I came across this presentation on SlideShare.net and think it gives a good overview of how the data derived from an analytics package (like Google Analytics) can be utilised to increase the return on investment of your website.

Have you used / are you using Analytics to determine how your website can be improved?

When faced with the challenge of developing a new website it is tempting to get the new website’s development and design done and think about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) later.  By taking SEO in consideration during the initial stages of the development process you can save yourself a lot of time (and money).

The planning process is one of the most important stages in website development.  Pre-determine what type of pages you want on the website and what goals you would like to achieve through each web page.  Once that is done, create a keyword strategy for the website.  After finalising the keyword strategy, allocate keywords to each page before writing the content.  That being said, don’t force keywords into the copy.  Write for your human visitors first and once you are done, go back to see where relevant keywords can be inserted without breaking the flow of the copy.  Remember to include clear calls-to-action in your copy to ensure your visitors know what you want them to do next.

Your website’s structure plays an important role in usability.  By including a site map you will not only help human users to easily find what they are looking for but it will also indicate to search engines how they should index your website.  As a marketing tool a website should show return on investment hence the goal is to ensure that the website has a high conversion rate.  By measuring how visitors interact and engage with the website one can achieve the best possible conversion rate through continuous testing and tweaking.

Last week it was announced that Facebook surpassed Google as the number one most visited website in the US. A Facebook fan page is still a popular option for businesses to reach their consumers on Facebook and AllFacebook.com lists a number of ways to monitor your Facebook page’s traffic whilst Webdigi.co.uk provides step-by-step instructions on how to set-up Google Analytics on your fan page. According to the article Webdigi has managed to successfully install Google Analytics on their fan pages and can track visitor statistics, traffic sources, map overlays and so forth.

Even though creating a fan page is the easiest way to get your business started on Facebook another option to engage with users on Facebook is to build an app. The top Facebook apps can be seen on AllFacebook.com and it’s the apps that add value to users that are the most popular. A recent study has shown that people are 67% (on Twitter) and 51% (on Facebook) more likely to purchase products from brands they have interacted with on social media.

In the last few months Facebook has implemented a number of new changes. The latest update is to Facebook’s search function which reminds of Google’s predictive search. It has been rumoured that Facebook will add location sharing but no official announcement has been made yet by Facebook. With more than 400 million users, it doesn’t look like Facebook’s popularity is going to decline anytime soon! What do you think of their new search function and Facebook’s plans to add location sharing?