Red Kite Creative

Analytics

Weekly Links Roundup – Email Marketing Images, Heatmaps, Map Plugins, PDF Plugins

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Ever really think about using images in your email newsletter? And what kind of an impact those images might have? If not, take a look at this post about images in email marketing, you might learn a thing or two about selecting and using them more effectively.

Here’s a nifty new addon tool from Google Analytics – read this guide to using the Page Analytics Chrome plugin to see heatmaps of any website. A heat map can show you where users linger on your website – where they tend to spend the most time. Learn what sections and elements your visitors are interacting with, and which they are not.

If you have a brick-and-mortar business (or a number of them) you can use a map on your website. Maps add a great visual component and can help users find your location easily. But there are so many map plugins for WordPress – which should you use? Here’s a review of 8 WordPress map plugins to help you decide which is a good fit for your site and needs.

Finally… if you have a lot of documents on your site, you may want to check out PDF Poster. This free plugin displays PDF files right within your WordPress pages and posts and supports file downloads. See the complete review.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Lazy Loading, Tracking Downloads, Page Speed, Email Marketing for Bloggers

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Here’s an easy performance win – implement lazy loading on your site. Lazy loading means not loading images that are off-screen; they eventually load when the user scrolls down to them. Learn more about lazy loading and here’s the plugin I like for this task in WordPress sites.

If you offer white papers or other kinds of downloads on your site, did you know that you can use Google Analytics, which you’re most likely already using, to track downloads? Though GA doesn’t natively track this kind of interaction, you can set up this tracking in either Google Tag Manager (easier) or a plugin like Monster Insights, or you can add tracking code manually to your download links (harder and not recommended unless you only have a couple of downloads). Learn more in this thorough post on how to track downloads with Google Analytics.

This is cool… since Google made page speed a search engine ranking factor last year, websites in 95% of the world’s countries have become faster. In addition, we all know that a slower site tends to get abandoned more often. Turns out the opposite is also true – faster sites mean lower abandonment rates! If your WordPress site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, try our WordPress Performance Optimization service.

Do you have a brand new blog, and are you out to change the world? While you’re working on gaining loyal subscribers, learn how to build trust by using the 5 types of emails new bloggers should send to their subscribers.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Ashburn VA, Adobe Apps, Forms, Remarketing

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Ever noticed, if you’re like most Google Analytics users, how much traffic you get from Ashburn, VA? Turns out Ashburn is a big technology center – 70% of the world’s Internet traffic flows through there; about 2.2 trillion Google searches per day.

Adobe’s app subscriptions are undeniably expensive. Photoshop by itself is $33.99/mo for businesses (right now). The first time I bought Photoshop it was in a box with a bunch of other Creative Suite apps for around $600. But anyway, there are alternatives for everything. Here’s a post on 27 free alternatives to Adobe subscription apps. I can also recommend the Affinity products – not free, but solid photo and illustration tools at a low cost.

Here is an interesting post on how form length affects conversions – and it’s not just form length that can have a negative impact. Sometimes longer forms do better, it all depends on a mix of factors.

You’ve probably heard about remarketing (if you’re not using it already) – but you may not be so sure what it is. This is a great intro – learn how to get started with remarketing using Google Ads and Facebook. Basically, remarketing is like getting a second chance to connect to potential customers who already know who you are, such as people who visited your site but didn’t make a conversion.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Best Pinterest Images, Recycle Old Content, Analytics, Google My Business

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Pinterest can be a great marketing platform for your business if your customers are there (same goes for all social media platforms). But do you know how to maximize your efforts? Here’s a post showing what types of Pinterest images get the most engagement.In short: avoid faces, use vibrant colors (especially red) and include lots of detail in your photos.

I’ve written before about reusing your old blog or website content – you spent all that time making it, so why should it not continue to work hard for you long after it’s first published? Learn 5 ways to recycle old content using email.

For those who have yet to use Google Analytics or are brand new to it, it can certainly be overwhelming. Here are some playful suggestions for getting familiar with Analytics.

You’ve likely heard about Local Search. But if you work at home, or do your work at your clients’ locations (think locksmith or carpet cleaner) and don’t have a traditional brick-and-mortar location, can you still get involved? Yes you can! And you should. Learn about setting up a service-area business profile on Google My Business.

On that topic, if you’re not yet using Google My Business, now’s the time to claim and verify your listing, and get to work on your profile. Get expert tips on setting up and optimizing your Google My Business profile.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

 

Weekly Links Roundup – Testimonials, Product Reviews, GDPR, Analytics Alternatives

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The top website and marketing links of the week.

I always encourage clients to display testimonials on their site, if their industry allows them. Testimonials are a great way to influence prospective customers toward purchasing your products or services. And reviews let your customers speak – even if they are not always positive, how you handle negative reviews is important, too. Letting prospects see how you take care of problems is at least as important as the glowing testimonials! Learn more about why you should add testimonials and reviews to your site.

…And along that vein here’s a great guide to adding product reviews to your WordPress site. This is a comprehensive overview with a good selection of recommended plugins, and why you might want to use one of them even if you’re running an ecommerce site with WooCommerce which already has built-in reviews.

If you were in a tizzy trying to get your site into compliance with GDPR last week, you were far from alone. Read this opinion post  on GDPR from the New York Times – it might make you feel better.

Finally… if you collect traffic data for your website, did you know that Google Analytics is not the only option? That’s what I said. Learn about Kissmetrics, Matomo (formerly Piwik) and AFS Analytics. All except Kissmetrics offer a free plan as well as commercial pricing.