How Site Evaluator Metrics Saves You Time and Money 

A website owner like you can be beset with various problems from day the day your website is up and running. This is because there are technological aspects of your business website that you have to be aware of when managing your online presence. Even though your content and images appeal easily to website visitors, there is a need to know if your business is faring well with competitors and if it is really patronized by many.

As we all know, a website is a huge investment in time, effort and money. Some small business owners hire the best teams to learn how the Internet can bring them good financial status as they know that they are not quite familiar with how several online processes work. These are people who are bent on taking back what they have cashed out the surest way possible.

With processes, we mean there is really an enormous list with which ordinary people are not familiar. So, if you are still trying to find out where you have gone amiss, then, most likely, you have been losing money already. You don’t need to panic. There are easy ways you can use to get your desired business outcome in time which requires effort and patience.

Why evaluating your website saves you time and money?

Website evaluation is the ultimate means of accelerating your online business success as it helps you understand why visitors are either flocking or fleeing your website. Fast Track’s Site Evaluator uses several metrics to evaluate your site’s ability to draw in people. If continually monitored and results are intelligently analyzed, your business is set to receive higher revenues using the shortest possible time.

Without knowing which way your site is going can be devastating to your purse that’s why Site Evaluator was developed to help you with this major issue.

Advantages of Using the Site Evaluator

There are several reasons why this website evaluator can make you save on time and money. It helps your business website the following:

Site Accessibility: There are sites that seem to deprive individuals who have disabilities like auditory or verbal, visual, neurological or cognitive deficiencies; include those who have temporary impediments as well. These people also like to visit websites to learn new technologies that can add to their knowledge. Using W3C and alternative text to create easy navigation would mean no visitor is lost and additional visitors for competing websites can be trimmed down.

Website Performance: A slow loading site drives away possible earning opportunities and creates negative impact on a company’s reputation. Images that are too big and placing unnecessary codes on the pages challenge the way your site behaves when clicked. If this happens, visitors are turned away just like turning away future revenues. Site Evaluator will tell you if there is a need to compress image sizes or weed out broken links.

Social Media Optimization: There are more than a couple of ways to improve your online presence and many have depended on social media to optimize their websites as well. But not all business owners know how they rate when it comes to this category. So, if you fail in this department, we would be the first ones to know. We will see to it that all social networking sites would partake of your content by means of integrating into your site all social networking buttons and see to it that there are no broken links.’

Site Availability: An ideal site responds to users at any time and that means continuous flow of business. Although no website can promise to cater to its users 24/7, Site Evaluator says being available for a little less than 100% is fair enough. We measure a site’s availability by means of the entire of number of days in a year it is on and by the web hosting company it is associated with. This guarantees good availability score for your online business.

Website Security: Security is imperative for a website so as to protect its users and to cultivate trust and loyalty. It also reinforces website rankings because if more users see that their information details are safe from hackers, more users will feel secure to share their information in your website forms.  This is paramount if you are an eCommerce site and requires users to fill in online payment forms. Greater customer trust means happy customers. Happy customers would likely mean repeat orders from you and/or refer you to their friends and families. 

Site Support: A website that has full customer support creates a more loyal audience. Customers expect their issues or even the simplest questions are addressed fast and easy. Several websites lack contact forms, chat support pop-ins or forums that can provide the right solutions anytime of the day. Site evaluator measures your site by means of feedback or communication between you and your customers.

Marketing Metric: As majority of websites that exist today function as marketing tools, there is a need to maximize effectiveness through the use of various industries’ best practices like creating active blogs and integration of social media among others. Site Evaluator assesses your marketing metrics via lead generation, mobile, SEO, blogging, and Social media scores. If you don’t have forums, blogs or RSS feeds, and most especially, an integrated social media, then, expect to get a low score on this category.

Search Engine Optimization: Websites that have good search engine rankings get the most number of viewers and customers alike.  Without effective keywords, descriptions or meta-tags, you can never compete with others who have this capability. Site Evaluator helps you see where your site is at and makes you know the difference between an entirely optimized site and one that is haphazardly done.

