Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience. With this information, you can improve your website return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web. This guide can help you familiarize yourself with the main features of Google Analytics.

How to use Google Analytics?
Sign in using your Google account at http://www.google.com/analytics/

Click “Add New Profile”.

Enter the URL of your website and choose your country’s time zone and click Finish button.

You will see a piece of java script code, copy it and paste on every page of your webiste before the </head> tag

It will take few hours to 24 hours for google analytics to resolve and after that you can start seeing your reports.

Using Google Analytics you can get data of:

• How many people visit your website
• Which keywords brings traffic to your website
• Traffic sources like search engines, referring sites, etc.
• Geographical data of visits country wise and more…

Google Analytics provides all type of reports your website needs. It helps you to analyse how your website promotion works and how to enhance your web promotion to yield more traffic.

This video visualizes how google analytics works.

You can get more information and help on Google Analytics from http://analytics.blogspot.com/

Internet has become one of unavoidable media in the modern world and it is the most affordable and cost effective mode of advertisement. A simple 4 to 5 pages website can take your business worldwide and it helps customers find you.

Websites are affordable
Creating a website is most affordable compared to other media as one time investment on a website lasts up to a whole year. A simple website can be built for as low as 250 USD which will be less than 1 USD per day and also you can build a simple informative website with your basic technical knowledge.

Website gives global reach to your business
A website can be accessed by anyone from anywhere in the world with an internet connection which gives global reach to your business. You can also make your website available in multiple languages which can give a maximum global reach to your business and possibly you can have customers worldwide.

You can sell your products online
Globalisation has brought a big competition and in this open global market you need to use all available media to promote your business. You can sell your products online by implementing ecommerce system on your website and so you need not to open branches for your business worldwide. Selling products online reduces 50% to 80% of your real time marketing/advertising cost as a well promoted ecommerce website can bring a lot of business and ebay is a good example for it.

Make your business 24/7 available
Your office may be opened almost 8 to 10 hours a day and it is really hard to run your business for non-stop 24 hours. But your website can be available 24 hours a day through which you customers can access your business information from anywhere and anytime.

Save Time
Your day to day business needs lot of time and man hours on marketing, product promotion and sales. If you own a shop you need to manually explain about products individually to each customer visits your shop. Where as you can build a website and you can periodically update your products which will be a real quick job and mainly you need not to explain about products individually to your customers and lot of your time will be saved which can be invested on other promotional and marketing activities.

Customer Service
Every business faces customers asking a same question and you need to explain them each time where as on your website you can have a FAQ section where you can post frequently asked questions that helps customers to clarify on common questions on your products/service. You can have an enquiry section or contact form through which your customers can use for their queries. Websites can provide an enhanced customer service which builds a good customer relation to your business.

Will just creating a website will bring business?
Finally just building and launching a website will not bring sudden customer traffic to your business you need to periodically promote it and you can see a gradual increase in sales.

Promoting your website
Choose a right domain name - Choose a right domain name for your business. Your domain name should directly represent your business/business name and it should be short and easily recognizable.

Add appropriate content and photos - Add short descriptions that should clearly talk about your business and products. Add sharp and clear product photos as always visual contents reach quicker than readable contents.

Social media & blogging - Social media like Facebook and Twitter helps emerging business to reach the crowd easily and quickly. Always spread word about your business enhancements, new product launches and offers to the crowd which will bring a positive promotion and gives rise in your sales figure.

