Here are:

The 5 Ways Your Website Tells you How You Can Improve Your Business

1. High Bounce Rates- What it means: People are likely not understanding what your site is about, or you’re not conveying your message in an easy to understand manner. Perhaps your web design is misleading, or your copy is not placed correctly. By testing (even split a/b testing with different front page layouts) you can gauge what keeps you users on the site, what what elicits their exit.
2. The Search Terms They Use to Find You: If you look at what people type info the search engines to find your site, is it relevant to what you sell? If not, you may want to re-think your Search Engine Optimization Strategy – or develop one if you don’t have one.
3. The Quality of Leads you are Gaining: If you sell something on your website, take a look at past leads. Have they converted into sales? If so, what percentage of your leads convert into sales? Surprisingly, averages generally rest in less than 10%. However, by making changes to your design, copy, and user experience, you can experiment with what works to convert leads into sales.
4. Customer Interaction: Does your website generate a lot of questions rather than sales? Are people confused as to your services or offerings? Take a look at what people are asking you, and be sure to be flexible when updating your website to reflect the customers needs. Check the pages that people go to for answers. Are they going to the FAQ section, or the “About Us” section to find the answer to that specific question?
5. Page Surfing Depth: How many pages did the average person look at on your website before they decided to leave? What were the top pages of content on your site? This information is priceless when updating your website to be used as a sales tool. If people aren’t really look at the pages of your site, it may be telling you that your site navigation is a bit confusing or mis-placed. If you’ve got a flash based site, be sure to integrate analytics into your code. Your site could be telling you that people are only concerned with one page of your site before they sign up or buy. Take this information very seriously and you’ll find that the customers literally ask for  the content they want to see by the pages on your site that they browse though.

In what ways has your website told you how to improve?

Oh this guy has a lot of “Get Rich Fast” answers for you.

I am referring to the all-knowing awesomeness that is Google. If you’re like the average or above average web searcher, you’re constantly throwing questions at Google. If you don’t, don’t worry… then you’re actually using search terms, which generally renders better results anyhow. The other 80% of the populous seems to be on the “Ask Google a Question” train. They approach Google with their most burning questions, and expect an instant answer.

The Question is: As A Marketer – How Do I Capitalize On This?

The truth is that many internet marketers aren’t doing one of their most important due diligence tasks before throwing themselves fully into the internet marketing game; and that’s studying the search habits of those same users that they’re targeting.

What is your user really searching for, and how are they searching for it?

To answer this basic question, set up a blog or small site on any topic of niche’ that you’re looking to know more about. Grow the site, post regularly, and watch your web analytics closely. You want to look specifically at the search terms people are using to find your site.  What are they? You may notice some astonishing results. Some may seem completely irrelevant.

Many of the search terms that people are typing into Google to find your website are questions.

What kinds of questions are your users asking? What do they want to know? The answers may be surprising to you.

Some interesting questions some of my own readers used to find my site:

• “How can I Build Trust in Sales?”
• “Why no one ever notices my online marketing efforts?”
• “How do I admit marketing weakness?”
• “How Can I save money on my internet marketing?”
• “How did someone find my website?”
• “Is My Website Updated?”
• “How do I redesign my website?”
• “Why Isn’t my Business Growing?”

Take a look at the questions your users are asking to get to your site. This is really priceless information that you can really use to your advantage.

What are your users asking?

“The recession is driving marketers to concentrate on gaining new business, even more than on customer retention objectives,” says David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Search Marketing Trends: Back to Basics. “Search is the ultimate online acquisition tool, and therefore is positioned to do relatively well in this economy.”  – from eMarketer’s article Titled “Searching for New Customers in the Recession?”

Grabbing web searchers attention isn’t difficult if you are correctly targeting, analyzing, and covering all of your bases. Search marketing is gaining more momentum than ever, and if you aren’t investing marketing dollars into your SEM efforts, you are doing your business a great disservice. eMarketer goes on to state that paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion (PPC), and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will all see increased spending through 2013.

Harnessing the power of search  marketing also happens to be one of the safest routes to more sales that almost any business can take immediate action on. Simply appearing in search results is no longer good enough. Remember, you are one of thousands vying for your customer’s sales, while they are clinging to their dollars tighter than ever. Your content needs to be highly targeted and polished.  There is a highly effective method to executing a super-charged targeted search marketing campaign:

Put Yourself In Your Customer’s Shoes When Designing a Search Campaign

Are they really looking to click on PPC ads, or do they get right down to business and cycle through natural results first? Are your users savvy enough to know the difference? Do they search for specific products by UPC numbers or codes? Are they confused when landing on your ‘targeted’ pages? This information is imperative to your search marketing efforts.

I am telling my clients this on a daily basis:

Mediocre is no longer sufficient. Striving to be Remarkable in Every Aspect is Now NOT an Option.

What kind of efforts has your business implemented to try to be remarkable? Have you seen any instances of big businesses trying to be remarkable lately?