Category: Technology

October 14, 2014

Forget the Weather Report, What is the TRAFFIC Report??

Once upon a time, a website traffic report consisted of only a few main sources of measurement. Fast-forward to now, and see that traffic reports have so many measurement facets it can be overwhelming to decipher what is what, and quite frankly put you in a data-coma! Let AIMS help explain the different kinds of website traffic and put you on your way to understanding where you’re getting the most return from your website.

Organic –

This part of your report will tell you which keywords are driving the most traffic to your website through unpaid search engine listings such as a Google.com search. It can also tell you which articles are driving the most organic traffic, that is, traffic that you’re not paying for.

Paid –

When choosing to purchase for clicks from search engines, this number lets you know how much bang you’re getting for your buck! As you get better at SEO (search engine optimization), you can even remove this section from the report!

Direct –

Direct comes from visitors who typed the URL directly into their browser. It can also be a measurement of visitors who clicked on links that do not have tracking variables that google recognizes such as PDF or Word documents, bookmark/favorites, or untagged links within email.

Email –

Email can be a leading driver of traffic, especially if you send it daily. You can see how many clicks you are getting on each email and every link in your email campaigns by using UTM Codes.

Social (Twitter & Facebook) –

Facebook Insights are built right into the dashboard of every page, and Twitter Ads offers an analytics dashboard as well. Google Analytics does have traffic insights through a social report; however Facebook additionally offers information on how your content is being consumed.

Non-Social Referrals –

Visits that came to your site from sources outside of a search engine are considered referrals. Often referrals come from PR tactics or partnerships with other websites and should be tracked separately so you know if it’s paying off.

If you’re looking to get more out of your online traffic and drive leads like never before contact AIMS today for more information on how we can partner together to do more working smarter, not harder!

September 30, 2014

Looking Forward To ONTRApalooza 2014

Picture from last years Confernce

I am looking forward to attending ONTRApalooza 2014 from October 1^st-3^rd. This will be my third year at this conference. Each year has been an amazing opportunity to meet some amazing people changing the way business is run. These are thought leaders, and innovators who are using Ontraport software to change the game and grow their businesses. The best part of attending the conference is being able to sit down these leaders and take their ideas and applying them to my clients businesses.

We all know Ontraport is an amazing tool for lead generation, lead follow-up, and customer retention, but at ONTRApalooza you are able to learn even more innovative ways to use these tools to rocket your business to new levels.

Did I mention the speakers? Well here are a few I am looking forward to hearing:

Jack Canfield – Best-selling author, self-esteem expert
Shelby Larson – Found of Content Divas, SEO expert
Paul Hoffman – Musician, speaker, author and teacher
Franziska Iseli-Hall – Award winning entrepreneur

To see the rest of the list check out www.ontrapalooza.com

If you will be attending I hope to see you there. I am looking forward to learning new things, making new friends, and enjoying the Santa Barbara sun.

July 23, 2014

Google Analytics for iOS App now Available

Google Analytics is one of the industry’s top tools for tracking traffic on your website, and until recently there was not an app available to be able to use it on your iPad or iPhone. But the times they are a changin’ and you can now download the Google Analytics app from the App Store.

This is great news for the Apple users out there! Just like the Android App before it, the iOS version allows for real-time tracking of visitors to your company’s website, and all from the comfort of your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

So why should you use Google Analytics? Here are three reasons:

Get to know your audience.

Analytics allow you to get to know your audience. Who is visiting your site? Where are they located? How long are they staying? Which platforms are they using to access your site? Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to adjust your strategy to better cater to your clientele.

How are visitors finding your page?

As we’ve already stated, analytics not only track who is visiting your page, but also where they are coming from. Do you send out a lot email blasts? This tool will help you determine whether or not that strategy is working. Or maybe you have gone the paid route and advertise on Google, Yahoo or Bing. Google Analytics will help you determine just how effective these campaigns really are by tracking the influx of traffic to your site.

What works on your site?

So now that the audience is there, what are they doing? Analytics will help you figure out what works on your site and what doesn’t by monitoring each page’s interaction with users.

So what are you waiting for? Go get that app!

April 16, 2014

Protect Your Passwords

Have you heard about Heartbleed yet? It’s an encryption flaw in the security framework of OpenSSL security software. More simply put, it’s a bad thing and a big deal. Some 500,000 websites are estimated to have been affect by the bug, which means your personal information, and your business’s information may have been compromised.

The Heartbleed bug allows hackers to access your usernames, passwords and even browser history 64 kilobytes at a time. For those of you in the know, that isn’t a whole lot of data, but if you repeat the process say a few, oh million times, it adds up.

If you are like us, then you have your information spread out in a lot of places. Do you run your own Facebook page? It’s time to change the password. How about Pinterest – or Tumblr and Flickr accounts? CNN Money has compiled a list of some of the big name companies who have already applied the patch to their network, making it safe to go ahead and change your passwords. You can find that list here.

Here at AIMS, we manage a lot of accounts, which means a whole lot of passwords to remember. We are fortunate in that we already use a password manager to keep track of them all. LastPass has been a great resource for us. While there are other password management systems out there, we haven’t found one we like more than last pass. Instead of trying to remember the literally hundreds of passwords under our charge, we just have to remember one master. And lucky for us, even though LastPass does utilize OpenSSL, it is only one of multiple layers of encryption, which helps to ensures that all our data is safe. If you also use LastPass run your security check the site will tell you which passwords need to be changed to protect your personal information from Heartbleed. We did update a few of our social passwords which gave us the chance to change from our favorite color to more complex password like ERi3w29C.

If you don’t already use a password manager like LastPass, then it is time to get started with one. Not only will it store all your passwords for you, it will also help you randomly generate news ones. Further, you can access LastPass from your mobile device or tablet, so it is with you wherever you go.

As a business owner, protecting your passwords starts with you. Don’t let your business get hacked.

Source – Heartbleed bug: What you need to know