can decide if I want to buy now or add to my cart. Once I'm here whenever making a purchase I usually see a people also search for or buy with, like this:

So what we see is an example of both the Amazon seo and recommender algorithm as work. I was able to get options to assist me with my search and before making the final purchase I was provided with options to complement my choice based on purchases of other users. This is a prime example of how Amazon uses web analytics and seo to maintain its position as the highest ranked ecommerce retailer worldwide.

Until next time, I'll leave with this brief video on the fundamentals of Amazon's big data recommendation system.

References:

Berry, S. (2021, March 11). What Is Amazon SEO? (And How to Rank Higher on Amazon With SEO). Retrieved from https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/what-is-amazon-seo/

Ecommerce Platforms. (n.d.). What is Amazon? Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/467s9ebd

Galov, N. (2022, April 6). What Percentage of Internet Traffic Is Mobile in 2022? Retrieved from https://webtribunal.net/blog/mobile-percentage-of-traffic/#gref

Lahey, C. (2020, December 15). What Is Bounce Rate and What Is a Good Rate? Retrieved from https://www.semrush.com/blog/bounce-rate/

 

Similarweb.com (n.d.). Top Websites Ranking. Retrieved from

https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/category/e-commerce-and-shopping/

ON PAGE SEO: SEMRUSH

 

In this blog post we’ll look at what may be deemed a very critical element of web analytics; search engine optimization (seo). What is it? In a nutshell, it’s the different tactics used to enhance or improve a website’s performance in search rankings on a search engine results page (SERPs). Think of the numerous Google searches you would have conducted. Have you ever paid attention to which results appear at the top of page? Or even asked yourself how results end up in the number one position? That is, the search results that don’t have Ad at the top left, indicating that it was paid for. We won’t focus on these in the post. We’re only concerned with the results that appear organically. Meaning results that utilised techniques to optimise their positioning.

GOOGLE SEARCHES

Based on the searches you’ve conducted, ever found results on the first page only having links to the same company or brand? Try this, the next time you’re on Google conducting a search, take the time to conduct this micro experiment. For your first search, type YouTube in the search bar, then review the results, then type online video platforms in the search bar. Do you see any results for YouTube on the first page? Now try this, in the Google search bar, type liquid makeup, look at the results. Then type liquid foundation, do you see a difference? 

YouTube would have dominated the first page of your initial search. Though it appears at the top of the listing for online video platforms,

it’s not included among the results on the first page. In the second search conducted, Amazon  held the first two positions after the images and people also ask

followed by target in your search for liquid makeup, but when you searched for liquid foundation, this wasn’t the case, as www.byrdie.com would have been in the top ranked position.

Should this be important to marketers? The answer is a resounding, YES! Is it possible to operate in our digital age without understanding these results? Short answer, yes, it is. However, given the number of media channels available, the dominance of social media and the prevalence of handheld devices to access information, marketers will need to understand how search engine ratings work and how they need to rank for them if they wish their websites to remain competitive. In other words, it is a fundamental element that can be capitalised on to ensure your intended target audiences are receiving your messages, in the designated places you have positioned them. To do otherwise, in this digital age, is tantamount to giving over your market share to your competitors and negating your growth potential.

With this understanding, we now need to look at how we should approach this critical element of web analytics. It is mind boggling the amount of information available everywhere on this topic. As a marketer, it’s not only important to know what seo is, but how best to maximise your efforts to strengthen your online presence by generating increased traffic to your website. If this sounds technical, it's because this is no easy feat. 

IMPORTANCE OF KEYWORDS

This week I learnt the value of keywords and their role as one of the strategies that adds value to seo. Keywords and keyword phrases may be considered a website’s lifeblood and is essential to improving a site’s rankings. Moreover, when used effectively they serve to position a company/brand in the highly sought-after top position on SERPs.

SEMRUSH

Those of us who are more the creatives of the marketing industry may not have the web development and technical skills required to navigate the minefield of the HTML in the background our company’s/brand’s websites. Fortunately, there are tools available to aid in this endeavor and one such tool that consistently appears at the top of the rankings is SEMrush.

This software is considered an all-in-one marketing tool and is ideal in helping you manage and monitor the performance of your campaigns. But one of the most compelling arguments for this product is its competitor analysis. One of the more tedious assignments for marketers is monitoring the competition. If you happen to have the advantage of being a part of a very small niche industry; then monitoring your competition may be slightly easier. But for many of us, this is not the case. And when the field is vast, competition monitoring can be daunting. Hence, every competitive advantage should be sought to tackle this task and the SEMrush software, provides just this competitive edge.

