Better Irish Websites

Start Analyzing your Website Statistics with a powerful free tool

It’s not hot off the press, indeed, it has been around for a while, but to those that are only coming to grips with their online marketing efforts (or others that have been swamped with a thousand other things on your website to-do-list) you might have missed out on the ClickTrack Appetizer free product offering.

So what’s so special about this statistical analyzer?

I’ve been using Appetizer for the last few months on a number of websites that I own and to be quite honest this has been an invaluable tool for helping me to understand visitor behaviour. Not only is the price right (I did mention it was FREE), Appetizer allows you to easily see and understand visitor behavior in context with your website pages. You will see where visitors enter your site, where they came from, where they spend the most time, and most importantly, where they leave.

With information like this a website owner is better equipped to make informed decisions on how to improve their website.

Put a date in your calendar for “Web Analytics Day”

Spending time analyzing your website statistics can be extremely rewarding. However, obsessing over your statistics can lead to a lot of unnecessary time being wasted. That is why “Web Analytics Day” is something that can help you schedule your statistic analysis and get more from this free product. ClickTracks ‘turn on’ advanced features in your version of Appetizer once a month. During this time, you’ll be able to see and use some of the more advanced features found in the other editions (Analyzer, Optimizer, and Pro). See where, when, how frequent search engine robots are visiting your website and identify your search and keyword performance with these advanced features.

Too much of a good thing can sometimes be… too much

Starting into website analytics can be a very daunting task. It’s sometimes a very steep learning curve and you could end up scratching your head until it hurts and you decide that this is too much effort. Thankfully ClickTracks understand this and offer free online classes to help you learn and interpret your data. Helping you understand everything in your own time.

All of these features for no price. So what’s their angle? This is what the say…

“We’re convinced that other web analytics products have got it totally wrong, and we’re willing to give away a small but powerful product so you can see for yourself. And then, when your web analytics needs grow beyond what Appetizer offers, we think there’s a darn good chance you’ll buy an even more powerful web analytics package from us.”

So there is no commitment. Even if you are interested in trying out the more advance editions (Analyzer, Optimizer, and Pro) you can still take a free trial and not purchase.

You got nothing to lose so check out their website and find out more.

Search Engine Optimisation and Online Marketing Blog

Seeing as this is my first post in my new blog I think it is the best time to tell you a little about myself and what this blog is going to be about.

Firstly, my name is Barry (the owner of www.betteririshwebsites.com) and I am very interested in all things “online”.

About 8 years ago I bought into the idea that the internet was going to change the world and the way that we do business. When the dot-com bubble burst and people were left cursing the hype I was one of many people that wondered why so many companies got it wrong. The further I explored the failures of businesses that attempted to move into the extremely competitive online world the more I learned about the simple things that make a massive difference.

About 5 years ago stuffing keywords in meta tags was the only thing that most businesses did to “optimise” their websites. Some businesses didn’t even know of this less-than-complex approach to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and they failed to feature in the Search Engine results pages therefore cursing the internet for failing them.
Nobody told these businesses that you had to market your website… they just said “lets build a website and close down our shop in a couple of years once it takes off”.

These days I’m happy to say that a lot of things have changed, but unfortunately, it’s for the worse (better, but harder to do right). Google have come on the scene and provide amazingly accurate results. This is because they have over 200 algorithms that decide where your page should finish for different search terms. This means that stuffing meta tags is futile and there is a lot to learn for anyone that is starting into promoting and marketing their website.

I saw the need for a website that can provide newbies to the world of SEO and online promotion with a starting point. There are many blogs and websites “out there” that provide lots of free information on these topics and you should always be searching for as much information as possible as things in this industry change so rapidly. My advice is to subscribe to lots of different forums and blogs, don’t be scared to ask basic questions, and if you find that there are two different contradictory opinions… test them and make your own mind up.

If you are experienced in the areas of search engine optimisation and snorted in a condescending way when you read the “meta tag stuffing” phrase above I hope you can contribute to this blog and my website by sharing your knowledge with people that are starting off.

Please enjoy reading and contributing to this blog.