Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
MARKETING IN PRACTICE
few fee-based tools include Omniture to Webtrends. QUESTION: What are the types of
items to examine when analyzing a website? ANSWER: T e key items to analyze
are as follows: • Bounce Rate—T e bounce rate is the percent of visitors that land on a page and do not advance (dead-end) or hit the back but on. T is is a fl ag that the initial landing page may not be meeting visitors' expectations and should be adjusted to bet er draw them into the website and visit multiple pages.
• Exit Page—Analyzing the primary page where visitors are exiting is key. You will want to examine exit pages to see if you've failed to deliver some type of needed information.
• Click Path—This represents the traffi c fl ow that website visitors take aſt er arriving at the website. Looking at the path of the user will tell you a lot about how visitors navigate your site.
• Average Length of Session—Over time, you want to increase the average number of pages per visitor and expand the length of time the visitor spends on your site. T e longer they are on your site, the more likely it is that their needs are being met.
• Unique Visitors and Average Number of Pages Per Unique Visitor—You will want to monitor the total reach of your website by monitoring the number of unique visitors in combination with the average number of pages per unique visitor. For example, a person that comes to your website fi ve times in one day accessing fi ſt y pages only counts as one unique visitor. QUESTION: If a fi rm performs the
proper analytics work and draws the conclusion the site is not generating enough leads, what is recommended? ANSWER: Analyzing the source of
website traffic is a key task for firms looking to further improve results. Analyzing traffi c sources answers the
questions: How are people fi nding your website? And how does that compare to other accounting firm sites? For example, what percent of the website traffi c is coming from search engines based on your site's secured placements in Google, Yahoo, and Bing? What are other traffic sources—QuickBooks Certifi ed Pro Advisor directory, online yellow pages, and social media outlets such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and blog? T ere are still other sources to consider like your Local Chamber of Commerce, placement in local accounting associations, and miscella- neous articles that have been published online. Lastly, how much is coming from advertising sources like Google Adwords, Yahoo, and Bing? Based on all this, you can examine which sources are generating the most qualifi ed leads and adjust accordingly. For such a large-scale task, it may be easier to enlist a web analysis or SEO expert. QUESTION: What other areas are
important to analyze to improve website productivity? ANSWER: Another area to inves-
tigate is broken links to a missing page and error pages. In other words, you want the analysis to highlight how many pages are coming up as broken links (e.g., page not found). Most sites have broken links now and again, but it's critical to make sure they are fi xed quickly.
QUESTION: How can a firm
identify website pages that are not per- forming well? ANSWER: T e key indicator for a poorly performing page is a high bounce rate or high percentage of exits. Most analytics packages provide a report of the top exit pages for you to monitor. Because websites are the new front
door to your fi rm, it's more important than ever to ensure that your door is working properly, is aesthetically pleasing, and always inviting! You not only want people to come in, but you also want them to stay. T e longer a visitors is on your site, the more likely
they are to engage and eventually contact you. By properly analyzing your website,
you are better equipped to apply needed enhancements and stay in front of issues, such as broken links or poorly
designed pages. Just like your fi rm, you want to keep your site running effi - ciently. Web analytics off ers a blueprint to do just that.
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March 2012 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 31
Technology Advisor. The CPA