Classes offered by the Nevada Small Business Development Center

I’ve been asked by the Nevada Small Business Development Center to teach a couple evening seminars focusing on online solutions for small businesses.

It is an honor to be asked and I’m excited to have a chance to talk about websites, search engine optimization, and email marketing with small business owners. The classes are inexpensive and I promise to answer as many questions as possible in the time allotted as well as getting through my entire curriculum.

You can register for the class on the NSBDC’s website. Register now. Space is limited.

Class Information (I’ll post detailed descriptions later this week):

Utilizing the Internet for Small Business
Date: October 30, 2007
Time: 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: REDFIELD Campus, 18600 Wedge Parkway, Nell J Redfield Bldg A, Room 213
City: Reno
Fee: $25
Registration: Online or (775) 784-1717

Search Engine Optimization
Date: November 6, 2007
Time: 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: REDFIELD Campus, 18600 Wedge Parkway, Nell J Redfield Bldg A, Room 213
City: Reno
Fee: $25
Registration: Online or (775) 784-1717

Email Marketing
Date: November 13, 2007 – November 13, 2007
Time: 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: REDFIELD Campus, 18600 Wedge Parkway, Nell J Redfield Bldg A, Room 213
City: Reno
Fee: $25
Registration: Online or (775) 784-1717

What do web metrics mean to your website?

Last week Nielsen//Netratings accounced that they were changing the metrics they use in their NetView (website analytics/metrics) service (View Press Release – PDF). They are going to look at the time users spend on a website, versus the number of pages viewed to measure a website’s audience/traffic. They cite AJAX interfaces (which don’t create a traditional request to deliver new content) and streaming applications like Flash based video players (think YouTube) as the reasons for the switch.

This change in metrics highlights a great point about website metrics in general – a metric that is helpful in trending user experience on one website may be useless for tracking user experience on another. There is a great article on this in eWeek (The More We’re Told, the Less We Know ).

This point that Evan Schuman makes in his article is that before you can sort out what metrics have meaning for your website, you need to understand your audience. Once you know what your audience is looking for in your website, then you can start tracking the corresponding metrics to that kind of user experience.

I also think that an intimate knowledge of how your website works is also essential for understanding what website metrics are telling you.

The most important thing to remember about website metrics is that they aren’t hard and clear truths about what is happening on your website. It is best to think in terms of trends and fluidity – otherwise your view of what you are doing on the web can easily become myopic. It is always best to talk to a group of live customers and clients (if you can) instead of relying solely on website statistics.

Any good strategic plan for your website must have a way to measure changes. You will get the best results from your website strategy and marketing efforts if you get as specific with your metrics as you do with your goals and objectives.

Google Analytics is upgrading

Today Google announced that it will be rolling out a new version of its analytics package to all current analytics accounts over the next couple weeks. I couldn’t be more excited. Google Analytics is an awesome (free) package that allows you to easily gather serious data about your website traffic. If you haven’t tried it – you should – and what do you have to lose? It’s free.

Two new features have been included that I have been wanting since I started using Google analytics.

1) Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format. Exporting data from Google Analytics in a presentable format has always been an issue. Being able to schedule emails of PDF format reports? Now that is extra exciting.

and

2) Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others. Finally. Now you can tailor the report view to the items that you, your company, or you clients need the most. Awesome.

Check out the full post – they even have a tour.

Thank you Google. Can I have my upgrade tomorrow?

Live in the real world

I was reading an article posted on an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) website called The Value of Offline Publicity (Warning: that site is so busy with information, buttons, ads, and banners you might become disoriented). I enjoyed the article for one main reason – it was not your usual SEO topic. The author talks about your website being an extension of you or your company and thus what you do can have profound impact on your site.

He has a point.

I felt his methods concentrated on making your business into a ‘cult of personality’ where the business is an extension of the person (his article makes the assumption that most sites are one person operations – and in the world of knowledge blogging that is the truth). I’ll admit that I think his ideas are very effective – I have promotional strategies very similar to several of his bullet points – but I think that his six tips are just the tip of the iceberg. What he is talking about with a couple examples is a whole paradigm of thinking. It’s the idea that your PR and marketing is all tied together. Each piece of your marketing feeds each other piece.

Too often businesses cut their website and online strategy off from the real world. In SEO circles this is especially true, SEO tends to gets really geeky – it likes to live completely in the head. Marketing needs to be a whole body – what you do online effects the real world and vice versa – and with a little planning you can nudge things in the right direction and sometimes get the perfect storm – buzz synergy that feeds on itself.

I always tell clients – what you talk about to your clients in person, you need to talk about online. What you do in your business you need to talk about online. What you are doing online you need to talk up to your clients. If you don’t want to do this – chances are something isn’t going well in the business or you are trying to be something you are not either in reality or virtual reality.

What good is a brochure without a web address on it? or a website that never talks about print publications? The idea is to have one voice – just because you cross into a different medium doesn’t mean your voice changes. How you say things will change – what you are saying won’t. If it does you have a dangerous disconnect that will disorient your customers.

Now by all means follow his advice – become famous – just remember that all your agents (print, pr, tv, radio, web) need to talk about what you are famous for – and they need to talk up each other as well.