Site Usability: To optimize usability, your site must have a search function to make it easy-to-use and convenient for your visitors. This makes them find the right kind of product that you are selling or the type of service they are looking for. If not, possible buyers will tend to abandon your site and transfer to another that can offer them ease. Always remember that online competition is stiff and a flick of a finger can change the course of your website’s financial status. Our company can suggest ideas that may cause your business topple others after learning where you have committed a blunder.

As nothing comes for free these days, you can get a good bargain even though you’d pay more in getting the services of experts. But while not all experts are excellent in this field, we can assure you that all benefits will be yours once you have tried our Site Evaluator. We know how much you need this tool and we know that by helping you implement it on your site, you would come close to becoming a successful online business entrepreneur in the long haul. And what else? It’s totally FREE!

View User Profile for Crista McCandless Crista is a self-proclaimed geek who loves fiction, data analysis, growth hacking and everything Tolkien. At Fast Track, she helps businesses identify areas to improve and grow online with her ninja moves. She manages the digital strategy, including online marketing and search engine optimization. Follow her musings about world domination in Twitter as @crista_mcc.
Posted by Crista McCandless Monday, June 20, 2016 10:03:00 AM Categories: marketing tips Site Evaluator web trends

The Ultimate On-Page Optimization Checklist 

Here is a check list to help you optimize the pages within your site.

Getting noticed on the internet is no small feat.   

We’re happy to say that it’s not rocket science and we’ve found some things that will help to put some method to the madness. 

Basically, here’s a check list to help you optimize the pages within your site.  Go through this for all your pages and you will be golden.

Accessible

 

 The content is unique to the URL (many search engines discount duplicated content)

 

 Content loads in HTML and not java or other code

 

 Page is included in an RSS feed

 

 Robots.txt does not block the web crawlers

 

 Title – 75 characters (with spaces)

 

 URL – 90 characters

 

 Meta description < 160 characters

 

 URL is included in sites XML file

Available

 

 Do you use 301 redirects from old content/pages to new pages

 

 Does the host server does not restrict search crawler IPs

 

 Does the page loads in less than 3 seconds

 

 Is the pages are multi-device ready.

 

 Is the page social network ready -including the appropriate social media icons and links

 

 If unavailable, is a status 503 code is returned by the server

Marketing

 

 Is there an overall topic for each page and determine the associated key word search phrases associated with that page?

 

 Do you have a call to action button on the page, such as a ‘subscribe’ button?

 

 Have you used headlines and subheads prior to each paragraph, making sure you’ve used H1 and H2 tags?

 

 Have you tried to use your key word phrase in the URL of the site?

 

 Are your primary key words found in the copy at least twice?

 

 Do your images should have descriptive, key word alt attributes?

 

 Do you have a blog?

 

 Have you used alt tags on all images on your site

 

Performance

 

 Have the images on the page been optimized for the web?

 

 Is there unnecessary code on the site?

 

 Have the graphics on the page been optimized for the web?

Security

 

 Do you limit administrative access to your site?

 

 How secure are your passwords?  Do you follow best practices?

 

 Do you update your passwords frequently?

 

 If you are using a hosting provider, what kind of server security are they providing?

SEO

 

 Is there an overall topic for each page and determine the associated key word search phrases associated with that page?

 

 Have you researched and used your key words and phrases in headlines and subheads?

 

 Have you used headlines and subheads prior to each paragraph, making sure you’ve used H1 and H2 tags?

 

 Try to use your key word phrase in the URL of the site

 

 Are your primary key words found in the copy at least twice?

 

 Do your images should have descriptive, key word alt attributes?

 

 Are there links to your relevant social media accounts on the page?

Social

 

 Are you using social networking sites to promote your product or service?

 

 Are all of the links to your social networking sites active and working?

 

 Are your social media accounts up to date?

 

 Is your or your company information complete on the social media account?  Does it provide links to your    site and does it provide your contact information?

Support

 

 Do you have a contact method of some kind on the page, such as a phone number, email address or form?

 

 If you offer chat support, how quickly do support staff respond to customers?

 

 Do you offer a toll free number?

 

 How long does it take for a current or new customer to receive a response?

Usability

 

 Is the information is presented in an easy to find, easy to use format?

