As a small business owner you may not have time to focus on doing the analytics yourself but even if you hire someone to keep an eye on how people are using your site you will benefit from a basic understanding of analytics. You paid money for your site. You want your site to earn its keep.

Here is what you need to know about analytics whether you decide to do the analysis yourself or hire someone to interpret the data for you. (I’m assuming you have a professional looking web site already even if you used a template with your own domain name and you have an email account using the domain name.)

How to get started:

First, make sure you have a specific goal for your website

Then create a straight forward, easy to follow analytics plan that will measure whether you are achieving that goal.

Your plan should include:

1. Getting a Google Analytics account.
• When you create the account you will be given code to add to your site. Add the code yourself or hire a consultant to add the code to your site.
2. Learn how to use the following reports:
• Top Key Phrases from Search Engines
• Top Referring URL’s
• Site Content Popularity
• % of Visitors Who Visit the Home Page
• Site Bounce Rate
3. A simple Search Engine Optimization plan. Start simple, you can always add complexity later or hire someone to add it for you. To get started I recommend:
• Ask existing customers what search term they would use to find your company on the web
• Check the Title at the top of your web page. Make sure it uses the search term your customers use to find you or your product on line.
• If you created your website check your meta tag and make sure it includes the search terms you customers use to find you on the web. If someone created the site for you ask them what meta tag they used for you, it should have been set up for you. If not, have them include it. You shouldn’t have to pay for this.

As your business grows, you will have less time to devote to handling your Analytics Plan yourself, but the good news is you will have the money to either hire a full time employee to work on getting the most business out of your site or you will be able to hire a consultant to do the work for you.

Please share your ideas for how small businesses can use analytics to achieve their web goals and get the most out of their investment.

I have been working on a website, “The Doha Blues,” a book to be released on November 5, 2009. During the next few posts I will be documenting the development of a website for his book and the evolution of the online marketing plan. The site is designed to be maintained by the site owner after the initial book launch. Therefore it is being designed using GoDaddy.com’s WebSite Tonight. I will be reporting the entire experience in this blog for the next month or so and will share lessons learned along the way as well as highlighting the pros and cons of WebSite Tonight for anyone looking to create their own site using this program. (The StrategicIdeas.com site by the way is a WordPress blog hosted by GoDaddy.com.)

There are limitations with WebSite Tonight, as on all such WYSIWYG web creation programs. While the pre-arranged templates are great for non-designers (although it helps if you have some background in web design to get the most out of these programs,) there are some limitations that are frustrating. The biggest issue which I’m still working through is the lack of a good internal search function. I’m still evaluating various internal site searches to find one that works well for this site and with WebSite Tonight. Another limitation is the quirky way in which space is created in the tables. Even cleanup of the generated HTML code does not seem to allow the user to eliminate unwanted spaces. (For example see the space between the Search box and the ordering icons. Ideally there would be a way to have the Search box to the right and on the same row as the Social Media icons, but the program does not appear to allow the user to do this.

This image above is the second version of the home page and incorporates ordering information on the top page. In addition, links have been added to social media sites that are heavily used by the target market: academics, policy makers and people interested in following and understanding the World Trade Organization.

If you are interested in how to build a good book web site then I highly recommend reading  ”What to include on author websites” posted on The Book Publicity Blog August 9, 2009.  (Another tip: read the companion article, “What not to include on author websites.”) I learned about both of these articles from the publisher of The Doha Blues and the advice is on target for any website.

Next article: decisions about which social media sites to target.