Analyze This: Is Your Site Up to Par?
By Kath Blackwell
Are you doing everything you can to ensure that your site is working to its full potential? Have you cross-referenced your sites with each other, built up an inner structure of traffic within your own domains, tried every sponsorship program available, explored new niches and looked at your business model from every possible angle? Chances are - whoever you are - that your answer to those questions was no. Not every webmaster can check absolutely everything - or remember to do everything - when setting up your Web sites, managing your business and looking at fresh options. But we do the best we can. Exploring new ways to do old business - or finding innovative ideas to solve typical problems are the keys to success on the 'Net. But the first step in moving on to a new idea or new project, is to make sure that what you currently have in place is working at its best.
Everything - even the most basic of government systems - is run by a simple method of checks and balances. Making a checklist of things that you should look over on a regular basis within your Web site is something that every good webmaster should do. Often, we get too busy with the day-to-day running of things to stop and look at the big picture. And, even when we do find the time, we're usually "too close" to the situation to see things clearly.
The basic areas of your Web site with which you should be most concerned, those most essential to the success of your business, are: load time, compatibility, traffic, visibility, accessibility, filtering, targeting and freshness. Making sure that all those areas are addressed and "up to par" will help to ensure the continuing and on-going success of your Web site.
Load Time - Testing the load time of your Web site, not just on your computer but on friends' and through bandwidth checking utilities, is very important to the success of your site. If you are working on DSL, cable or some other form of high-speed access, you may inadvertently be shutting out dial-up users simply because your graphics are too large, or the page takes too long to load. There are lots of free services out there that you can use to check your load time, such as netmechanic.com, jimtools.com and websitegarage.com. Pay services that check load time for you from multiple locations and different platforms are available, and should be considered by webmasters trying to meet the needs of global customers, especially if you're running high bandwidth programs or graphics-intense tours.
Compatibility - The compatibility of your site can also be tested on the free services listed above, however your best method of checking is to use multiple browsers on your own computers. MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer) is still the leading browser being used today, but you must remember that even though it is popular, it's not the only choice going. You should frequently check out www.w3.org, the World Wide Web Consortium, a site that lists the basic compatibility standards and guidelines for Web development, design and production. Keeping "up" on the basics, as outlined by the W3C, will help you build Web sites that are easily used by everyone who wanders into your domain. Tutorials, examples, discussions and news about hot topics concerning HTML design, use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Java, Flash and other webmaster concerns are posted within this site, and are updated frequently. The W3C also offers a free-to-use HTML validation service, which will thoroughly check your site and let you know if you have included any code, which might be a problem for users. You can find this free program at www.validator.w3.org.
Traffic - How is your traffic? Where does it come from - what is it looking for - how did it find you? These are all questions you should be asking - and to which you should know the answers. Chances are your hosting company already gives you access to stats that provide information on referral links, time spent on the site, pages accessed, and graphics/page-views per visit. Some even give details on what operating system (OS) your traffic is using, what browser and version on which the pages are being viewed, and what area of the globe from which that traffic is coming. Free traffic counters and services are also available if your host does not freely offer this additional information, and there are some amazing stats trackers out there now that are pay-for-service tools, again something you should consider looking into, depending upon how large your site and business are becoming. The more you know about how much traffic you're getting, when the traffic is peaking, where the traffic is coming from and what they are looking at when they get there - the better you'll be able to make those sales! And to find out where your traffic is going, see Levi Stanley's scripting article in Klixxx Volume IV, Issue 1. It's time to review it now.
Visibility - How easy is it for surfers to find you? Say Joe Surfer gets a new computer, opens the box, sets it up, goes online and searches for adult entertainment - will he find you? Are you visible to the adult-surfing public, or are you hiding in a mess of links? You might be linked up on all the biggest link lists, top lists and TGP sites - but if Joe Surfer doesn't know about those directories and listings sites, then how will he find you? Do you Yahoo? Almost everyone does... even the newbies who are just finding their way onto the Web. Having a listing in a place like Yahoo.com, Google.com (which is the engine used by Yahoo, BTW) and other popular mainstream-known engines, directories and listings is a great way to get fresh, untarnished traffic. Just think about it, these guys haven't been hit with a million adult pop-up-ads and auto-refreshes. They are brand spanking new, and might just want what you've got. This is why getting a good - and accurate - listing is SO important. You need to get your site out there and visible for the whole world to see. Don't limit yourself to just adult-only listings and resources. Mainstream is a lot friendlier to adult listings than you'd think - just follow the rules, don't cheat, and you'll enjoy the fruits of your honest labors.