Imagine you’re a newcomer to the cosmetics industry and you intend to launch your own liquid makeup. Think of the competition you’d have to face with already established brands like Revlon, Maybelline, L’Oréal, and Estee Lauder for example. In addition to competing with store brands like NYX and Morphe. Now think back on our earlier Google search experience where Amazon enjoyed the top two rankings in this category. Amazon is a GIANT and attempts to outrank it, would be futile. So how would you even begin to launch your product and make a splash instead of a ripple, even with the advantage of social media platforms at your fingertips? 

The best way to stand out in this already saturated market is to find a yet untapped segment or create your own niche. How do you do this, by letting software do the work. It would help you determine which keywords would be more attainable for you to rank for to best position your new brand.  Specificity in research would therefore be optimal. In this case, the ingredients of your product could be used as a selling point, along with the fact that its best suited to women of colour, who have oily skin and are more mature in age. So, by plugging in  phrases like women of colour liquid makeup or best makeup for darker skin mature women, you should yield more manageable results than what was obtained in your earlier search. Though considered on the pricey side with a $100 monthly fee, SEMrush allow for full service digital marketing assistance that's guaranteed to increase your company's online presence.

IN CLOSING

Until next time, I’ll leave you with this link to WebFX which breakdowns the benefits of SEMrush as a fundamental tool to search engine optimisation.

Reference: 

WebFX. (n.d.) What Is SEMrush and Why Should I Use It for My Business? Retrieved from https://www.webfx.com/digital-marketing/glossary/what-is-semrush/

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: A CASE FOR CONVERSATION VS CONTENT

As a digital media student, understanding marketing in our ever changing digital age can be somewhat overwhelming when considering the body of information that is available 24-7. With so many avenues for information, which can be accessed within seconds of an occurrence, where do you really begin in deciphering how to determine which marketing channels to use, how should marketing budgets and resources best be allocated, etc.

This week I'm tasked with discussing social media platforms and their impact on marketing efforts. How do marketers select which of the respective social media platforms to use as their primary marketing channel? In addition, based on the Catherine Novak's blogpost on SocialMedia Today,  Why Conversation, not Content, is King, do I agree with this position that its conversation, not content that is king? I think this question would best be answered by understanding that there has been a significant shift in how messages are reaching consumers, not just with the dominance of social media, but also due to the fact that there has been a significant increase in user generated content (UGC), which evidence has shown, at times, does more for a brand than its own marketing efforts. 

While there're multiple examples of successful social media campaigns that can aid in furthering this discussion. One of my favourites, and to my mind, an excellent case study of customer engagement, is HBO's now cancelled hit series

HBO introduced its  series in what can be considered one of the more brilliant marketing initiatives ever. In May of 2008, prior to the airing of the first ever episode which premiered September 7, 2008, "cryptic letters in black envelopes sealed with red wax" were sent "to people who might generously be described as pillars of the goth community: horror film bloggers, subscribers to the horror movie magazine Fangoria and the like." (Quenqua, 2008) Though the letters were written in a dead language, the recipients' enthusiasm garnered participation to translate them, write blog posts and cultivated discussions resulting in a designated web site hosted by a beautiful vampire. This is a very good example of how UGC successfully added value to a brand. 

The creativity to establish this phenomenon I consider to be among one of the best marketing strategies and was a wise gamble for HBO. This afforded HBO to enable UGC to generate the buzz for the upcoming series. Yes, there was a cost to the production and dissemination of the cryptic letters, but the success factor outweighed anything HBO could have done to introduce its series and capture viewers attention. So much so that the outdoor advertising and vending machines displaying the Tru Blood drink 

had many persons attempting to buy this product not understanding that it did not exist. (Rice, 2008) This was however remedied by Comic-Con 2009.

The marketing strategy introducing the series was so successful that by Season 2, HBO sought to strike gold again and with Digital Kitchen won the coveted Best In Show award for their Hacking Reality Campaign. Their work integrated digital and traditional media, with online, outdoor, print, stunts and a series of brand partnerships." This marketing effort resulted in "episode 1, being the most-watched show on HBO On Demand, with an average of 12.6 million gross viewers per episode for the season, up 62% over the previous year." (Lynpd, 2010) 

This award winning marketing strategy saw HBO and Digital Kitchen creating faux ads with the company logo of real brands showing the ads targeting 'vampires'. This was an excellent promotional campaign. Of course, by this time, HBO had created their Facebook fan page. So what we see is that for Season 1, HBO choose to utilise the blogosphere as the social media platform of choice to launch their series and by Season 2, they opted to combine the social media platform Facebook with traditional and digital media to further the show's awareness.