Asking a web designer to start designing a website with no requirement is almost like asking a home builder to initiate construction without a plan. Wireframe is a visual model of a website and wireframes helps a web designer to stick to a structural idea for the web design. If you are building a website for your business for the first time before initiating analyze related business websites and suggest a wire frame or you can hand over everything from wireframe to your web design company. First step for your web design is not starting the design directly. Always, Analyze competitors and other related websites Create multiple structural wireframes Prepare text contents and photos Choose a color theme Start the design! A wireframe is similar to floor plan for a building. Choose the size for the building (choose dimension for website) Choose the location for each room based on construction standards(create room for each elements based on web standards) Create multiple plans and choose the best (create multiple wire frames and choose the best) Starting web design directly may go wrong many times as you do modifications and changes to structure the final copy will be a great mess and will not look good like your first copy design. Always, Start with wireframes Keep doing changes to selected wireframe Finalize and stick to a wireframe Start designing the website based on the wireframe Here you can see a simple wireframe for an idea:

Quick Response Code (QR Code) is a 2 dimensional bar code or matrix code created by Japanese Corporation Denso Wave in 1994. This code was mainly created to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

You can create you own QR code here:
http://www.qrstuff.com/
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
http://www.racoindustries.com/barcodegenerator/2d/qr-code.aspx

You can download QR Code reader for your mobile from here:
http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/download.asp
http://reader.kaywa.com/
http://www.beetagg.com/downloadreader/

A QR code can be read by any camera mobile phones including windows mobile, android phones, iphones and java enabled or symbian mobile phones. All you need in your mobile phone is a camera and a QR code reader application.

You can see how to create and use a QR Code in this video.

This is the QR code containing the URL (www.adorntechnologies.com)

1. Free QR Code generator is used to create the QR code.
2. The QR code consist the URL http://www.adorntechnologies.com
3. Windows mobile with QR code reader is used to scan the code
4. The reader scans the URL embedded in the QR code
5. Mobile browser access the website URL

Information like website URL, email address, text, short messages, phone numbers can be embedded in a QR code.

By scanning the QR code mobile phones decodes the stored information. QR Codes can be used on websites, brochures, campaign flyers, product boxes, t-shirts and even where ever possible.

Today there are lot of opensource CMS available for free, opensource applications were highly tested and vibrant and are ready to fly instantly. But using a common package for specific use is bit complicated and requires certain level of technical expertise.

For an example if you need a blog you can just install wordpress simply by giving the database details and its ready to write, edit and publish. And they will provide more themes which we can choose from. But you have to use a design which many of them are using, your face will not be unique, you will have the mask which many others have.

So they need a unique website design using the opensource CMS, here comes the part of developers and designers again to get a opensource design integration.

While designing a layout for opensource we have to be careful on following the design architecture of opensource which we are using. So there will be some restrictions to create a vibrant design which show the real face of your business. So after convincing some part of design we need a highly trained professionals on that opensource CMS to integrate, which will be the expensive part of opensource.

Let’s leave the design part, what about the functionality. As its been a opensource and have been created for the multi purpose, the functionality will be more generic and have to satisfy requirements of all business needs. So in order to do a update a small thing we have to follow a set of instructions which cannot be followed by a non technical person.

But when we are going with an custom web application, you will have complete freedom on the design and functionalities will be specially developed for your business process and you will save more time while updating content via custom CMS.

Cost plays an important part on choosing the opensource CMS, but to get a vibrant face they are moving for design customization which will cost the same amount on custom application. An alternate was is to choose a offshore web development team and can get a cost effective custom application.

Purpose
Purpose of building a website ranges from Personal Website, Informative Website, Company/Organization Website, Commercial Website, Entertainment Website, Non-profit Website, Social Networking Website, News Website, Product Review Website and Blog/forum.

Though it is not mandatory to have a purpose to own a website, you can just have a website!

Requirement Analysis
Got a purpose to start a website? Good! Now start analyzing requirements to get started.

If you are going to build a personal website you have to make sure website will be displaying information about you and about your profession or hobbies in an elegant way.

The requirement for a company website is to provide maximum information about the company, products, services, process and mainly the contact information. Website should be an easy tool for clients to communicate with the company so providing an enquiry form and displaying contact information is a must.

If it is going to be commercial websitethe main requirement is to drag more customers into your business. The website should be more user-friendly and it should be projecting products attractive to eyes. Ecommerce website’s main requirement is to sell products online so there should not be heavy graphics or animations diverting customer’s concentration from product sections.

