Today, websites are more critical to businesses success than ever before. Unfortunately, many have limited understanding to what a website should be, and more importantly, lack the knowledge of what a functional, fully-optimized website can deliver. Many under-estimate the value of going beyond a website that looks pretty. In order for a website to succeed in today’s digital focused world, we must go beyond design.
7. dis·as·ter - a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural
catastrophe, that causes great damage
hy·per·bo·le - exaggerated statements or claims not meant to
be taken literally.
19. How to Avoid
Don’t ever check this option
Do development work on a
development environment
site:domain search
Annotate design and other site
updates and check back regularly
on performance
Create GA alerts
26. How to Avoid
Spend the time (Device, Browser, OS,
User Goal Paths)
Invest in tools to help automate the
process
Get different perspectives
Review Browser and OS Statistics
Create/Utilize a checklist
Crawl your site for broken/development
links
Have a test plan
39. How to Avoid
Don’t rely solely on the speed tools, review
actual site metrics for accurate measurement:
– TTFB, DOM (load time), # of requests to
server, total number of resources
(preferably under 2MB total)
Follow best practices
Balance design with functionality
Image Compression
Minify and combine CSS/ JS files
Utilize Lazy Load
44. How to Avoid
Do user testing, even if it’s just a
small group
Ask your customers that they think
Track User Behavior
Test, Measure, Repeat
Use data to back up hypothesis
47. How to Avoid
Gather all information as early as
possible
Ask for a list of items needed from
the development company:
– Domain Hosting
– DNS Hosting and Records
– Email Hosting and Records
– # of Domains
Don’t move domains close to
launch
Adapt: even the best laid plans…
49. How to Avoid
Do not redirect a whole domain or
place an acquired company on a
subdomain
Crawl the site
Mapping and not implementing
Create custom 404 Pages
Spend time planning and mapping
redirects
Use Plugin or Module to mass
upload
54. Do the best you can until you know better. Then when
you know better, do better.
Maya Angelou
55. Steps to Take
Dedicate time/budget to website
enhancements
Monitor and track conversion
points
Use data to make informed
decisions
Ask for user feedback
Review what the competition is
doing and “borrow” and build on
cool ideas
Keep up with changes in design
and functionality
62. Summary
Don’t ever check the “Discourage
Search Engines from Indexing
Box”
Be hesitant to eliminating pages
from your site/new site without
doing some research
Have a Testing Plan and spend
time on it
Don’t ignore site speed – it matters
When it comes to user interaction,
be careful in making assumptions
Be prepared for launch day
Have a content strategy
Your website is never done
79. Target Customer
Who is your target customer, and are you including elements on your
website to meet their needs?
Round 4
80. Strategies
What are some strategies you can implement to get your team on
the same page when it comes to making updates to your website, or
even its overall purpose?
Round 5
81. Website Audit
Do you regularly audit your website? If so, what elements do you
look at?
Round 6
87. Technical - Site Speed
Why It Matters:
– Since July 2018, page speed is
now a ranking factor for mobile
searches.
– Users don’t want to wait.
How To Look:
– Google Page Insights
– GT Metrix
91. Technical – Mobile Friendly
Why It Matters
– Google Mobile-First Index
• No longer looking at
desktop version
– December 2018, 1/2 of pages
are from Google indexing
content using mobile-first
How to Look:
– Google Mobile-Friendly Test
93. Usability – Mobile
Why It Matters:
– Mobile test isn’t just for Google
but for users.
“Fat Finger”
Back to Top
Break points
Text readability
Mobile Forms
96. Usability – Navigation
Can Users Find What They Are
Looking For ?
How to See:
– Google Analytics - Look to see
what people searched with your
website site search functionality
to see what they couldn’t find
through the navigation easily.
98. Usability - Inspectlet
Are Users Able to Find What They
Need?
Are Elements of Your Website Not
Working Properly?
What to Look at:
– Repeat Scrolling
– Rage Clicks
– Form Interaction
99.
100.
101. Content – Relevance
Are Users Engaged With Your
Content?
What to Look At:
– Google Analytics
• Time on Site
• Bounce Rate
• Pages Per Visit
103. Content – Informational
How are visitors interreacting with
your content?
Is your content guiding them to the
next step?
What to Look At:
– Google Analytics
• Behavior Flow
• Page Path
• Entrances / Exits
105. Content – Inspectlet
Things to Think Through:
– Are visitors getting lost?
– Are buttons taking them where
they expected or are they going
back
– Do they seem to be hunting
down certain information that
they can’t find?
– Repeatedly Scrolling Up and
Down?
Using Inspectlet for Content Audit
109. SEO - Meta Data
Four Categories:
– Automated
– Spammy
– Non-Existent
– Optimized
110. SEO – Crawl Errors
Why Does It Matter?
– Bad Experience
– Keeps PageRank flowing to
your site
111. SEO – Indexing
Why it Matters:
– Lets you know if Google can
find your website pages
– Shows you URLs that are
getting most authority
– Test specific URLs to see if
indexed
How to Look:
– Google Site Search
• Site:www.website.com
– Google Search Console
• Sitemaps
113. SEO – URL Structure - BAD
Don’t be generic
– https://domain.com/page/about
Make sure a user can understand
what your page is about by looking at
the URL
– https://domain.com/whiskeyisGood
/irishWhiskeyForHealth/Whiskey
Avoid keyword repetition within
URLs - spammy URL structure
– https://domain.com/whiskey/iris
h-whiskey/jameson-irish-
whiskey/jameson-irish-
whiskey-history
Minimize Dynamic URL Strings
– https://domain.com/cat/?cid=70
78.
