The start of a new year - a time when many people take stock of the year that's passed, set personal goals and make plans for the year ahead. For many businesses the dawn of a new year is also a time for goal setting and scoping out improvements that can be made or achievements that can be built upon from the previous year. From our experience in the web industry it's also a time when many businesses reconsider their existing...

When it comes to measuring and monitoring your website’s performance using Google Analytics, 'Bounce Rate' is one of the most important metrics that web marketers use to determine the effectiveness of a website. In this post I'll take a look at what bounce rate is, why it is important, and what you can do to improve it. What is bounce rate? Google define bounce rate as "the percentage of single-page visits in which the person left your website from the entrance...

In an earlier post I introduced just some of the ways you can try to improve your website's conversion rate and get more visitors to complete a desired action on your website such as submitting an enquiry, signing up for an offer, providing you with their email address, making a purchase, and so on. In this follow-up post I'll introduce you to the process of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO), while also highlighting some of the tools that can be used to...

According to Gartner (the world's leading information technology research and advisory company), by 2013 mobile devices will overtake desktop computers and laptops as the most common web access device worldwide. And while New Zealand’s smartphone uptake is slightly behind the rest of the world, the increased adoption of these devices cannot be ignored. As a consequence it’s becoming more and more necessary to not only consider these devices, but actually cater to them in your website design and build process. When...

As online marketing becomes increasingly mainstream in NZ it’s clear that any successful online marketing strategy needs to address a variety of factors, not just traffic generation. While it’s certainly important to see your daily/weekly/monthly visits graph trending upwards over time, you also need to pay close attention to what’s happening with your website’s ‘conversion rate’ - the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your site, such as submitting an enquiry, signing up for an offer, providing you...

The government’s announcement that ultra-fast broadband (UFB) is on its way to 7 lucky regions in New Zealand’s North Island is music to our ears. New Plymouth has long been a technology hub with companies such as Tenderlink, Webfarm and of course Apex Digital being headquartered here, but this latest announcement means that New Plymouth will be leading the country in being the first to experience the considerable benefits that UFB brings, ahead of any of the major centres. Having recently...

In this post we outline some of the key factors you should be thinking about when deciding whether to register a '.com' or a '.co.nz' domain name. On the face of it choosing a domain name for your website would appear to be a fairly straightforward process; brainstorm and select a name that identifies your business or service offering, check to see if it’s available for purchase (i.e. not already taken by someone else), and pay the fee required to register...