by Monica Peña | Jul 20, 2021 | Business Tips
By: Aditya Patwardhan
Your website is the foundation of the online presence for your business. Is it working correctly? Answering that question isn’t that simple. To achieve your marketing goals, businesses should monitor specific indicators of performance. There are some indicators that almost all businesses will want to measure when reviewing their website’s analytics. Below is an explanation of 5 indicators that you should look at as you analyze your business’s online presence.
- Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions on your website where the user exits without any interactions. The extent to which bounce rate matters depends on the type of website your business has. For example, if your website is only one webpage, a high bounce rate is more acceptable than when your website has multiple pages which should all be visited during one session. For example, according to Hotjar, the average e-commerce website’s bounce rate is between 20 and 45 percent, with a bounce rate under 20% being “exceptional.” On the other hand, the average bounce rate for a small business landing page is between 60 and 90 percent. Still, if the bounce rate is above the average range, it shows that users aren’t engaged by the webpage and is something you definitely would want to look into. Google Analytics provides multiple reports which contain bounce rate as a metric. This can help you isolate problematic areas of your website that need to be looked at and fixed.
The number of pages users look at during a session is an indicator of how engaged they were when they were on your website. The more pages viewers look at in a session, the more likely they are to use your services or buy your product. An issue with only looking at the bounce rate is that it shows whether users engaged with your website, but not how much their engagement level was. Of course, the number of pages on your website affects how important this should be to your business.
As a business, it is important to know what the demographic of people viewing your website. That can help you better communicate to them and turn make a sell. Knowing this group will allow your business to have the information needed to do a better job of targeting your ideal customer. For example, if your ideal clients are men 50 and above, and you are not attracting this demographic then changes must be made. You may need more relatable images and content on your web site for this group.
- Sources, Mediums and Campaigns
A good way to better understand your business is to see where users came from to your website. The term source is the website where a user was before your website. This could be direct search, search engines like Google, or other sites if users clicked on links to go to your website. The medium means the type of search that happened or the way that a user came to your website. Examples include organic search (unpaid,) cost per click (paid search) and many others. Campaigns are specific marketing operations to bring people to your website. You can look in Google Analytics to see which campaigns are doing better than others. All of these help you understand where your audience is coming from and informs your business strategy. For example, if you have a lot of followers on social media but very few of them visit your site to take an action, you may need to modify your efforts.
A conversion is when someone transacts with your business, helping achieve your greater business goal. There are many ways in which one could give credit for conversions. One way is to give credit only to the page where users completed the transaction. But it can also be useful to know how people got to that page. An assisted conversion is where a user goes to the final page to complete a transaction from another page of your website. In Google Analytics, you can look at the paths that users take from first landing on your website to buying something. That way you can see what sites contribute most to users buying from your business. For example, for an e-commerce business, the final step of a conversion is the shopping cart page on their website, but a user might have visited their site twice through direct search before making the purchase. Each of these times contributed to the purchase, meaning that direct search would get credit for an assisted conversion.
Conclusion
One of the most important things you need for your business to succeed is knowledge about who your clients are and what strategies are the most successful at retaining them and attracting new clients. By looking at these indicators, you can analyze what parts of your business operations are succeeding and which need to be changed, and ultimately maximize your profits.
by EGBI Tech Team | Jan 3, 2018 | Success Stories
Gabriel Orozco Goes from Technician to
Proud Owner of S.T.A.R. Windshield Repair
Austin, TX: After working at S.T.A.R. Windshield Repair for more than 20 years, on January 2, 2018, Gabriel Orozco bought the business from the retiring owners, Eileen and Larry Smith.
Larry and Eileen are happy to see Gabriel take over the business that has been serving the Austin area since 1986. “We wish nothing but the best for Gabe,” said former owner, Larry Smith. The Smiths will be helping Orozco through a three-month transition period, to prevent any disruption in service as Orozco makes the transition from technician to owner.
For the last 6 months, Gabriel Orozco has consulted with Economic Growth Business Incubator (EGBI), an organization that provides training, coaching, and support to aspiring and existing business owners. He completed EGBI’s business workshop series and will continue to be coached by EGBI staff to sharpen his business skills through the changeover. EGBI helped Orozco qualify for a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan from PeopleFund for the purchase, and connected Orozco to the University of Texas School of Law Entrepreneurship & Community Development Clinic for legal support.
Orozco looks forward to providing the same excellent service S.T.A.R. Windshield Repair clients are accustomed to. “As a longtime customer, we are excited to hear Gabriel will be taking over the business and preserving the excellent customer service he has always provided us,” said Roy Reyes at Double R Sport Imports.
