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.



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.

Content management systems (CMS) are website applications that allow non-technical users to update their own website via an online administration panel.  There are thousands of different content management systems available, but they generally fall into two categories. They are either proprietary systems or open source systems.

A proprietary system has been built from the ground up by the web development company that owns it. It is ‘proprietary’ as the firm has the intellectual property rights to the code that runs the system. If your site is built in a proprietary system, what you purchase is a license to use the system.

Most proprietary CMS systems are hosted on servers provided by the company that owns the CMS. Once you have bought into one of these systems, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to move your website and keep the content management system. Basically, to move the website to another firm requires a complete rebuild of the site, as the site must be built in the specific proprietary software with its own set of themes. If the CMS you are using is substantially upgraded or redeveloped by the company at a later date you may find yourself with an “old” website that has to migrate to the new upgraded system (often at a considerable redevelopment cost) to receive any new enhancements or features.

Open source content management systems like Drupal, Joomla and WordPress are widely used by web developers. They have huge benefits for web clients as the site, once built, can be easily moved around between developers and hosts, so you are not locked into any one vendor. Web development costs can be kept to a reasonable level as there are no licensing fees for the system. Sure there is still a cost involved – you still have to pay for hosting, the time it takes to install the site, set it up, design a look and load all the content. But as the web firm does not have to cover the cost of developing the open source system in the first place, they can keep their costs down, and this saving is passed on to you.

Web firms with proprietary systems need to earn a return on their development investment. The firm will have put a considerable amount of time and money into developing their system, but even then they often can’t compete with the hundreds of core developers that will be working collaboratively on an open source system. In fact, there are companies that have developed a proprietary system then decided to make it open source and subsequently experienced exponential growth in their business.

With open source systems it’s a case of ‘many hands make light work’. At TML we are very much fans of open source, and in particular WordPress. So if you’re keen to have your site developed in a widely supported content management system, give us a call on 03 366 3340 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz.

We’ve pretty much fallen in love with WordPress. And we’re not alone. It’s highly regarded around the world by end users, developers and designers. In fact WordPress fans are so fervent in their devotion you could be excused for thinking they’d joined a cult, the cult of ‘easy to use web software’!

Like any self-respecting cult, there is always a charismatic leader with a clear vision for the future. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg is certainly charismatic, but he’s also a genuinely humble guy, who seems to be in awe of the whole WordPress phenomenon.

WordPress has not always been regarded as a ‘content management system’ as it has its roots well and truly in blogging. Just a few years ago you’d be hard pressed to find tutorials on how to use WordPress as a content management system. Things have certainly changed. In November 09, WordPress won a coveted Open Source CMS award which, according to Matt Mullenweg, “marks a shift in the public perception of WordPress, from blog software to full-featured CMS”.

So its official – WordPress has grown up and become a fully fledged content management system, but it hasn’t lost any of it blogging ‘street cred’ either. It’s still a fantastic way to publish a blog and link up to social media websites for extra exposure online.

As web designers with business clients (who have a strong desire to update their own websites), we have some very specific requirements in a content management system, and WordPress delivers every time.

So here’s why we choose WordPress over other CMS systems:

• Our clients find WordPress very intuitive to use; they get excited about their websites – and we get a thrill every time we discover they’ve published a new blog or added an image gallery. It makes us look good!
• The search engines love WordPress so our clients get better rankings in Google, which is great for business.
• Installing WordPress to a web server is a breeze with WordPress’s famous ‘5 minute install’ – and the system is very widely supported by web hosting firms.
• It’s very well supported. If the answer to a WordPress coding question isn’t in the Codex there will be someone somewhere in the world who has published the solution online.
• There are thousands of WordPress themes to look at for inspiration.
• There are dozens of WordPress showcase websites where you can discover how others are using WordPress.
• There is an amazing community of WordPress users who are very generous with their time and information.
• There are thousands of WordPress plugins that greatly extend the functionality of a website. Some of our favourites include quote rotators; image galleries, sitemap generators, and search engine optimisation add-ons.
• WordPress provide one-click installs of themes and plugins direct from their website.
• It’s so efficient to set up that we can spend more time on designing the look and layout of a website, and less on technical issues.
• WordPress is constantly being improved with new features and enhancements.
• Using a ‘pick n mix’ approach to using plugins, custom fields and code snippets, we can pretty much bend WordPress to fit many different requirements – it will even do e-commerce.

