Improving Web Site Performance

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Increasing and maintaining targeted web site traffic volumes is an ongoing task requiring commitment from all web site stakeholders and must become part of the company's strategic planning. The processes required to maintain and increase web site traffic, and remain competitive are numerous and at times complex. The development of a long term plan is necessary to pull together the required human and financial resources. In addition to the company personal required to manage the Web Site, consideration must be given to the following specialists which are often outsourced:

• Web Developer
• Graphic Artists
• Copy writing
• Social Media
• Search Optimization
• Pay per Click
• Video production.

The teams together. What now?

Do a web site audit, for a start it doesn't have to be a comprehensive review. Check the links are working and follow the conversion funnels to look for issues which may cause visitor to abandon the conversion process.

It's time to ask the hard questions?

• Is the web site really capable of supporting the visitor and business requirements?
• You may think your content is great, But is it? Time for an honest evaluation.
• How good is the visual impact of your web site. Do layouts and graphics capture the attention or repel web site visitor. Again time for an honest evaluation.

Now that your web self honesty program is complete. Fix It. Errors have been identified solutions have been discussed and resolved and the schedule is in place. The result is a visually appealing web site which supports the needs of the web site visitor and the business.

Web Site Improvement and Promotion

I view web site performance improvement in two distinct groups; new visitors and returning visitors.

Returning Visitors

Customer and web site visitor acquisition can be an expensive process for any business. Focusing on improving current web site visitors experience by developing a program which constantly updates content which is informative, helpful and relevant to your visitors interest. Think about what additional information, services or processes needed to improve visitor experience. Answer the question. What else can we do for our web site visitors? Progressive web site improvement and exceeding visitor expectations is a prerequisite to maintaining and improving a web site's Return Visitor Statistics.

New Visitors

Acquiring new web site visitors and improving the company's web site traffic is ongoing and requires the use of numerous techniques. When the required tasks have been identified planning and scheduling are necessary to keep the program moving forward and achieving company goals. The processes used to maintain and improve the experience of returning web site visitors will also assist to improve web site traffic statistics. In addition to these processes consideration must be given to all opportunities available to your web site. With Internet competition increasing daily, web sites which are innovative in their use of the available web site promotion techniques will prosper in the long term. Develop a program which makes use of all your tools including:

• Search Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
• Pay per Click advertising

These will be the primary drivers of your program. Of course there are additional opportunity both online and off line however, it is the primary techniques which will drive additional web site traffic.

Monitoring your success

There are various ways to monitor your web site programs performance such as increased sales and conversions. But for an overview of your web site performance and to develop and understanding of the web site's traffic, Google Analytic is my tool of preference. The basic functions of Google Analytic provide enough information to provide an indication of the programs performance with easy access to information and graphs of web site traffic data. A feature I do like, is the ability to compare web site performance with web sites of similar size and niche. However, to do this it is required that you share your Google Analytic data with Google for comparative purposes.

The Last Word

An ongoing program of web site promotion and improvement is necessary to build a web site that performs well for business. The competition is constantly increasing, without developing a solid web promotion program it will be impossible to improve web site performance, there is also a high risk current web site performance will actually deteriorate with out an effective program in place.