[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If your business is dependent on your web presence, wouldn’t you love it if you could look over the shoulder of your website visitors and see what they do? Think how invaluable it would be to see what your website visitors do on your website and how they respond to the different graphics, ads and information that you have on it. Not only is this possible… it’s also freely available. All you need to do is invest some of your time.
There are several different tools that you’ll want to use and set up so that you can capture this helpful data. None of them are particularly difficult, and since several get hooked up in the same account (a Google email address), it makes things pretty easy. The only thing that might be challenging to do on your own is getting some code inserted into your website. Each of these services has their own code that will need to be put in so they can do their job, so if you don’t know how to do that, you can set up these accounts, have the info sent to your email and then figure out how to get the code placed on your website.
If you get enough of your business from your website and you need help getting things set up, we recommend that you contact studioxmedia.com to help you out.
Here are the top 5 tools that every business owner with a website should have.
#1: Gmail
This is where it all starts. Many of the tools in the industry revolve around Google because 80% of all searches are made through their search engine. With that said, everything starts with having an email account with Google – known as Gmail. If you don’t have one, make sure to set one up.
This is how you interact with Google and how Google Interacts with you. It is how you tell Google about your site and ask them to crawl it to improve your chances of ranking well in the search engines. This is where it all starts.
#3: Google Analytics
Want to know general information about the visitors to your website? This is the tool you can use to learn how people got to your website, what pages they browsed, and if they wind up making a purchase (or if they leave before they do). If you have a drop in traffic, this is where you would want to look for things like that to provide you with insight.
#4: Hotjar
Want to actually see what people do on your website? This is the tool for that. For the small business owner, it does all you need it to do for free. It shows you what part of the page is most active. You can see the areas on the page where people click the most, and you can also use a great feature to see the literal mouse movements and mouse clicks of your visitors. This can help you identify what parts of your website are seen and interacted with vs. completely overlooked! For example, if something important is being overlooked, this can help you figure out where on the page the information might be better placed.
#5: Google Optimize
Want to put all that information you’ve gathered to use and test your theories and changes? Then you need another free service called Google Optimize. This allows you to do what is called A/B testing. With A/B testing, you can show one website visitor one version of your page and another person a slightly different version and see how they respond. For example, you can use one graphic versus another, or change the color or font on a button, then see if people stay on your website longer to learn more or buy your product more often. It takes time, but this is the best way to figure out what does and doesn’t work!
While these tools can be used by anyone, sometimes, it can feel a little intimidating. You also may just be swamped with other tasks, so you don’t have the time to dedicate to all of this. That’s okay! If you need some outside help, the team at StudioX Media are our trusted web developers and we can’t recommend them more highly. They offer a discounted rate for our 2Cool Traffic School affiliates. As part of the 2Cool Family, this perk is exclusively yours, so don’t hesitate to reach out to them if you want help with things like upgrading your website or managing online marketing.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