 

 Does the page use great design that accurately reflects your brand?

 

 Is the page is easy to scan, and are key elements highlighted?

 

 Is the content and the navigation easy to understand?

 

 Does design look polished?  Does it represent your brand?

 

 Is the page responsive?

 

 Does the page have a search function?

 

 Is there a link to the site map on the page, such as in the footer?

 

 Are there broken links on the page?

If you'd like to try a free website evaluation tool, get in touch with us. Or better yet, click here to get started.

View User Profile for Crista McCandless Crista is a self-proclaimed geek who loves fiction, data analysis, growth hacking and everything Tolkien. At Fast Track, she helps businesses identify areas to improve and grow online with her ninja moves. She manages the digital strategy, including online marketing and search engine optimization. Follow her musings about world domination in Twitter as @crista_mcc.
Posted by Crista McCandless Friday, May 29, 2015 6:39:00 AM Categories: SEO Site Evaluator SMB web trends

20 Free Site Evaluation Tools for Small Business 

free website evaluation tools

Improving the quality of website is crucial for small business owners. You may have all the features that a site could have, the topnotch content your copywriters have written specifically for your target market, and a user-friendly interface that any visitor on your site will find helpful. However, if your site is loading too slow, not properly optimized for search and visitors, and is not being linked to by relevant sites, it would be difficult for visitors to find you on the web.

To ensure that your site will be found in the soonest possible time and manner, you can make use of free site evaluation tools to help improve your website's performance and quality.

Built With

Built With is an excellent SEO tool for finding 'hidden' technical details about your site. It can provide information about your server details, hosting, name server, email service, CMS platform used (WordPress, Magento, Drupal, etc.), and many others. Built With can also go deeper in determining if your site uses plug-ins, which JavaScript libraries are used, if there are widgets and analytics tools, and others. It can also give you a quick look at the site's meta data (meta tags, descriptions), meta robots, and if there are Open Graph meta tags.

Google Page Speed Insight

Google Page Speed Insight generates a report which suggests how you can improve your site's load time. Simply enter your site's URL in order for the tool to generate this report. The report is broken down into either a Desktop or Mobile report.

Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is an SEO spider which crawls websites and reports any errors. If there are bad links, it will generate a report with the 302's and 404's it finds.

Copyscape

Copyscape's free tool can find duplicate content. Enter your site's URL in order for the tool to check the web for any duplicate pages. You may also use any of its free banners on your site to deter anyone from copying content. 

NTopic

NTopic is a tool which lets you see the relevancy score of a page's target keyword. You can use this tool in finding out which target keywords your competitors are using, so you can use them to your own advantage - such as creating content for marketing purposes and short social media descriptions.

SEMrush

SEMrush is quite popular among SEO professionals. It can generate reports that are rich in data, but the most relevant is the report for keywords. Like NTopic, you can use SEMrush in finding out what target keywords are being used by your competitors.

Word Stream Free Keyword Tool

The limited free edition of Word Stream provides suggested keywords based on broad matches. This free tool also provides relative search volume estimates and generates a list of longtail keywords which can be very useful in your content marketing efforts and blog posting.

Get Listed

Moz now owns Get Listed, which is a tool that crawls the major business directories online, and extracts business names and locations (via zip code), and identifies missing listings in the results. This tool is great for showing your clients missed opportunities and low-hanging fruit.

Open Site Explorer

Open Site Explorer is a great tool for competitor analysis. It generates a list of inbound links and provides their own SERP ranking score - Page Authority and Domain Authority - which is regarded to have the highest correlation to SERP rankings.

Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool

This is a tool for discovering potential anchor text issues quickly. You can check for over optimized anchor text for incoming links.

Similar Web

Similar Web can check for missing data that are not included in Google Analytics. It provides estimates such as traffic, referring sites, ads, etc.

Circle Count

Circle Count is the number of people on your Google+ circle. You can use it to track followers and shares.

Share Tally

Share Tally provides a bird's eye view of a web page's social activity. You can generate an instant report of social sharing activities all across major social networks. This tool can help you determine which social media network is performing well for your own website or your clients'.