About S.T.A.R. Windshield Repair: S.T.A.R. Windshield Repair has served the Austin area as the rock damage repair specialist since 1986. Their mobile service has a lifetime money-back guarantee and provides insurance deductible waivers. For more information, contact the new owner, Gabe Orozco, at 512-576-5154.
by EGBI Tech Team | Nov 7, 2017 | EGBI News & Events
by EGBI Tech Team | Oct 24, 2017 | Success Stories
Sitotaw Degefaw, EGBI’s recent graduate of the Emerging Enterprises Training Progam, wanted to open a butcher shop similar to his family’s shop in Gonder, Ethiopia. His desire was for a place where his customers could get fresh, high quality beef and also a place of community for people from East Africa that now live in the Austin area. In October, Sitotaw made his dreams come true with the opening of Salam’s International Mart & Café at 10009 North Lamar Blvd, Austin Texas 78753 (less than a mile north of Rundberg Ln).
Salam’s offers grass fed beef perfect for people who are looking for a healthier option or who delight in a raw meat cuisine. According to the American Grass Fed Beef Organization, this meat is lower in total fat than grainfed animals, lower in calories and contains extra Omega-3s, which may reduce cancer risks.
Along with his butcher shop, Salam’s has a dine-in area where visitors can enjoy traditional Ethiopian food such as Injera, Kurt, Tibs, Kitfo and Ethiopian coffee. Visitors who can’t stay to eat can pick up their favorite Ethiopian spices to prepare their own meals at home.
Sitotaw graduated from EGBI’s program in June, which propelled him forward to meet his business goals. “Taking the classes helped open my mind. I knew having enough money wasn’t enough to open a business. Studying at EGBI gave me the info to move in the right direction.” Sitotaw described how Joni Foster, EGBI’s Program Director, helped him face his many hurdles in their one-on-one coaching sessions. “She connected me to the supplier that slaughters the specialty meat according to my countries custom.” The advice Sitotaw shares with other entrepreneurs is to save money, as financing a business can be a big challenge when starting a business.
by EGBI Tech Team | Mar 23, 2017 | Business Tips
By Al Lopez, EGBI Executive Director
Start-ups and small growing businesses face a common problem: how to manage cash flow so that all the expenses get paid on time. By managing your expenses carefully, you can improve your opportunity to grow slowly and surely. Here are a few tips on how to do that:
Tip #1: Create a realistic budget
It’s not just enough to come up with a budget – you also have to come up with a realistic budget. And in order to do that, you need to have a good understanding of all aspects of your business. Take sales, for example. If you know when you are booking key sales, and when these customers are going to pay, you are going to have much more visibility into the overall profitability and the when that profitability will come. If you know that you can expect an amount in revenue a month, then you can start thinking in terms of affordable dollars in expenses.
At a minimum, you should have visibility into the sales for your upcoming three months. Preferably, you should be able to project out 12 months in advance. This is particularly important because every business naturally has ups and downs in sales over the year – such as during the holiday selling season – and those ups and downs need to be planned for.
Tip #2: Develop a solid business plan
Once you have a budget in place, you need to make sure you have a business that supports it or change the one you have to match your new budget expectations. Start to think about what percentage of your profits you will need to invest back into the business. Maybe you have to buy new inventory or maybe you need a new piece of equipment. Or maybe you are planning a new marketing approach to promote your product or service.
A business plan helps you to understand how these costs fit into the bigger picture and keep you from spending on things that aren’t part of your plan. Too many businesses live week to week, month-to-month, or quarter-to-quarter, and are never able to put together a solid business plan for moving forward. Expenses tend to grow with nothing to show for it. A business plan helps to keep you focused, and helps you manage your expenses more wisely.
Tip #3: Plan for unexpected expenses
The business world is full of uncertainty, and that’s why most small business consultants advise companies to have enough cash on hand to handle any unexpected emergencies. In the same way as you might create a “rainy day fund” for your family budget, you’d also want to make sure that you have enough cash to cover adverse market changes or unexpected events for your business.
There are various ways to protect against risk, of course, without simply having to save a bunch of cash. You don’t want to tie up too much cash, because you’ll need that for working capital. But you should have business insurance to protect your inventory. Or, if you operate a food truck business, you might think about ways to limit your downside if anything happens to these valuable assets.
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At some point, all of the cost savings, bootstrapping and careful financial management will really pay off. You’ll have extra funds to handle unexpected emergencies, and you’ll also have plenty of funds to re-invest in the success of your growing small business.
