Tracking and measuring a web site’s performance is critical in
terms of making informed decisions about “what to do next.” I
recently read that over 90% of web sites don’t have basic
measurement systems in place. Unbelievable.

The obvious first step is to use Google Analytics, the no-cost
alternative from Google. But once you’ve got GA installed (and
are actually using the data it provides), what next?

I had mistakenly thought that most people knew about the following
three cool tools, but in recent conversations I’ve found that not
to be the case.

1. What are people saying online about you, your competitors, your
   industry, certain keywords of interest to you?

   Ever wonder about this? Google Alerts will solve this problem for you.

   A couple of hints in using this “tool.”

   When you set up Google Alerts through your Google account (my
   recommended method), you can choose options in terms of the
   type of content – news, blogs, web, or my choice – comprehensive.

   You can also choose the frequency and several other cool options.

   Check it out at www.Google.com/Alerts

2. What are the trends of your market? Here’s another little known Google tool that will give you a
   snapshot of how many people are searching online for a given term
   (or up to 5 terms) over a period of time.

   What’s also important from a marketing perspective is that Google
   Trends also includes data from regions, subregions, cities, and language.

   We’ve used the tool to intiate Facebook advertising campaigns to target
   people who live in certain cities, for example. Talk about targeted marketing.

   You can access it at www.Google.com/Trends

3. What about a visual reprentation of where people actually click on your web site? It happens a lot. Someone (business owner, web site designer, etc.) decides they
   know how a page should look or be laid out to optimize performance. By this I mean
   where visitors will click so that they ultimately become your customers, clients, or patients.

   My attitude is always, “Test, and let the visitors show you by where they click.”

   CrazyEgg offers a free trial to low cost solution for this very challenge.

   It represents this information in several ways, but my favorite is its heat map alternate.
   When you install the tracking code on a page (one limitation is that you have to install the
   tracking code on each page you want to test), you’ll be able to quickly see where people
   are clicking.

   We’ve used the tool successfully for several years to see in real time what web site visitors
   are doing when they reach the page. We can then change the location, wording, etc. of
   different page elements to see how we can improve things.

   You can get more information at www.CrazyEgg.com

Hope this helps you improve the performance of your online presence.

By the way, if you’ve got any cool tools you use, comment below.