By Season 3, HBO changed yet again, this time using social media platform, Twitter. "The show’s marketing team launched a digital media campaign centered on “The True Blood Ultimate Fan Experience.” The show's Twitter account, shared clues where dedicated fans could score tickets to any of the 50 movie theatres nationwide for the midnight screening of the series. The lucky fans got an exclusive sneak peak at Season 3 along with a simulcast of the show's creator Allan Ball and the cast. (Shorty Awards Blog) This promotion, won HBO's True Blood, the Shorty Industry Award for best use of Twitter in a marketing campaign.  In addition to its Twitter promotion, HBO also partnered with Medialets producing a mobile campaign catering solely to iPhone users. Here's a video that shows what happened when iPhone users opened participating apps. (Griwert, 2010)

What was the conversion of these marketing strategies?  5 million viewers tuned in to watch the Season 3 premier, an increase of 1.3 million more viewers than the Season 2 premier.

Keeping with their social media platform theme to drum up interest for a new Season. The summer before Season 4, HBO launched the "Immortalise yourself" campaign. "The application allowed users to enter the show through an interactive video sequence. By answering a few simple questions and connecting the app to their social graph, users appeared throughout the original video content right alongside the True Blood cast." (Shorty Awards, n.d.) The ability for fans to be immersed in a virtual reality episode of True Blood through Facebook, resulted in the True Blood Facebook fan page growing to 9 millions viewers, which showed a more than 10% increase in just this season. (ibid)

Determining which social media platform or even if it to use more than one platform has gotten easier given that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all fall under the same umbrella. While these three options are not the only social media platforms available, they are among the most popular. Moreover, monitoring the conversions on your platforms will allow for adjustments as deemed necessary. 

To Novak’s point of why conversation not content is king, I believe HBO’s True Blood crystallises this viewpoint. The series’ success can be attributed largely to the conversations viewers engaged in across multiple social media platforms. And while HBO’s content sparked the flame that later erupted into the massive fan base, it was indisputably the conversations between these fans that led to HBO’s True Blood real success.

Until next time, I leave you with this short video that discusses HBO’s True Blood as a fundamental case study.

References:

Griwert, K. (2010, August 6). True Blood demonstrates potential of rich media mobile ad units. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://www.brafton.com/news/true-blood-demonstrates-potential-rich-media-mobile-ad-units-800016485/

Lynpd. (2010, October 3). TRUE BLOOD'S AD CAMPAIGN FOR S 2 "WINS BEST IN SHOW". Retrieved on February 15, 2022, from https://www.trueblood-online.com/true-bloods-ad-campaign-for-s2-wins-best-in-show/

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Rice, L. (2008, July 22). Ad campaign for HBO's 'True Blood' confuses thirsty consumers. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://ew.com/article/2008/07/22/tru-blood-campa/

Shorty Award Blog. (2011, April 12). HBO'S True Blood Wins the Shorty Industry Award for Best Use of Twitter in a Marketing Campaign. Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://blog.shortyawards.com/post/4563684715/hbos-true-blood-wins-the-shorty-industry-award

Shorty Awards. (n.d.). THE 7TH ANNUAL SHORTY IMPACT AWARDS IS OPEN FOR ENTRIES! Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://shortyawards.com/4th/hbo-true-blood-immortalize-yourself

Quenqua, D. (2008, July 15). The Vampires Are Coming, but Only After Months of Warnings. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/business/media/15adco.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap

WEB METRIC: UNIQUE VISTOR METRIC

Last time we looked at the page visit metric and why it's considered a foundational metric. In this blog posting, we'll delve into the "unique visitor metric".  When you visit a website or blog for the first time, you are not only considered a new visitor, but also a unique visitor. If you leave the page and return days or even weeks later, you'll still be considered a unique visitor. This type of metric is referred to as visitor characterisation metric. 

While foundational metrics provide the basis for which all other metrics can be based.  Visitor characterisation metrics afford you the opportunity to truly understand whom your visitors are, where they spend their time on your page, how long they're on your site, how much time is spent on specific pages, buying behaviour, etc. 