Follower Wonk

Another of Moz's free site evaluation tool is Follower Wonk. It is a Twitter analytics tool which helps you precisely analyze any Twitter user. You can generate reports based on geographical locations, keywords, and many others.

Pingdom Full Page Test

Pingdom Full Page Test is a site speed analyzer which identifies bottlenecks and measures site performance in seconds. It also tells you the best places on your site that need updates, so you can change it and reap rewards with little effort.

Hubspot Marketing Grader

Hubspot offers a free marketing grader which evaluates your site by grading its weaknesses and strengths by assessing the landing pages, social media connectivity, and many others. It will also compare your site to competitor sites to help identify the areas where your competitor attracts customers.

SEOQuake

SEOQuake is a toolbar which can be used on Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera browsers. It analyzes internal and external links, provides Alexa and Google Index scores, and PageRank. It can also measure keyword density of web pages and provides diagnosis of areas on your website which might be needing improvement.

Hubshout

Hubshout has a website grader that provides in-depth site evaluation and backlink scorecard which is specifically useful in checking if your site is at par with your competitor or not.

WebsiteOptimization

WebsiteOptimization has a technical site evaluator and SEO analysis tool that tests your site to see if it's optimized. It also provides suggestions on how to improve your site. You can also make use of their spell checker for your site pages.

Site Evaluator

Site Evaluator provides a free comprehensive evaluation of your web site and analyzes over 60 key metrics that can tell you how to improve your site’s visibility, traffic, and revenue.

A site evaluator is more than just a handy tool to find out about your own website. You can always check your competitors, your clients' websites and their competitors to help you improve site performance and quality.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015 6:05:00 PM Categories: B2B B2C marketing tips SEO Site Evaluator SMB web trends

Why Site Availability Important to Your Business 

importance of site availability

Site Availability measures the percentage of the time that website is up and available to users.

It is critically important that a website be up and responding to users as much as possible. A website that is down is like a store that is closed. Users will not be able to visit, obtain product information, or make purchases. Web sales will stop and users may go to a competitor’s site. While it may not be possible to be up 100% of the time, a site should strive for an availability of at least 99.95%.

How can you improve your site availability score?

To obtain a good availability score, it’s important to choose and stick to a trusted web hosting company that has a history of providing good services to clients. Make sure that the web hosting company is offering a minimum of 99.95% availability.

To learn about site availability and other key metrics that are critical to gaining business on the internet, or for a free site evaluation, visit www.site-evaluator.com.

View User Profile for
Posted by Sunday, August 17, 2014 6:19:00 PM Categories: online marketing SEO Site Evaluator social media

How To Improve Your Site Evaluator Accessibility Score 

By Steve Hoag

Site accessibility

Site accessibility is all about making sure your website can be used by any user, regardless of what browser, device, or possible disabilities they may have. Compliance with W3C guidelines is critical in making your site accessible to different types of users. Here are three ways can improve your Site Evaluator’s accessibility score.

 Ensure your site navigation and structure is logical and intuitive

Making your site’s layout and overall navigation logical and intuitive is imperative for making your site accessible. Viewers need to be able to easily discern between main headings, subheadings, and content. An intuitive main navigation system is important so that users can easily move throughout your website without any confusion

Use contextual links for disabled users

Many users who are disabled use screen readers that read out loud links on a page. Text links within copy will be read out as the term that as the hyperlink attached to it, rather than the page/content it is linking to. Make any contextual links in copy as descriptive as possible so that disabled users may easily navigate throughout your site. Use a descriptive link like ‘click here to see a list of products’ versus just ‘click here.’

Provide Alternative Content

Make sure your content can be used by anyone regardless of special needs. Some easy ways of doing this are allowing users to choose different font sizes, levels of contrast for colors, and providing text for non-text content like images.

View User Profile for Steve Hoag Steve is a recent graduate from UW, and the Marketing Coordinator at Fast Track. He primarily has experience in the tech and start-up industries. When he's not busy promoting Fast Track, he's watching Huskies or Green Bay Packers football. You can find him on Twitter @steven_hoag .
Posted by Steve Hoag Wednesday, October 23, 2013 6:27:00 PM Categories: B2B enterprise Site Evaluator SMB web design web development web trends website
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