Maneuverability/Accessibility - How easy is it to access your site? I'm not just talking about having options for the disabled (which is something to consider), I'm talking about accessibility as in being easy to get into and maneuver. So they find your site through Yahoo.com or one of the engines. Great. But once they're there can they find your content, advertising, join page or even the enter link? We've all seen those sites that have the "enter and exit link" options so buried beneath advertising and logos that it's almost impossible to find. There are some instances where you want to sort of "circle jerk" your surfers around, but finding the door to enter your site is not one of them. Once inside, can they find what they are looking for? And when they find the free content samples - can they find the join link or advertisement for your sponsor so they can buy a membership and get more of the same? The pages should flow together with "next," "back," and "Click Here to Join" links very visible and apparent throughout. If the surfer isn't frustrated and bombarded by pop-ups, auto-refreshes and other manipulative techniques, chances are you'll be able to make them feel comfortable enough to make a sale. When you go to the store you want to find what you came in looking for, put it in your basket, buy it and go home. Surfers feel the same way - give them what they want, make the sale and get them off your site.
Filtering - Do you know how to filter your traffic? Are you filtering your traffic? Please say that you answered yes to both of those questions. Filtering your traffic - the webmaster's "art" of manipulating traffic to go to specific niche sites, membership options or site types based upon choices made by the surfer or the types of browsers, operating systems and even the countries they come from. Filtering your traffic - separating the good-converting folks from the lookie-loos for example - is a great way to increase your overall conversion ratio. By moving those surfers who are not interested in making a purchase off to a circle jerk, pop-up area or direct to a "join or leave" page will save you money in bandwidth. It will also give you more opportunities to properly sell to those who are there with the idea of making a purchase. You can filter surfers off to different areas by language, niche, interest, purchase process (i.e. credit card, check, dialers, etc.) and an endless list of other options. It's all up to you - the type of traffic you have - and what you want to do with it.
Targeting - You can also save yourself some time trying to filter the traffic if you properly target that traffic right from the beginning. Are you targeting your audience by using correct and descriptive keywords, banner advertising and text in your listings? Using misleading words to just "get people to the site" can result in lots of traffic - but if they came there looking for one thing and you show them another, you could miss out on a sale. Some great mini-tips for getting targeted traffic is to get listed on niche-specific link lists, top lists and by using targeted content in your previews on TGP galleries, Pic Posts and free sites. If you properly target your free samples to work with the content available within the main membership site or other concept/program you are trying to sell, the sale will come that much easier. It sounds so basic and simple, but the honest truth is that many webmasters overlook the power of targeting and direct marketing to surfers who are looking for something specific. Getting a good, descriptive listing in one of the search engines or mainstream directories for your specific niche will yield highly converting and highly-targeted traffic. The 'Net is growing up - it's time to get niche specific, maybe even move toward micro-niche if you want to increase your sales potential.
Freshness - Do you ever feel "not fresh?" No - this is not one of those mother-daughter advice commercials from TV - we're talking about the content on your Web site. All content - not just pics, feeds and stories, but banner advertising, full/partial page ads and tours. You need to make sure you keep your site fresh with new content, new theme-based advertising (holidays, hot promotions, current membership rates), interactive content like chats and boards that change daily, and fresh feeds. Keeping your content new and exciting will help retain members - and on free sites, keeping your banner advertising and sample content fresh just might convert a surfer who had been coming to your site just waiting for whatever the new thing is you just started offering. It also helps prevent you from sending someone to a sponsor for the $19.95 a month membership as listed on the banner, when the sponsor actually changed 3 months ago to a $24.95 membership rate. Keeping that information accurate - and your content and advertising fresh - will help you increase your sales.
These are just a few of the things that you should review on your sites- on a regular basis. Making sure you are doing all you can - dotting those 'i's' and crossing those 't's' - to get the sale and retain your members is what it's all about. Staying on top of the design, content, traffic and accessibility issues seem like common sense, but actually taking care of those things is what separates the successful webmaster from the flash-in-the-pan.
You owe it to yourself to analyze your site on a regular basis and make sure it is still doing everything you originally intended it to do. And if sales start to drop off or traffic starts to dwindle - staying on top of all of these hot points will help you recover quickly and get back on the road to profit. After all - isn't that what we're all in this industry for - to make a profit? Analyze your site today and find out how you can make improvements that will help you tomorrow.
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