Let's take someone who loves to travel, but prefers visiting European countries. Though there are many destinations available, this individual tends to frequent those websites that provide details on European travel. So if you own a travel agency, for example, knowing that Visitor Doe visits your site every quarter, but only conducts searches related to European destinations that may result in ticket sales for these destinations is important. 

It's generally accepted that marketing messages are intended to reach as wide an audience as possible.  This being the case, why would it be meaningful for businesses to track their unique visitors? Going back to the travel agency example, why should it matter to the travel agency that Visitor Doe, spends more time on travel packages for European destinations and not just that Visitor Doe is a repeating visitor who has already booked vacations with its agency? 

Now consider yourself to be the owner of a travel agency, and the metric that your agency tracks is not unique visitors but only page visits. Visitor Doe visits your website and clicks on the European destinations tab. Visitor Doe visits your website six times in two weeks, spending roughly 30 minutes with each visit. Your page visits metric also reveals that there is interest in both airline and cruise packages for European destinations. Your agency would therefore be of the view that you've had six visitors who could become potential customers for European destinations packages. Consequently, you may determine that you need to capitalise on what appears to be an upsurge in interest for European destinations by sweetening the packages offerings. Mistakenly of this view,  and utilising the web analytics data for page views you adjust your European packages, maybe lowering some prices in anticipation this will attract more visitors to your site and result in conversions (ticket/cruise purchases), which could also lead to referrals. The analytics tracking solely page visits, provides you with a flawed measurement. This type of inaccurate data results in poor decision making which can only hurt your travel agency. 

That's why, tracking unique visitors is crucial. If the travel agency had unique visitors as a metric, it would have been known that rather than six different visitors in two weeks, there was only one visitor who needed to be persuaded into conversion.

Imagine the difference if Visitor Doe was greeted by, Hello Visitor Doe how may we help you today? Tracking unique visitors allows for a level of personalisation with your visitor (customer). Customer (visitor) engagement through personalisation, should be considered a fundamental element of any marketing strategy; making the metric unique visitor among the most significant for any website or blog.

So until next time, I'll leave you with this short YouTube video that breaks down the metric unique visitor. 

WEB METRIC: PAGE VISITS

Peter Drucker is attributed with saying "you can't improve what you can't measure". There can be no truer words in the world of marketing. No matter how good you think your marketing strategy is there'll always be room for improvement. Even if you're at the top of your respective industry, resting on your laurels is a sure way to lost customers, market share and eventually impact your profit margin.

So what's to keep you at the top of your game? Data, data and even more data!

Compiling and understanding data related to your customers and their behaviour is as essential to your success as the products or services you offer. This is even more so if you operate in the digital realm. Even though, websites may now be considered a 'traditional' tool for business interaction, with the explosion of social media, websites remain a critical way to engage with your customers. Case and point, leading online retailer Amazon or streaming giant Netflix. They both have very successful apps and a strong social media presence, but neither one has removed their website as an additional medium for interacting with their customers. Could it be that data, has proven that their websites are still crucial to their operations?

How can data be used in relation to a website? Simple, data comes in the form of web metrics. According to Google, web metrics is defined as, a variety of measurements made on a given website in order to better track its performance and statistics." Mastery of this key feature will aid your business in growing from strength to strength. 

Page visits is one such metric your business may wish to track. A page visit means that a visitor reached your page from an external source. It could be that utilisation of a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing was used and your website or blog came up, resulting in a page visit. Or visitors could input your url taking them directly to your site. This would also count as page visits. 

A page visit is considered one of the four foundational metrics of web analytics. If you are a homeowner, you would understand that your home started with the building of your house. A house can only start with a foundation, from which all other elements are erected. Building a house doesn't start with the electrics, as this is among the final stages of the building process. So too, your house did not become your home until furnishings were added, you moved in and personalised it to match your unique style. Even if you bought your house furnished, that was the foundation. You then built on this, making it your own. All things must start with a foundation, web metrics is therefore no different.

Being able to track page visits will allow you to know the count of persons visiting the different pages on your site and which external sources are leading visitors to these pages. Why is this important? Understanding this, will enable you to better target and/or adjust your marketing messages either to improve or increase this metric. At the end of the day, a business' main goal is to attract customers and retain them. Analysis of visits to your page is fundamental to achieving this. 

Until next time, I'll leave you with this HubSpot blog that shares insights into this metric: https://tinyurl.com/57z32bns