Today’s small business owners are more dependent on the Internet than ever.
With this dependence comes a need to know how search engines respond to your website, so that you can make quality and quantity work for your business venture.
Website analytics are some of the best tools you can have for determining how your website is doing.
However, not all analytics are created equal. Additionally, while analytics are good, you need other tools to make your website truly stand out.
If you’re unsure what type of tools you need, reading brief profiles of what’s available may help.
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Google Analytics
This is usually the first tool people think of when they consider web analytics, and with good reason.
Google Analytics is popular because it gives relevant information for free, and also because it comes with plenty of resources and techniques to help you navigate SEO, content management, and other facets of website building.
It’s recommended primarily for Google affiliate sites, but your website doesn’t need to be a Google affiliate to benefit from it.
As a bonus, using Google Analytics can help you better understand algorithms like Penguin and Panda, which are used to penalize websites with low SEO rankings. The more you know about how these algorithms work, the easier it will be to avoid penalties.
Mint Analytics
Mint has a $30 up-front fee, but after that, there are no recurring costs. Mint is best known for its user-friendly layout. This includes information compiled in easily read charts and bar graphs.
If you are a visual learner or respond well to numbers, Mint may be the best analytic tool for you. It tells you objectively how people are responding to your website, as well as the type of content they are most likely to click on.
This can help you write content based on those topics, and also produce mass quantities of similar content to attract new clients or customers.
KISSMetrics
KISSMetrics is known as a great analytics system for E-commerce. It can be used for blogs and non-business websites or pages, but its real purpose lies in organizing and tracking information like customer data.
This makes it an ideal system for businesses whose owners are just starting out or who need extra help organizing their data. Moreover, with KISSmetrics, you can set specific popups to appear at certain times to particular audiences.
This way, your audience won’t leave your site because they’re bombarded with annoying ads. They’re more likely to find those popup bits of information interesting.
This can ultimately help you with link-building and SEO, since the more authoritative links you have, the more credible your site will be.
Headline Generators
Headline generators aren’t analytics tools, but your website could certainly use them.
As with newspapers, the headlines are the first things users respond to when visiting your website. They need to be engaging and memorable, or your users are not as likely to continue reading your content. Headline generators operate in different ways.
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Some create headlines from basic keywords like “link building” or “financial solutions.” Others use a full potential headline that you’ve already created to find its emotional marketing value (EMV).
It tells you how customers are likely to react to certain words and phrases, and how to improve the headline if you aren’t getting the feedback you need.
Editing Tools
Even the best writers produce weak writing once in awhile, especially if mass quantities of content are needed quickly. Editing tools like the Hemingway Editor help you and your content writers spot and fix weak writing.
The Hemingway Editor gives your writing a readability score on the right-hand side of the screen, so you can tailor it to reach certain audiences.
It also categorizes writing issues and highlights them with different colors, so you know which issues are your most common.
Similar tools such as Grammarly are less comprehensive, but still useful, especially if English isn’t your native language or you aren’t confident in writing. As the name suggests, Grammarly finds and repairs grammatical and spelling mistakes.
As with a standard spelling and grammar checker, mistakes are highlighted and suggestions for the correct words are made. Grammarly can also tell you how many mistakes a document has, so you can track how your writing improves over time.
Content Research Tools
To create high-quality content, you need to spend time on research. However, how do you go about researching certain topics, especially if those topics are unfamiliar? A content research tool may be your best option.
The Google Docs research panel is a popular one because many people already use Google Docs for other tasks.
With a few simple keystrokes, you can access the research panel and type a keyword or resource into Google. Instantly, you’ll be connected to articles you can use in your research.
The panel also makes it easy to insert links into your content.
If you need something a bit more in-depth, Evernote is a good choice. It’s billed as a personal, virtual notebook in which you can save content, make notes and reminders, and even compose post drafts.
Additionally, Evernote lets you save article links and access them from any device at any time. The more resources you have, the more able you’ll be to write high-quality content at higher volumes, in a fraction of the time you’d have spent without research tools.
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Canva
Canva is a blog design tool "for design-challenged bloggers." Every blog needs to look bright and engaging, but we are not all visually or artistically gifted.
That’s where Canva comes in. It gives bloggers a virtual blank canvas to edit, save, and apply as needed.
Once you’re comfortable with Canva, you can branch out from using their text, pictures, and other elements to creating your own.