Entertainment websites such as gaming websites, music websites and movie websites should look fantasized. They should make user to become regular visitors so the overall theme and content of the website should be revised often to make the visitors feel the website is updated regularly.

A Non-profit website should convey its motto and services to the visitors. The main requirement of the website is to make people involve in their services by either participating in their activities and to donate money. The website should clearly project their services, recent news and events on their homepage and an online payment system will be easier for them to gather donations worldwide.

The basic requirement of a social networking website is to form a network of humans depending on their hobbies, interests, professions, locations and many more. Website should be easier for a person to find another person who shares the same interest or hobby. The website should also very user friendly for updating and sharing contents.

News website’s main requirement is to get the latest news to the visitors. Users should have provision to get news based on their location, field or interest. Visitors should be provided provision to subscribe for news on their interest using RSS or email notifications.

Nowadays online shopping is getting familiar worldwide and also it is easy for people to compare and buy products. So here comes the requirement for product review websites which provide people information about pros and cons of a product and mainly price comparison of same product with various sellers. The reviews should be written by experts so when people find the reviews really help them great, they will come back to check reviews for other products.

Blogs and forums are getting popular as they allow people belonging to various locations, cultures, industries, ideas and interests to share information and to discuss on topics. The main requirement of a blog or a forum is to group data and easily searchable. The website should be clean and simple as most of the times text content is going to be prominent.

Content Development
Once the requirements are analyzed and finalized then its time to gather contents for the website.

Before starting the web design process you should have all contents ready such as company info, services list and details, product details, photos and all other required contents based on the website purpose.

It’s good to have all the text contents framed by a professional content writer as they will be aware of industry standards, recent activities and mainly SEO keywords. If you are capable of framing contents yourself it is better to review and revise few times.

Wire Frame
Got a purpose, requirement is clear and content is ready. Let’s initiate the design process!

You may have lot of ideas for logos and website design. Also you may get lot of ideas from your friends, colleagues, business mentors and from researching information like reviewing your competitor websites and other related product websites.

Make all ideas in to wire frame structures, decide how the logo should look like, decide color and theme of logo and website. Make discussions with your business development people or your colleagues and make revisions to the wire frames and ideas on logo and website. Finally choose logo and website wire frames and decide the color theme for both.

Web Design
Wire frame is ready and now it’s time to start logo and web design.

Logo design should be elegant and deliver the motto of your business. It should be unique and identical to customers. It should solve multi purpose like using on website, business card, brochures, hoarding and even in coffee mugs if needed. So while designing the logo all these should be kept in mind and this makes the designing process easy and provides quick deliverables.

Now the logo is ready and its turn to start website design. The wire frame of homepage was well revised and refined and so it will make the website design process easier. The color theme of the website will be dependant on the logo theme as the logo needs to fit perfect and it brings an overall elegant look to the website.

Web Development
The design is finalized and the website development process can be initiated.

While developing a static website it should be more optimized and HTML code should be of latest standard. This helps the promotion of website easy in the internet among many search engines.

While developing a commercial ecommerce website, if the requirement is more general, using open source systems such as OS Commerce, Joomla, Drupal or Zen cart will reduce the development time and also reduces the development cost. Also minimal testing is enough as the systems are being used worldwide and they are providing regular updates and enhancements to the users.

If the ecommerce website requirement is not general and has major difference from usual ecommerce websites it is good to go for a custom ecommerce system. At most cases open source systems cannot be customized to a certain limit so custom ecommerce system can help to provide solutions for all your requirements. Also many people may need a unique content management system or a ecommerce system and the only solution is going for a custom development.

Testing & Launch
What are you waiting for? Now you can publish your website on internet and spread the word to whole world.

Though the website was tested well before launch in a beta version now it’s time to check the website with real data and real visitors. Check for withstanding power of the website with more traffic and data manipulation.

SEO & promotion
Your website is launched and did the world know it?

