Analytics from the SMB E-commerce Trenches

The SEO Plunge:  Outsourcing $ v. In-House Headache

[1-800 incoming call, third one that week]  "We've noticed that your website could benefit from SEO.  Give us 30 minutes to discuss how ... [Version 1:  "with just a budget of $5K/month"] [Version 2:  "you really should be spending $50K/month"] [Version 3:  pick-a-$-amount] ... we can do it all for you."

"Give us a keyword list.  [SMB owner provides three-page list based on active homepage.]  No, those keywords aren't right.  Go back and rework the list".  ("Well, what would be right besides words which describe and market what I'm actually selling?"  Several hours of work later, without feedback ...)  "Well, let us know when you're ready to move forward and apply a budget ...."  This type of encounter -- notice the SEO cold-caller hasn't actually invested any time or effort -- can occur multiple times a month based on how many calls an SMB owner/manager receives.

SMB owners, whether start-up solopreneurs or  traditional brick-and-mortar managers becoming e-commerce vendors, are trying to set up all the pieces to provide a product or service.  Invariably, no matter which hosting platform they select, they'll have to learn, or at least become familiar with, html or whatever customizing coding is currently in vogue -- a fact that many don't realize will be required and requires substantial additional ramp-up time.

Customizing a pre-packaged website template doesn't put a site on the virtual map.  Another surprise is learning that an actively running site doesn't guarantee that any customer will actually automatically find it on the Web.  SMB owners learn, without a hosting service necessarily informing them of this, that they have to apply for, receive and embed code from Google, Yahoo and other search engines to "see" each page their site.    If a hosting service back-end is presented  visually/as info blocks and uses drag-and-drop, learning curve is minimal.  If, OTOH, the back-end is coded, an owner/manager has to learn the language of SEO, find the code required, cut and paste it into what they think/hope is the correct line before the correct </command>, click "Apply" and hope for the best.

Getting set up with analytics is relatively simple using Google, whose dashboard is, for the most part, intuitive, except for exceptions like ....  (Then again, if an SMB owner has never laid eyes on a Web dashboard before, they might not even know they're supposed to have/use one.)  Using it most effectively to optimize marketing ROI is another matter.

SEO Necessity:  New Language, New Club

An e-commerce manager must learn SEO vocabulary to survive marketing effectively on the Web.  Whether they self-monitor/manage or outsource they have to speak the language of their environment and/or their service provider.  Step 1:  Define Your Terms.

A first look at a Google Analytics report can feel like a crash course in statistics, when it's simply the quantitative side of basic market research; e.g. what, exactly, is "Bounce Rate"? (a likely first e-commerce vendor question).  

Analytics Use:  SMB Customer Experience Issue

It's great to know how a site is used/visited, which viewers are new v. repeats, where interested viewers/paying customers are located on the map, what product/service content they're viewing and the path they took to get there (and leave), and what technology they use to be assured that they can view everything comfortably and quickly.  BUT many SMB owners/managers still need the basics covered in order to be able to understand, let alone use, the tool, as current language still assumes a great deal and seems to be code spoken internally among Those Who Know SEO, e.g.:

• What's the difference between a "Pageview" and a "Visit"?  
• What is an "Absolute Unique Visitor" and how is that different from a "Visitor" or "Unique Visits"?  
• Does a "Length of Visit" cover all "Pageviews"?  
• What are my options in "Custom Variables" if I don't know how to get started and there's no "Help", "What is This?" or "How to Use This" link provided?  
• And what do I do if, in the list of main keywords reported, the highest number is in the "(not set)" category and I have no clue as to what to do with that or how the information helps me?  
• Does "Direct Traffic" mean that someone found my site by clicking directly on it or by searching for my site or brand name?
• When I look at my site's profile,  what does "Exclude URL Query Parameters?" mean, and how do I know what to put in that box?

And "Why?" questions abound:

• If my e-commerce host has already helped me embed Google search html into my site and checkout pages, how come those pages don't appear for me in analytics? and why am I not told "Go Here If You Want to Add/View XYZ Pages"?
• When I created a Google Analytics account, why was I not first directed to a "Profile" page so I could enter that my business was, in fact, an e-commerce site, and gain full use of the revenue tracking tools there, instead of discovering this page more than a year later?

Before SMB non-Webmasters and non-SEO experts can use their powerful market research/datamining analytics tools well, they have to understand what they're for, how they're constructed and how to interpret what's presented.  Speaking for the USA, if "Small Business Drives the U.S. Economy" (U.S. Small Business Administration) representing 99+% of all businesses, especially in the current economy even the search engine giants might still benefit from redesigning their analytics environments toward being more general businessperson friendly -- and not assume that SMBs are employing SEO expertise to manage this capability.


(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.