If your business has a website, you’d probably like to know how many visitors it gets and where they come from. Starting a website can be a costly endeavour, so it’s important to keep an eye on the potential returns you’re getting from that investment. This is where Google Analytics comes in. If you’re new to Google Analytics, it might come across as quite complicated; not least because of the detailed metrics and terminology involved. But as we’ll find out, many of the terms, metrics, and reports that you need to get to grips with are remarkably straightforward. Let’s get the biggest question out of the way first...

My 15 ways to drive unlimited website visits from social media such as facebook, twitter, Google+ etc.

It’s a real quandary that a lot of modern business owners have asked me at some point. “I have a decent social media following, but those followers don’t seem to translate into actual visits to my website – what gives?” Turning every single social follower into a regular visitor to your site may be little more than a pipe dream, but by making your social feeds attractive, interesting and engaging, you can increase your chances of a loyal following.

Now I’m more than aware this gets lots of coverage online and there is no denying the value of a claimed and complete Google Places listing.

The very fact that in most local searches Google Places over-rides organic listings and is a testament to Google’s commitment to Local. In some cases, Google Places listings will dominate over 3/4 of the page resulting in demotion of organic listings to the bottom. Google is looking to enrich its Google Places listings with fresh and relevant content all the time, announcing partnerships with trusted partner websites. They have also recently revamped their review/rating systems, previously known as Google Hotpot. The interface has been cleaned up allowing users to review businesses with just a few clicks.

My eight top tips when building an eCommerce website. Planning is probably the most important step in the process of setting up any online store, marketplace large or small.

Some experts predict that eCommerce will surpass £2 trillion in sales in the next few years - it’s the fastest growing and one of the most valuable industries. When you build your eCommerce website, you'll need to think about how the site works, how to display products and prices, and how to fulfill orders. You also need to support customers and market your site so visitors can find you. In this post I will share with you how carefully planning a eCommerce can lead to great online marketplace success!

Before you set up your eCommerce based website, ask yourself whether your business is best suited to the platform.

Entrepreneurial life can provide you with financial fulfillment and offer you the opportunity to work on something that you love, but it also requires hard work and dedication to create a successful online store.

How Much Does a Website Cost? Websites are relatively cheap to set up and the single most expensive cost you may incur is likely to be its creation, but should be seen as an investment towards your business success. When it comes to setting up a website there are a number of options open to you and the cost really depends on the type of website that you need and whether you want to build it yourself or have someone build it for you.

Your website must accurately represent your business you want users to look at it and understand your business on first glance. There are two questions you should ask yourself: 1. When was the last time you looked at your company's website? 2. When was the last time you REALLY looked at your company's website? These really are two different questions I like to ask clients. It is likely that you interact with your business website every day, but how often do you closely check every aspect? It is great practice to regularly put yourself in the place of a potential customer and consider what their opinion would be when they browse your website for the first time!

It's important to really consider the age of people that your Facebook PPC Adverts are targeting. Is it probable that they will convert? The first question to ask yourself is whether you would have the exact same marketing campaign running in Cosmopolitan, AutoTrader, and Gardening Weekly? The likely answer is no, and you should look at Facebook in the same way. You are supplied with a lot of information about a user’s demographic and their common likes and dislikes while browsing on Facebook, so it is up to you to use that information they provide wisely and implementing that within your ads.

Facebook is a well known social media platform, so make your ads eye-catching and engaging, as you want to entice people to click on them.
Facebook PPC can be tricky, especially if you are targeting a small niche. The following tips will focus on which images you should use and what to think about when writing ad copy. Hopefully, they should help you start to learn how to optimise and test your campaigns. A frequent complaint I hear regarding Facebook PPC is that a company started off getting lots of clicks, but these numbers have now declined. I like to call this 'ad fatigue'.

Pay per click is a good idea for new websites that don't rank highly in organic search, but also invest in search engine optimisation for the long term. The main difference between Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) is that traffic coming from SEO (organic) is free while traffic generated from PPC is not free (as the name implies you have to pay a cost per click). If you want to improve your chances of visitors and potential customers finding your website in the three top search engines Google, BING and Yahoo, then you'll want to consider both Organic Search and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising as part of your online digital marketing strategy.

Use an incentive strategy to generate online sales and leads. Every business relies on the quality of its sales leads commonly used term for key information about prospective customers.

The richer your data, the more effectively you'll be able to approach them with your own offering. Gathering such information can enable you to increase the success of your marketing activity, but it can be easier said than done - no matter how compelling your offer. Offering incentives can help you to create leads, and it's a tactic that is frequently used by businesses great and small, both offline and online. By looking at what works, we can formulate some tips for a successful incentive strategy.

Cookies tailor your internet session to suit you and your interests. Back in 2001-2002 I read an in-depth article on Internet privacy, from a well-known respected newspaper, and that article contained a definition of cookies. Paraphrasing, the definition went like this: "Cookies are programs that websites put on your hard disk. They sit on your computer gathering information about you and everything you do on the Internet, and whenever the website wants to it can download all of the information the cookie has collected."

Be careful not to overuse search engine techniques: write for your customers, and not the interest of being found in search engines. A successfully search optimised website is one which ranks highly in search results for relevant, popular keywords. Being in the highest-ranking sites makes it far more likely that search engine users will follow your link and visit your site, as around 90% of people don't look beyond the first page of results when they search. Making it to the first page of all three top search engines can be achieved for free with little time, effort and patience. This is the key factor when attempting to create a valuable web presence for your business online.