The website was launched to make you or your business familiar and to attract more visitors and clients. This can be done by search engine optimization and promotion. Promotion can be done via internet and by local media by advertising, word of mouth and by sending timely newsletters.

SEO includes process such as adding meta tags, titles, keywords, optimizing contents and standardizing codes. Writing blogs about the company or product can take your website to top of search engines and also regularly updating the website is a must.

Analyze Customer/End User Feedback
Now everybody knows your website and you may receive lot of feedback and queries from them.

Take time to read and analyze all feedbacks and some may be really helpful to improve the website visually or functionally. If your website is commercial you should mainly focus on the visitor point of view about the website. The website should be appealing to the end users and you should be ready to do enhancements that may attract more visitors.

Enhancement
Your website is familiar and now you have to make it more familiar.

Regular enhancements need to be done on visual design, functionality of the ecommerce system and on search engine optimization methods. When the website remains with the same look and feel and content, after few visits visitor may get bored ith your website as the world always look for new things. So keep updating your website!

Social software is proliferating online, but many of the most common Internet tools, such as search engines, are still used in isolation. “These tools are designed for a single person, working alone by him or herself, but that’s not always the way that we work,” says Meredith Morris, a researcher in the Adaptive Systems and Interaction group at Microsoft Research. People planning travel with their spouses, she says, or students working on research projects with classmates all too often find themselves repeating work others have done or fail to find sites that others have identified. Morris is designing a tool that could begin to help with this problem.

Called SearchTogether, the tool is meant to help groups whose members are working on different computers, whether they’re all logged in simultaneously or one at a time. The tool is a plug-in for Internet Explorer 7 and requires a Windows Live ID to use. Once all the users have the tool installed, Morris explains, if one of them wants to initiate a Web search, she can invite the others to join her. The tool tracks the work done by the group, making it easier for the initiator to assign tasks and for group members to keep track of what they’ve done.

Before designing the tool, Morris conducted a survey to find out what problems plagued people trying to search as a group online. Among the problems she identified were redundant effort and inefficient communication about results.

SearchTogether is designed to reduce these problems by storing all the queries group members have entered, Morris says, and by tracking comments they make about the pages they find. The search initiator can also use the tool to divide work among group members. For example, the initiator could send half of the top 25 results of a query to one user and half to another. The users can then investigate the results without duplicating each other’s efforts. If the search becomes relevant to someone else in the future–for example, if a family member wants to take the same trip that a group previously planned–new users can be invited to the project, where they see the stored queries and comments.

If users are searching simultaneously, they can use SearchTogether’s “peek and follow” feature to view the pages others are looking at and to write each other instant messages as they explore the results of their queries.

Morris says that she’s interested in adding features that could give users more-sophisticated sorting capabilities. For example, if a doctor and a layperson are searching together for information about a health problem, the tool might automatically send all highly technical results to the doctor.

Madhu Reddy, an assistant professor of information services and technology at Pennsylvania State University, says that in his studies of collaborative information seeking, he’s observed that the search problems Morris has identified are very common. Many groups struggle to split up search tasks effectively, to keep all their members aware of what the others are doing, and to bring their results together at the end. A particular challenge, Reddy says, is that a lot of group interactions in the real world are gesture based. A good collaborative search tool, he says, would compensate for the loss of gesture–when, for example, a group member wanted to point out a single item on a Web page. Reddy also sees a need for tools that allow users to tap into others’ expertise in navigating different pockets of online information.

Reddy says that one factor to take into consideration is “that we really don’t know how people collaborate; we’re still starting to develop the empirical research.” He says that tools will need to be designed to support different types of searches. “You can envision anonymous users working together across continents,” he says, “which is very different from teams working together in organizations to solve problems.” Morris’s tool, Reddy says, seems well-suited to general users working together over a distance. Reddy’s own team is also developing a multiuser search engine.

Morris’s interest in collaborative search extends beyond SearchTogether. She has also worked on designing a tool that helps multiple users of the same computer search as a team. An early version of SearchTogether will be released this spring.

Source: www.vnunet.com

It’s hard to build a website that will please everyone. Some people respond best when they see basic facts on a clean page, others when they have a lot of charts and graphs at their fingertips. Now researchers at MIT’s Sloan School of Management hope to make websites better at selling products by making them adapt automatically to each visitor, presenting information in a way that complements that person’s style of thinking.

The researchers’ initial studies show that morphing a website to suit different types of visitors could increase the site’s sales by about 20 percent. While quite a few sites, such as Amazon.com, offer personalized features, many of those sites adapt by drawing information from user profiles, stored cookies, or long questionnaires. The Sloan system, however, adapts to unknown users within the first few clicks on the website by analyzing each user’s pattern of clicks.

John Hauser, a professor of marketing at the Sloan School and the lead author of a paper on the research that is slated to appear in Marketing Science, explains that a website running the system would detect a user’s cognitive style. It would watch for traits, such as whether or not the user is detail oriented, and morph to complement that style. The changes would be subtle. “Suddenly, you’re finding the website is easy to navigate, more comfortable, and it gives you the information you need,” Hauser says. The user, he says, shouldn’t even realize that the website is personalized.

The researchers built a prototype website for British Telecom, set up to sell broadband plans. The website is designed so that the first few clicks that visitors make are likely to reveal aspects of cognitive style. For example, the initial page that a user sees lets her choose, among other things, to compare plans using a chart or to interact with a broadband advisor. “You can see that someone who’s very analytic is probably more likely to go to ‘compare plans’ than to the direct advisor,” says Hauser. Within about 10 clicks, the system makes a guess at the user’s cognitive style and morphs to fit. “If we determine that you like lots of graphs, you’re going to start seeing lots of graphs,” he says. “If we determine that you like to get advice from peers, you’re going to see lots of advice from peers.”

In addition to guessing at each user’s cognitive style by analyzing that person’s pattern of clicks, the system would track data over time to see which versions of the website work most effectively for which cognitive styles.

Peter Brusilovsky, director of the personalized adaptive Web systems lab at the school of information sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, says that, while there’s been much work on using cognitive styles to adapt Web pages to users, in most cases it’s been for education, not for e-commerce. This Sloan School’s approach, he feels, is an interesting one. Although personalization is valuable whether it’s done automatically or by the user, Brusilovsky says that “what is possible to do automatically is just impossible to do through the user, since users typically have little time to invest, and may not really be sophisticated [about how to adapt a page the way they want].” He particularly sees potential for these techniques for mobile Web pages, which, due to limited bandwidth and awkward interfaces, are hard for users to personalize.

Bamshad Mobasher, an associate professor in the school of computer science at DePaul University, in Chicago, who has done work on adapting websites based on data collected from users’ patterns of clicks, says that a lot of other work, including his own, relies simply on matching a user to others who have clicked through a website in a similar way, without trying to discover what those patterns mean. Adding the psychological dimension, he says, makes the task more challenging for a website’s designers, and he says that he’ll be interested to see whether that approach turns out to be better than measuring users’ past behavior alone.

Glen Urban, a professor of marketing at the Sloan School who was involved in the research, says that the team plans to build a full version of its system for the Japanese company Suruga Bank. For the Suruga project, which is being done through the MIT Center for Digital Business, the researchers plan to watch website users for cultural attitudes as well as for cognitive style, evaluating whether visitors have a hierarchical or egalitarian view of society, or whether they think in terms of what is good for the individual or what is good for the collective. Someone with a hierarchical view of society might receive loan advice from someone in a position of authority, while someone with an egalitarian view might receive advice from a peer. Similarly, a person’s tendency to think individually or collectively might influence which features of a product are most emphasized. If that experiment goes well, Urban says, he envisions global companies one day using website morphing techniques to build single websites that can adapt to users based on their cultural background, as well as on their cognitive style. The researchers are also working on using their morphing techniques to make banner ads more effective.

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=futurebiz&id=20872&a