Use your Web site to help achieve your business goals

You created a Web site for your company. But how can your online activities really help you grow your business?

This article presents four sample scenarios for using your online activities to help achieve your business goals, and it introduces the tools in Microsoft Office Live Small Business that can help you get that done.

 Note   You must activate the Reports feature before Office Live can begin to collect the data to be reported, such as page views and keyword usage. To activate Reports, on the Office Live Small Business Home page, at the top, click More, and then click Reports. On the Reports page, click Activate for FREE.

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• How can your Web site contribute to your business?

• What is your Web site telling you?

• Determine and track key performance indicators

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How can your Web site contribute to your business?

Regardless of the type of company you have, you can set goals for your Web site as you do for any part of your business. But a goal also needs to be specific for you to be able to track progress toward that goal and use it as part of your business strategy.

The following scenarios present four possible goals for building your online business. The link at the end of each scenario provides detailed guidance for developing a strategy to work effectively toward that goal.

• Increase repeat visitors  Regardless of whether you sell products or provide services, increasing traffic to your Web site is an important part of building your online business. However, more visits do not necessarily mean more business. For example, if you see an increase in the number of pages viewed by the average visitor, does that mean that people like your site, or does it mean that they cannot find what they need? For help planning a strategy to build customer relationships online, see Increase repeat visitors to your Web site.
• Build a newsletter subscriber database  Increasing your database of newsletter subscribers provides you with more opportunities for developing new customers and strengthening existing customer relationships. But having more subscribers does not necessarily lead to more business. For example, if you make unrealistic offers on your Web site to entice people to subscribe, or if you offer newsletter content that is not relevant to your business, does an increase in the number of subscribers provide any business benefit? For help planning a strategy to grow a productive subscriber list, see Build your newsletter subscriber database.
• Improve event attendance  Using your Web site to help draw customers to your local store or events requires some strategic planning. After all, a bigger crowd does not necessarily mean more business. Whether you sell products or provide services, you know that one attendee from your target customer base can do more for your business than 20 people with no interest in your company. So, how do you begin? For help planning an online strategy to bring more customers to one event or many, see Improve attendance at local events.
• Increase inquiries from your target customers  If you have a service business with a Web site, you know that being online can help your business grow. However, more inquiries do not necessarily mean more business. In fact, increasing inquiries from those who are not potential clients can detract from your business because the time you take responding to those inquiries is time that you could spend on your existing business. So how can you focus your efforts and cultivate inquiries that are more likely to come from your target customers? For help planning a strategy to attract your target customer, see Increase inquiries from potential customers.

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What is your Web site telling you?

After you establish your goal, you can use the site reports available in Office Live Small Business to help you find your Web site’s current strengths and help you focus your initial approach. For example, consider the following:

• The Page Usage report shows you the most popular pages on your Web site. When you are deciding where to place promotional content on your Web site, this report shows you which pages currently get the most traffic.
• The Referring Sources report tells you which sites, such as an industry forum or a search engine, result in the most visitors to your site. This is a good report to use when you are trying to select online locations to use for attracting potential customers to your site.
• The Keywords report tells you which keywords that you specify for your Web site are used most often in searches that result in visitors finding your site. This report can help you determine which aspects of your business draw the most visitors to your site, so that you can focus your efforts in those areas. For more information about using keywords to improve search engine results, see Make your site attractive to search engines.

For help working with the Reports feature in Office Live Small Business, see the articles Understand reports and Use reports.

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Determine and track key performance indicators

Using site reports to help you determine your initial approach is only a small part of how reports can support your online business efforts. Site reports are also a very important part of tracking your progress and measuring your success as you work toward your goals.

After you design a strategy and decide which online tools you want to use in support of a particular goal (such as pages on your Web site or a Contact Us form), you can determine how to best track the results of your efforts. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are those factors that provide the most important information about the success of the efforts that you make toward achieving your goal.

The site reports available in Office Live Small Business can tell you exactly what you need to know about most of the KPIs that you identify. For example, you can use the Web Site Usage Overview dashboard to view progress for several KPIs together or designate and track conversion points to see which pages make a measurable difference in your online business.

 Note   A conversion point can be any page you designate on your site that indicates growth in customer relationships, such as the page reached when a visitor submits a Contact Us or newsletter sign-up form. You can track conversions in the Referring Sources and Keywords reports, and also in the Visitors report.

For help using site reports to track KPIs and help you move toward your business goals, see the article Track and analyze key performance indicators.

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