The Bluff Lodge provides affordable Bluff accommodation to backpackers, trampers and hunters in Bluff. The building is the historic Bluff Post Office that was built in 1899 and opened in 1900.

The website has been developed in WordPress and features an online photo gallery, Google Map, online enquiry form and a news feed imported from their Blogspot.com blog.

View Online: www.blufflodge.co.nz

Your website and online marketing strategy will be an important part of your New Year businesss plans. This guide shows you how to measure your website’s success. In it we provide suggestions on improving conversions and increasing traffic.

Measuring the success of your current website

Just how well your website is performing depends on how you measure its success. Here are a few ways you can measure the website’s success:

• The number of visitors the site receives each month
• The number of referrals the site receives from Google
• The number of website enquiries you receive
• The number of phone calls generated from your site
• The number of bookings or reservations generated from your site
• The number of direct sales from your website
• The number of downloads from your website

Working out your website conversion rates

A conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action on your site (e.g. they complete an enquiry form or subscribe to a newsletter). A site can have a conversion rate for every ‘action’ on the site. If your website receives 1,000 visitors a month and 10 people complete your enquiry form each month, then your enquiry form conversion rate is 1%. To increase this to 20 enquiries a month you would need to double your visitor numbers or increase your conversion rate to 2%. A typical ‘lead generation’ website will have a conversion rate of 2-3%.

You can increase traffic or improve conversions to get the same result. It is probably a more efficient strategy to increase conversion rate, though getting more traffic to a website is always a desirable goal to work toward as well.

Attracting more visitors to your website (increasing traffic)

• Search engine optimisation – have your site ‘optimised’ so it ranks more highly in the search engines for your keyword phrases.
• Add more content – content attracts visitors to the site via search and links so add interesting and informative content to your site such as ‘how to’ guides, freebies, blog posts, articles and so forth.
• Get more links to your website on website directories and other sites.
• Advertise the website offline on signage, print adverts and stationery.
• Pay to show up in Google Adwords (pay per click).
• Participate in social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter.

Increasing your website’s conversion rates

There are many factors that can affect the performance of your website and how people interact with it. If your website is of a high design standard but is still under-performing, we would recommend making small incremental changes that can be measured independently, rather than making sweeping changes to the website.

Changes you can make to your website include:

• Increase the speed of your website by optimising images, or removing unnecessary banners or scripts from your site.
• Keep the clicks to a minimum – don’t hide important information too deeply in the site.
• Put the most important information at the top of the website – such as contact details and phone numbers.
• Repeat some of the most important information at the bottom of the website as research shows that many people are paying a lot of attention to website footers.
• Make your ‘calls to action’ obvious, unambiguous and compelling. A call to action is asking your visitors to do something – such as complete an enquiry form or join a mailing list. A small link at the bottom of your website to ‘join mailing list’ is not going to be as effective as a graphic at the top that includes an inducement to join the list (such as a discount voucher).
• Your website visitors will not fall into one homogenous group, so make your offer appeal to a broader range of customers by providing multiple options (three options has been found to be optimal).
• Establish your credibility and reputation with customer testimonials, case studies, accreditations, and awards.
• Review your website copy. Is it persuasive enough? Does it answer the questions people are asking themselves? Ask an independent person to read your website and provide you with feedback.
• Check the website’s usability. Just how easy is it to use? Have someone unfamiliar with your website complete a number of goals on the site (such as joining the newsletter, finding pricing and contact details). Watch them interact with the site and note where they get confused.

For more help and advice contact the team at TML Web Design. We can take a look at your current website and provide some suggestions on how to improve conversions and traffic. Give us a call on 03 366 3340 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz.



Beachfront Hotel’s wide range of accommodation options and facilities make it the best choice for West Coast accommodation.

Developed in the WordPress content management system, the Beachfront Hotel website features a flash image slideshow on every page, an easy to access online reservations form, 360 degree virtual tours, obvious call to action graphics in the sidebar, social media links to Facebook and Twitter and blog functionality.

View online: www.beachfronthotel.co.nz

There’s little doubt in our minds about the biggest trend online this year; it has to be social media marketing and in particular Facebook. Social media has taken off for businesses in a big way and there are now web consultants specialising just in this area. If you are in two minds about social media due to a lack of knowledge about how it all works, just jump right in and give it a go.

Social media is one of those things that you won’t really ‘get’ until you actually start doing it. Once you do, you’ll quickly realise just how important it is going to become. There are now 1,132,600 New Zealanders on Facebook over the age of 18. You can reach these people in three ways: you can create a Facebook group, a Facebook page, or advertise. That’s a lot of potential! With advertising you can target specific ages, interests or relationship statuses. As an example, there are currently 40,000 New Zealanders on Facebook who have a relationship status ‘engaged’. That’s a ‘no-brainer’ marketing tactic if that’s your target audience.

So here’s how you get started with Facebook and import an RSS Feed from your blog

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages
2. Click the ‘Create a Page’ button
3. Select your business category from the drop down box
4. Give your page a name
5. Tick ‘do not make this page visible’ (keep it private while you are building it)
6. Now login to your Facebook account, or create a Facebook account if you don’t have one
7. If you are on Twitter you can link your page to Twitter
8. Change the page picture (it could be your business logo)
9. Write a description about your page
10. Click on ‘Edit Page’ under your photo spot
11. Under ‘Notes’ click ‘edit’
12. On the right hand side look for ‘import a blog’
13. Paste your blog feed url into the url box – for example it will be http://www.yourwebsite.co.nz/feed/ (if you use WordPress)
14. Click ‘Start Importing’
15. Confirm the import by clicking on the ‘Confirm Import’ button
16. That’s it! Once you are ready for the page to go live go back to your settings and publish the page, then make sure you become a fan of your page (so your network will see this)
17. Next add a Facebook logo ‘badge’ and a link to your page on your website
18. Now all you need to do is keep adding new content to your blog (which will automatically update your Facebook page) and supplement this with direct comments to your Facebook page.
19. Then sit back and watch your network grow!

If you get stuck or need some guidance, the team at TML Web Design can set up your page for you, import your RSS feed, add your images and publish your page. Just give us a call on 03 366 3340 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz.

Set amongst a relaxing country setting, Owaka Lodge motel is the perfect base for your next holiday in The Catlins.

Owaka Lodge has just launched their website developed by TML Web Design in WordPress. The site utilises some of the blog functionality of WordPress to provide a guest feedback form and the blog powers the latest news section.

View Online: www.owakalodgemotel.co.nz