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Website issues, will you be ready?

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Getting your plan together

You are browsing your site and jotting down changes that you would like to make when all of a sudden your site goes blank. Its not your internet. It only happens when you go to your site. You know something went wrong but you are not sure what your next steps will be.

In that type of scenario you need to know what to do and how to go about it. Most importantly you need to act fast. The longer you have website issues like that you could be losing hundreds of potential customers. It doesn’t take a lot of technical knowledge to fix the normal issues, but sometimes it helps or is required. Lets go through some of the most common website issues and how those are normally fixed. Keep in mind this might not work for everyone.

1. Database Connection Error

“Error Establishing a database connection”

Have you ever gotten this while on your site? If your site has been working perfectly for over 48 hours and you did not edit the database connection file, it could be that the server just made an oops and is waiting a few minutes and refreshing fixes it.

If you were messing with the database connection file and it was working and now it is not. Log into your hosting account to retrieve your database connection information to make sure it is correct. To keep downtime to a minimum when editing files, keeping a backup to replace it if something goes wrong can save a lot of headaches and downtime.

2. The Infamous 404 Error

If you browse the internet then you are most likely familiar with the 404 error. It means that the web page you’re looking for can’t be found. If you own a website, the last thing you want is your site to have a user get that error. To help find them all, start using Google Webmaster Tools. All you need to do is  prove you own the site you want info on. Then you will have access to tons of tools including a list of all the 404 error links that google has found.

To fix a broken link, redirect the link to an actual page on your site. The broken link might  come from your site itself. Sometimes it’s from an external source, or someone might have bookmarked it, or they might of misspelled it while typing. Sometimes search engines also find weird links to pages that don’t exist. They could be pages that did exist but don’t anymore. The only way to fix them is to redirect them. Sometimes you can find the source of the bad link and delete it. Other times you just won’t be able to find it. In either case, it would be a good practice to redirect it. Just in case.

404 Error
One example of a 404 error page

3. Internal Server Error

If you have a website then you most likely have at least heard of a 500 error, otherwise known as Internal Server Error. It has nothing to do with what you did. Everyone makes mistakes and computers are no exception. The website issue is on the server your site is hosted with. Most times they go away from refreshing or waiting a few minutes. Other times you need to call your hosting provider.

Internal Server Error
What usually shows up for an Internal Server Error

4. White Screen of Death

If you have ever edited a file on your server labeled “.htaccess” then you probably know how easy it is to mess up your site with it. In normal coding if you mess up, something just looks a little off. Editing inside this file, if you mess up then your site goes completely blank. No website issue from the server or PHP error, it’s just a white page.

Whenever you plan to make a change to the file, it is best practices to make a working copy. That way if you mess up and are not sure what you did wrong, you simply load the working version and your site’s back up again. That way your site will be down for as long as it takes you to notice its down and to upload the working copy.

Got some questions about a website issue? Ask away in the comments below!

Five Reasons to Monitor Your Internet Marketing Efforts

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Over the past several years, the greatest challenge facing internet marketers and web analysts has been convincing superiors and clients of the value of monitoring all of their web-based efforts. All-too-often, they will fire back with something along the lines of “Oh, we know how many visits we’re getting to the site.” This statement usually comes from an organization that has their overworked IT department “monitoring” their site’s activity. Little do these organizations know that the visits metric means little-to-nothing in the grand scheme of things, especially if you are not using it in unison with the countless other metrics that are available.

So perhaps you’ll be making a pitch to the higher-ups in your company about implementing a web analytics strategy, or maybe you are one of the higher-ups and are curious to see whether or not it’s worth it. Well, here are 5 great reasons to use web analytics to track your website and internet marketing efforts:

  1. Visits Don’t Mean Anything! As mentioned before, simply knowing how many visits your website received in a month does not mean you know how your website is performing. There are so many more metrics that should be considered that can be combined to yield more detailed and useful statistics about the website.You can have all the visits in the world, but if they’re not converting, then they’re practically worthless.
  2. Discover Where Marketing Efforts Should Be Focused. Not only can Web Analytics solutions uncover where your visitors are coming from, but it can also shine light on where your organization should be focusing its marketing and internet efforts.
  3. Know What Your Visitors Are and Are NOT Looking For. Paying attention to what pages and content your visitors are viewing most often can uncover what your consumers are actually looking for.Just the same, it can also show what visitors are less interested in, so you can save your company’s time and efforts in pushing the wrong products, services, or information.
  4. Monitor Traditional Marketing Effectiveness. Web Analytics isn’t just limited to seeing how well your website is doing or where your visitors are coming from. When implemented by web analytics ninjas, you can also see how effective your more traditional marketing methods are at driving traffic, and more importantly, conversions, to your website.
  5. Hone in on Your Target Market. Using methods like advanced segmentation and conversion tracking, you can identify who is spending the most quality time on your site and who is most likely to spend money. In doing this, a much clearer picture is painted of who your organization should be reaching out to the most.
There you have it- Five great reasons to seriously consider Web Analytics for your organization. In an economic climate like today’s, your organization cannot afford to turn its nose up to this, as monitoring your internet marketing strategies and efforts yields crucial insights into increasing conversions and sales.

Monitor Phone Lines, Billboards, Direct Mail Pieces, and More Using Multichannel Analytics

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Most people involved with the marketing facet of a company would agree that there are countless avenues to market with.Websites, banner advertising, e-mail marketing, direct mail marketing, cold calling…the list goes on and on.Over the past decade, it’s become increasingly important to monitor marketing effectiveness.Web analytics tools have been improving as quickly as the rest of the internet has, allowing for more dynamic, in-depth analysis with every new update.With these new updates and improvements, it has now become possible to monitor much more than just a website.

When implemented properly and in the hands of a web analytics ninja, platforms like Google Analytics can be used to monitor and track the effectiveness of more than just websites.Using advanced integration methods such as event tracking, virtual pageviews, and cross-domain tracking, these tools can be used to track everything from your organization’s social media efforts to phone calls.That’s right: phone calls. Call tracking is the latest trick in the analytical magic bag, using a hidden, blank web page bound to a specific phone number to track calls via “pageviews”.  Call tracking isn’t the only trackable avenue of marketing that isn’t limited by the internet.Using things like custom phone numbers and vanity URLs, it is also possible to use web analytics platforms to effectively track direct mail and even billboard advertising.

As human beings, we can’t help but think in silos.In today’s marketing world, it is crucial that we break away from this old way of thinking and see how all of these facets and avenues of advertising are tied together.When data from all of these areas of marketing is combined, it can generate crucial business intelligence and reveal insights that could give your organization the edge it needs.