So that’s it in a nutshell – why WordPress is our content management system of choice. Now, if you want to benefit from its ease of use, extendibility and ongoing development, give us a call on 03 366 3340 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz and let us know about your website needs.

PS, here are some of the WordPress things we can do for you:

• Install WordPress for you
• Install themes for you
• Host your WordPress website
• Create a new theme for you
• Build you a blog
• Build you an entire website with a blog

In our experience, if you get the following areas of your website right it is much more likely to be a successful marketing vehicle for your business. It will attract the right type of visitors, the right number of visitors and it will convert those visitors into buyers or prospects.

1. Your content must be relevant and appealing

There’s an old saying that ‘content is king’ online. It’s probably quite fair to say that an average-looking website with well-written content that resonates with its target audience will outperform a ‘bells and whistles’ website with poorly written ‘company-centric’ copy. The reason for this is quite simple: when someone is highly interested in a website’s subject matter (generally a specific solution to their problem) and the content is ticking all the boxes for them (“yes, this looks to be just the right solution to my problem”), they’re just not that influenced by the bells and whistles – in fact they may overlook quite a lot of your content.

When you prepare your text give a lot of thought to your target audience and what they really need to know.

You can even create fictional characters for your website (called personas) and write up scenarios on why they would visit your website and the sort of information they would need to make a decision. Anticipate the questions your visitors will have and answer them throughout your copy, or have a dedicated ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page.

Tie your copy into specific ‘call to action’ graphics that move the visitor to take the action you want, whether it is to join your newsletter, complete a quote request or add a product to a shopping cart.

Make sure your homepage has a very concise synopsis of what you do and the benefits of your offer. Remember that the website is not for you, it’s for your visitors – and they want to know, specifically: “What’s in it for me?”

Remember to sprinkle your keywords throughout your copy so you stand a better a chance of ranking highly in the search engines.

2. Your imagery – paint the best picture possible

Really good photos create a very positive first impression. Average photos won’t create any impression at all. They won’t necessarily detract from the site – they’ll just be ignored. It’s like this: you wear black every day, and no one says anything. One day you turn up wearing red and suddenly you get five compliments on how great you look! Great-looking photos will have the same effect.

With the plethora of online image library banks there’s ample opportunity to get stunning free (or inexpensive) stock photos which will convey just the right feeling or emotion. Start by visiting www.sxc.hu and www.istock.com. If you need photos of your actual product then get in a professional or at least a talented amateur photographer.

3. The navigation must be clear and easy to use

Have a text-based navigation system that is easy to use (no images and no flash animation). The visitor should know which page they are on and where they can go to next, so have ‘on’ ‘hover’ and ‘off’ states for links. Drop-down and ‘fly out’ navigation systems can be problematic for some users so are best avoided. If you have multiple levels of navigation and need to show links to sub pages, it’s generally much more usable to do this with a vertical menu positioned at the top of a side column.

Link relevant phrases within the actual copy of the site to matching pages. This helps with navigation and search engine rankings, as people will often click on these text links rather than the main navigation as they are in context with the subject.

Add links to key pages in the footer. Large footers are becoming very common on websites as research has shown that many users look for navigation at the bottom of each page (even ignoring the main navigation system). Your footer can include links to your most important pages (the ones that have the most information about your offer), your latest news items or blog posts, and we highly recommend you show your contact details in the footer as well.

Want to know more?

Give us a call on 366 3340 or send an email to info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz.