It’s been a while since I checked my Google PageRank and my Alexa traffic rankings, so I decided to have a little peek this morning.
My findings weren’t particularly interesting, but they did get me thinking about the state of my business.
First of all, what did Google and Alexa think?
It seems that Google doesn’t like me quite as much as it did a few months ago. My PR has dropped from an insignificant 3/10 to a paltry 2/10. Why I do not know; clearly I’ve done something to annoy the big G.
On the bright side, Alexa has upped my ranking from 2,216,056 (which is probably as low as any ranking could be) to 829,909 (still rubbish, but better).
Why?
I think there are a couple of good reasons why this has happened to me:
- I’ve been messing around with my site a fair bit lately. I’ve had 2 site redesigns in the past 12 months, a change in the structure of the site’s content, and a hosting change a couple of months ago. Surely none of this can be helpful.
- Google obviously doesn’t think much of the links I’ve been building to this site lately. Pity, but sometimes these things happen. Google PageRank is a completely worthless gauge of a website’s importance anyway, so I don’t really care.
- Traffic to my blog has steadily been increasing over the past 3 months, so Alexa is right to notice my 362% increase in global reach. Of course, Alexa is just as worthless as Google at measuring website authority.
Why I don’t care about Google PR or Alexa
PageRank and Alexa rank are rubbish in my opinion, so what do I consider to be a good indication of my website’s performance this year?
- More traffic (78% increase in the past 6 months).
- More comments on my blog (but not enough. Get commenting!)
- More return visitors (my bounce rate has dropped from a whopping 93% to 59%)
- More sales leads (from less than 3 per month to between 5 and 8 per week).
- A higher number of sales lead conversions (no data available, but something seems to be working).
On the whole I’d give my progress a 7/10 so far this year. I’ve fallen short of the goals I set myself but I’m not too disappointed. Besides, I’ve still got 2 months to go.
So that’s how I use a tiny bit of science and a huge dollop of gut feel to measure my online business performance. How do you measure yours?
Online marketing doesn’t have to be complicated, and as far as I know there aren’t any rules to say you can’t have fun doing it.
Everything your microbusiness needs to be an online success is contained within the next 4 points. Granted, it’s a bit simplified, but the basic idea is bang on. So read carefully and take these ideas to heart:
Step 1: Get WordPress
Forget about what anyone else tells you about websites, the Internet and search engines. Content is what drives search engine results and there’s no better content management tool than WordPress. Of course it does cost £0.00 so that may be a sticking point for some of you corporate types.
If the world wasn’t on the brink of destruction, WordPress would go down in history as one of the most important inventions of the 21st century. You can download a copy of WordPress from www.wordpress.org.
If you don’t like the default theme that ships with WordPress, you might want to spruce up your design. You can either download a free theme from themes.wordpress.net (or do a Google search for ‘free wordpress themes’), or you can buy a premium theme from diythemes, woothemes or from Brian Gardner’s Revolution Theme store (there are plenty more, but these are the cream of the crop). Alternatively you could hire me to design a custom theme for you. That’s a subtle hint that I’m for hire, in case you didn’t notice.
Step 2: Install some plugins
To get the most out of WordPress, you’ll need a few plugins. A WordPress plugin is a little piece of add-on software that helps your WordPress driven website achieve more, and act more like a Website than a blog. For most microbusinesses wanting to run a small website with a blog, consider activating Akismet to protect you from spam, and download cForms II, Sociable, Related posts and the All-in-one SEO pack. That’ll do for the time being.
Step 3: Learn SEO
It doesn’t matter if you know absolutely nothing about Search Engine Optimisation. You should still sign up to Aaron Wall’s SEObook training program. There’s never been a more comprehensive guide to understanding SEO. For those of you who don’t have the time to do the whole course, I suggest Aaron’s guide to Blog Optimisation (it’s shorter, and it’s free).
Step 4: Communicate
Now that you’ve got a website that can do backflips, you know all about SEO and your site looks pretty, you need to start blogging. If you still don’t know what a blog is, or how it can help your business, I recommend reading Problogger or Chris Garrett’s blog. Blogging is probably the most important marketing activity your microbusiness should be doing regularly. There’s never been a faster, more organic way to grow a business while still having fun.
Well, that’s it. Four simple steps to online success. Other than Aaron’s SEObook and a decent hosting account, you don’t need to spend a penny. You’ve still got a bit of time until CERN’s LHC makes the world disappear into a black hole, so unless you want to spend that time with friends and family you can achieve almost everything on this list. Good luck!
Hello, I’m Dave. I work with web design agencies, freelancers and bloggers to develop standards-compliant WordPress and Thesis themes.