114. SEO – URL Structure - GOOD
Write for both users and search
engines
Use Keywords
Use File Path Structure
Use Hyphens over Underscores
Example: https://domain.com/gear-
motors/5hp-dc-motor
115. SEO – Traffic Analysis
Key items to look at:
– What organic traffic is branded
vs non branded
– What pages get most organic
entrances
– Organic bounce rate and time
on site
116. SEO – Traffic Analysis
Branded Vs Non-Branded
Branded Non-Branded
117. SEO – Traffic Analysis
Landing Pages
– Look for high
Home Page
entrances!
– Pair with keyword
ranking data to
see what
keywords rank
these pages
Before we look at some real world examples of common disasters from my 10 years of being a marketer. Lets look at some famous fails in marketing history.
According to The Times, the post said the company would promise pizzas to the first 350 people who shared their Domino's tattoos, adding, "To those with appointments scheduled for later, we recommend canceling them."
In early 2011, a tweet was sent out from Kenneth Cole's Twitter account trying to promote their new spring collection. No big deal, right? Except when it's offensive, insensitive, and offends millions of people. The tweet was a poor play on the political turmoil happening at the time in Egypt:
The tweet came from the Kenneth Cole corporate Twitter account -- actually, from the chairman himself, as indicated by the "KC" in the tweet.
The company received negative feedback immediately, and they soon took the tweet down in response and apologized to anyone offended by the tweet. The lesson social media marketers can learn from this awful mistake is that humor doesn’t work if you're newsjacking something contentious.
In October 2010, Gap launched a new logo in an attempt to be more modern. Guess how long that lasted?
A whopping two days.
Gap quickly put the old logo back into place after unbelievable backlash from the public.
Gap, known for everyday basics, tried to redo their image to appeal to a more hip crowd. Unfortunately, the brand didn’t understand who its target market is -- the people who want the basics and aren't interested in trendy styles. Its loyal customers felt that Gap was changing their image for the worse, and lost a connection with the brand.
Gap was also unsuccessful at attracting the younger, trendy generation with the redesign (albeit, only a two-day redesign), resulting in a failure on two fronts with this new logo.
While it wasn't so awful for Gap to pursue a logo redesign, the lesson is simply to stay in touch with your buyer personas so you can ensure your new design reflects them. Marketers focus a lot on metrics -- for good reasons -- but never underestimate your audience's feelings towards your brand. They're harder to quantify, sure, but boy will people speak out when their sensibilities are offended.
Create custom alerts
To create a custom alert:
Sign in to Google Analytics.
Navigate to your view.
Open Reports.
Click CUSTOMIZATION > Custom Alerts.
Click Manage custom alerts.
Click + NEW ALERT.
Alert name: Enter a name for the alert. Apply to: Select the reporting views to which you want to apply the alert. Period: Select the frequency at which the alert can be generated (Day, Week, Month). A daily alert is based on daily changes in traffic/behavior; weekly and monthly alerts are based on week to week and month to month changes, respectively. Send me an email when this alert triggers: Select this checkbox if you want to receive an email when the alert is generated. If you want other people to also receive email, open the other email addresses menu, click Add new email address, enter the address and label, then click OK. The From address for the alert is noreply@google.com. [Available only in the United States] Click Set up your mobile phone to enter your mobile phone number. Alert Conditions:
This applies to: Select the dimension to which the alert applies.
Alert me when: Select the metric to which the alert applies, the condition that generates the alerts (e.g., Is less than, Is greater than), and enter the value for the condition (e.g., Is less than 20).
Click Save Alert.
Content remained the same. Added in CTAs, call outs, Product finders, etc within content to break it up
Content remained the same. Added in CTAs, call outs, Product finders, etc within content to break it up
Story of Grob…
QA Testing – every agency is going to talk about it. Talk about how they focus on it. But the truth is no one is actually giving it the time it deserves.
Cross-Browser Device Testing
Neglecting QA Cross-Browser Device Testing
We love looking at sites launched by the local competition. Especially if it’s someone we lost out on due to cost. The thing people need t realize about these projects, is that anyway you dice it, it comes down to time. If you don’t put in the time to QA Test, go through checklists, be meticulous in your testing, and have a team who truly cares and are passionate about the final result, you're going to miss things.
Top Floor’s site and being called out
Talk about metrics Sophia looks at vs site speed tools
Image optimization
Site speed checklist
1. Image Compression - for WordPress we use WP Smush Pro to optimize and compress images to reduce the total size of resources. Can make a huge impact - we’ve seen 20 MB of images go down to 2MB (results may vary!)2. Minify and combine CSS/ JS files - for WP we use Autoptimize to combine and minify CSS/ JS files, which reduces # of requests to the server3. Lazy Load - we follow best practices and lazy load images below the fold so that they are not loaded on initial page load. This has arguably the biggest impact after image compression.Could we make a note that every website speed test is different and they don’t all follow the same rules and Google Lighthouse/PageSpeed in particular changes all the time? It’s better to just look at the real results — TTFB, DOM (load time), # of requests to server and total number of resources (preferably under 2MB total, when possible
Machine Generated SEO
No SEO in sitemap discussions (whole process in general)
All items from the SEO Checklist
No continual conversion improvement or tracking
From understanding how users are finding your website to how they are interacting with your website content, a website audit can help increase the overall effectiveness of your marketing efforts. A website audit helps determine whether your website is achieving your goals, but more importantly, it provides actionable steps to take to improve it and increase performance. In this mini-workshop, you will learn how to utilize some of the tools like Google Analytics and Inspectlet to audit performance and walk away with an actionable plan to put into place.
