Too Much Information? Tips to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Website

	Find out from two eBay experts at the 2009 SEMA Show how to capture and interpret data on who visits your website, what they view and how long they stay.

The flood of data available to gauge the effectiveness of your website is mind-boggling. You know you've spent an enormous amount to build your site, but is it serving your business? Do you know who’s finding your site and what pages they're visiting? How do you act once you've determined the answers?

Linda Boudiab, Google Industry Analyst, and Mark Contreras, Google Metrics Analyst, present “Measure the Success of Your Online Efforts with eMetrics,” a one-hour seminar at the 2009 SEMA Show, Tuesday, November 3, 3:00–4:00 p.m. The course is an eye-opener for anybody who is concerned about measuring the results of their labors.

Here Boudiab and Contreras shed light on how to use metrics, and interpret the results, to build a better business website.

In today's world, Internet technology has given us both a problem and a solution. Data is abundant, but the question is what we do with all of this information? For instance, we now have the ability to look deep into online search query patterns and behavioral trends in real time. Automotive marketers have been waiting for years to obtain this level of detail in an effort to gauge their return on investment and understand the impact of their company websites.

Now the question is how can we sift through these massive amounts of data to make smarter web design and marketing decisions that will further drive the bottom line of your automotive parts and service business? By answering a few key questions about consumer behavior on your company's site, and comparing this to online search patterns unique to automotive consumers, you can adjust online efforts accordingly to maximize efficiency and achieve your overall business objectives.

One of the first questions you want to address is who is finding your site. Are you attracting qualified traffic, people who are likely to purchase your automotive parts or come to your facility for vehicle maintenance and service? A standard website analytics program can help you answer part of this puzzle by assessing how much or how little time consumers spend on your site, what sections they are visiting most frequently and what key performance indicators are being completed. If you find that performance against your key objectives is insufficient, you can develop a data-driven strategy to focus your optimization efforts.

Furthermore, it is important to assess what is driving consumer interest. This mystery can be solved without a crystal ball as we now have the ability to view real-time consumer search query trends. Identifying rising searches and seasonal query trends within niche areas can be an effective way to attract a significant volume of new visitors to your site.

For example, automotive service offerings often vary by regions. You may need to promote brake specials in New York while focusing on air conditioning repairs in Arizona. Looking at online behavior on a regional level enables you to precisely target your advertising efforts and provide more relevant information to consumers.

Perhaps you have already analyzed who your consumers are and what they are interested in. What's next? Now it's time to optimize for maximum efficiency. Let the data make difficult decisions much simpler for you.

For instance, suppose you have determined that consumers are actively searching for auto service specials. You have a page on your site that compares various service packages, but you are concerned about minimal consumer engagement on the site.

How do you optimize the site to achieve its maximum potential and drive traffic to the relevant offerings? Test! Perform tests with automation tools that generate different page layouts and let the data prove which formats resonate better with your consumers.

In addition to improving the efficiency of your website, utilizing data to optimize your content will also enable you to create a stronger connection with consumers. By delivering the right content to each individual in an effective manner, everyone wins.

Consumers will become more informed and empowered to make purchasing decisions while companies will develop a wider base of consumers who will purchase their products and services.

Seminar: “Measure the Success of Your Online Efforts with eMetrics”
Track: Business Efficiency 101, Sponsored by the SEMA Business Technology Committee (BTC)
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Time: 3:00–4:00 p.m.