About Cyber X Designs

A customer of Cyber X Designs™ asked us to write a brief explanation of SEO, Google Analytics and Google Web Master Tools.  If you are wondering about SEO or some of the tools that might be deployed in its pursuit keep reading! There is a practice called SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  SEO is a process in which the content and architecture of your web site is optimized to enhance the search engine placement of the site for specific keywords.  It includes tactics like: gathering inbound links from other sites, crafting anchor text, purchasing keyword advertising, creating supporting micro sites, blogging, Tweeting, crafting alt text for images and creating valuable content.  It is as much art as it is science and to be good at it requires near constant research to stay abreast of the latest changes in the major search engines.  A good SEO will be able to help identify the traffic you should be seeking, work with you to develop a plan to reach those viewers and work with you to implement required actions.  He will also help you develop metrics and milestones to measure your progress. SEOs and web masters will employ many tools to build and optimize your site.  Two of those tools might be from Google and you should be aware of them: Google Analytics and Google Web Master Tools.  They are used to measure aspects of the effectiveness of your web site.  They are useful in helping you understand:

• How Google and other search engines see your web site.
• How people find your site.
• What pages are they viewing.
• What pages are then entering and exiting on.
• Where they might be located.
• Who is linking to you.
• What pages are you linking too.
• If your meta tags are well formed and useful.
• And more.

Google Analytics is a traffic analysis application that is hosted by Google.  For it to work, a small amount of JavaScript code is placed on each page of the web site.  That code sends some information back to Google's servers each time a person or machine visits your web site, as long as JavaScript is enabled.  Google aggregates this incoming data and then creates reports based on their proprietary algorithms.  You can access these reports through a web browser and use them to shape your online strategy to target and grow traffic to your web site.  Google Analytics includes tools to create trackable conversion goals and can integrate with your AdWords keyword advertising campaigns.  If you want to know more you can take a tour of Google Analytics. Google Analytics is just one of many traffic data gathering and analysis programs available on the web.  For example, we provide the same types of tools in our web hosting package, it is called Awstats.  We analyze the logs created by the web server to create reports that help you to perform the same kind of analysis and traffic targeting. It should be noted that each traffic analysis program uses a different formula to calculate your traffic and there can be material differences between the stated results.  For instance, on one of our sites Google reports less then half as much traffic as Awstats for the same site.  You should always compare results month-to-month or period-to-period using the same program if you are tracking performance.  You may also want to try to determine which is more accurate and useful to your particular business. It is also import to realize that when you sign-up for an account with a third-party vendor, like Google, for traffic analysis, you are handing them important proprietary data about your website and your traffic.  You need to make a calculation of whether the risk of turning over that data is worth the reward of using their traffic analysis program.  For many small businesses it is worth it.  However, if you are in a very competitive market, you want to invest in a stand alone product to protect your competitive data. Google Web Master Tools is used to analyze how the Google search engine sees your web site.  Web Master Tools provides reports on: how the crawler sees your site, what errors the crawler detected on your site, keywords, inbound links, internal links and sitemap.  It is a good tool to determine: if your Meta tags and title tags have been properly crafted, if there are broken links on your site, which is linking to you, and what keywords you rank for.  Google Web Master Tools also lets you configure which should be the correct domain for your site and some other items.  If you want to learn more you can take a tour of Google Web Master tools. Google Web Master Tools is useful to web masters who want to maintain a site that is search engine friendly and error free in the search engine's opinion.  It is not the panacea for web masters, it is just another tool in the box when crafting and tuning web sites.  There are products from other companies, such as SEOBook.com, that provide web site analysis and ranking analysis.  When selecting a tool or a vendor make sure that it is from a reputable and verifiable company.  You will be giving valuable information about your business to them. If you have invested in a web site and want to make sure it remains an asset, we suggest that you require your web designer or SEO provide your organization access to tools like these and then you use them.  They will give you valuable insight into the completeness of the web site, how well that web site is performing and how the web site can be enhanced to grow your traffic, sales and bottom line. We hope this brief explanation gives you a little more insight into the tools that are available to help you maximize the effectiveness of your web site.  Cyber X Designs includes SEO basics in its web site packages.  SEO basics include these two tools from Google as well as some of the other tactics mentioned.  If you are looking to go beyond the basics, the Cyber X Designs’ team includes SEO researchers and managers that can help you maximize the profit potential of your competitive web site. If you are wondering why your web site isn’t performing and driving business, call us at 201-558-7929 and ask for Hans Kaspersetz.  He will review your web site and author a proposal for how it can be improved based on your business goals!