My trip to speak on web metrics in South Africa was interesting. The state of the Internet there is a few years behind the US. Most people still use dial up there and don't spend as much time online as Americans do. They are not quite as Net Savvy as Europe and the US.
But they are catching on and companies are realizing that they need to use their website as a business tool - not just something "nice to have," put it up and leave it there.
I spoke to members of the PR Institute of Southern Africa, The Marketing Federation of SA and the Cape IT Initiative. There were small businesses, web developers and representatives of the top 100 companies there. There is strong interest in Web analytics from the big companies.
Disturbingly we found that over 50% of the sites were built in frames and many web developers were not aware of search engine strategies. There are few SEO consultants in South Africa.
Getting the marketing department to work together with the IT department and make the site into an effective communication vehicle was a new perspective for most of them. And the idea of measuring and tracking visitors was brand new.
While this idea is gaining ground in the US, there are still many businesses who are not doing it.
I was at the Gilbane Conference on content management this week.
It was interesting to see who was there and hear why they had come to the conference. Most of them are floundering with large sites and multiple content authors.
The biggest problem I saw interviewing the attendees, is that their site lacks a content strategy. Yes, you need a content management system, but without a strategy it is still going to be a hodge podge of content.
It's a little like putting the cart before the horse.
Web analytics, setting up dashboards and scorecards to collect and report data, is the bottom of the process. Once you have the data you use it to monitor what visitors are doing on the site.
What do you do with all that data? Use it to create a content strategy so that you can direct the flow of content and visitor movement on the site to increase conversion and ROI. Ah! Now you need a content management system so you can control this process.
End result: you can achieve your business goals.
But they are catching on and companies are realizing that they need to use their website as a business tool - not just something "nice to have," put it up and leave it there.
I spoke to members of the PR Institute of Southern Africa, The Marketing Federation of SA and the Cape IT Initiative. There were small businesses, web developers and representatives of the top 100 companies there. There is strong interest in Web analytics from the big companies.
Disturbingly we found that over 50% of the sites were built in frames and many web developers were not aware of search engine strategies. There are few SEO consultants in South Africa.
Getting the marketing department to work together with the IT department and make the site into an effective communication vehicle was a new perspective for most of them. And the idea of measuring and tracking visitors was brand new.
While this idea is gaining ground in the US, there are still many businesses who are not doing it.
I was at the Gilbane Conference on content management this week.
It was interesting to see who was there and hear why they had come to the conference. Most of them are floundering with large sites and multiple content authors.
The biggest problem I saw interviewing the attendees, is that their site lacks a content strategy. Yes, you need a content management system, but without a strategy it is still going to be a hodge podge of content.
It's a little like putting the cart before the horse.
Web analytics, setting up dashboards and scorecards to collect and report data, is the bottom of the process. Once you have the data you use it to monitor what visitors are doing on the site.
What do you do with all that data? Use it to create a content strategy so that you can direct the flow of content and visitor movement on the site to increase conversion and ROI. Ah! Now you need a content management system so you can control this process.
End result: you can achieve your business goals.
posted by Sally at 7:13 AM
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