LightenWeb Technologies

Understanding how your business is doing is vital to staying on track as a business. Whether it’s making a certain amount of money by a certain time, increasing your site traffic to a specific number, or any other benchmark, analytic tools will tell you everything that you have to know. The good news is that you don’t need to spend a fortune to keep yourself on track to meet your revenue objectives or other business goals.

There are plenty of free analytic tools out there that you can rely on. They’re just a quick and easy installation away from helping you keep track of all of your business goals. Here are some of the best ones that we could find.

1. Google Analytics

It’s hardly a surprise that the Internet giant and search engine leader also provides businesses with a free, easy-to-use analytic tool to measure business performance. For a free tool, it offers a lot, which makes it the perfect solution for businesses that don’t yet have the budget to afford a more sophisticated analytic tool.

Google Analytics allows you to establish your marketing goals and then empowers you to satisfy said goals by showing you numerous, relevant data. This includes conversion rates, page views and site visitor information. On top of all that, it’s also relatively easy to set up. Definitely the best place to start.

2. Clicktale

This analytic tool is extremely valuable to any business, primarily because it approaches the entire concept of site metrics in a completely revolutionary way. Instead of relying on pure, hard numbers—which can become tiresome and rote for some business owners—Clicktale relies on heat maps to help business owners make sense of what’s going on with their important site information.

These heat maps let business owners see exactly where customers and site visitors have perused while on their site. This can instantly open your eyes and inform you about what parts of your site are the most popular and which have so much friction that customers and site visitors don’t interact properly with them.

As with Google Analytics, installing this tool is a cinch. Simply add some lines of code to the pages that you wish to keep track of. If you’re feeling particularly creative and motivated, you could even install this analytic tool in addition to a more traditional one like Google Analytics.

3. Clicky

Clicky is the analytic tool that allows you to keep track of as many as 3000 page views a day on your website. This free tool lets you keep track of individual site visitors, filtering and a couple of additional factors of site monitoring, too. The data that you will gather through these efforts is available for a 30-day period.

If you find the very basic free version good already, you may want to consider upgrading to the paid version, which will open up your possibilities even further. More expensive pricing plans include up to 5,000,000 page views a day to track, heat maps and uptime monitoring across many different websites.

On another note, Clicky has a very good reputation when it comes to customer support and service. Emails are known to be answered by tech-support people in a very short amount of time.

Know for Sure With These Free Analytic Tools

There’s nothing worse than operating a business, but not being able to measure important statistics and metrics. After all, you want to know precisely if you’re meeting your business goals such as the number of site visitors, subscribers and leads that have actually converted. With these great and free analytic tools, you’ll not need to wonder anymore.

Thanks to the insight that these exceptional tools provide to business owners, keeping track of business goals has never been easier or clearer. Now, you can set your marketing and production plans with greater certainty because you’ll have the data you need to move forward.

Online competition is fierce, and companies that are not willing to keep up with trends in online marketing run the risk of falling behind the pack. Responsive website design offers companies a tool to keep ahead, but how is this technique used to benefit a business?

What Is a Responsive Website?

Responsive website design is a technique used to develop a website that can be easily viewed on any platform. This allows visitors to navigate the website on a computer, tablet or smartphone. Images, grids and formatting are specifically chosen to be flexible for adjustment on each of these platforms.
Visitors to a website are more likely to stick around if they do not have to work to get a website to look as it is intended to appear. Text, images and links that adjust according to the device being used to view the website keep visitors navigating through the website instead of leaving out of frustration.

Responsive Website Design and Mobile Website Design

Business owners may wonder why they cannot just use a mobile website template in addition to their standard template in order to reach every visitor. Responsive design achieves the goal of having a website that can be viewed on all platforms without requiring a company to use more than one template. This cuts down on the cost and time that must be invested into website design.

Key Benefits of Building a Responsive Website

Every company should consider using a responsive website template to improve website traffic and boost click-through rates. The advantages of using a responsive website design are many.

1. More people use smartphones and tablets to access a website each year. Nearly 40 percent of the traffic that a website receives is sourced from a mobile device, so it is important to have a flexible website that can be viewed by anyone. Use of mobile devices to access websites has more than doubled in just two years, and it is expected that more people will use a tablet or smartphone to look at a website instead of a computer in the near future.

2. Mobile users are not patient when a website has not been designed to be viewed on a mobile device. Over 60 percent of mobile visitors will give up and look to a competitor’s page for the product or service that they want when a website is not intuitively designed for mobile use.

3. Companies that stay ahead of the competition by writing blog posts and using social media attract more mobile users. Over half of social media use occurs on a mobile device, so it is essential for businesses that have a social media presence to have a website that is accessible to their followers.

4. Using a responsive website design actually helps companies achieve their search engine optimization (SEO) goals. Google uses an algorithm to rank websites, and it is easier for this task to be done when a website is associated with just one link. Websites that are accessed through both a standard and mobile link may not reach performance goals.

5. Responsive website design cuts down on the costs of designing a website now and in the future. The design adapts according to the screen size being used to access the website. Differing screen sizes on devices developed in the future will still be able to display the website as it is intended to be viewed.

The Next Step

The benefits of a responsive website make it essential for companies to opt for this design choice. Templates that are designed for building a responsive website make the task of developing such a website easier. The time invested in the initial development of a responsive website will pay off in the future when the website does not have to be constantly adjusted for optimal viewing.

Want to learn more about our Responsive Design services? Please call 080-48513734 or fill out our contact form here http://lightenweb.com/contact-us.

You’ve decided to stop dreaming and start doing. Great choice. Starting your own brand or business isn’t easy, but you already know that. And you already know it takes more than an idea and hope to get things done. You might be stressed, you might even be freaking out. That’s good. It means you care. It takes planning, execution, a little luck and a lot of determination to win in the business world. That’s why we’ve compiled here a step-by-step guide for starting to build a business: beginning with what you’ll need and where to find it. Is this guide completely comprehensive? Hell no, every business is different and has unique sets of challenges but this will get you moving in a very good direction.

Take the Leap, But First

Quick! Name a business…any business. Whatever business just popped into your head, most likely started first, with some sort of plan. And a relatively thorough one at that. Without mapping out the details of who, what, why and how you’re going to start and run a business, you’re setting yourself up for failure. We’re all about taking leaps, but let’s take a little look before we do so, shall we?

We know it’s not the most badass thing to do, but if you’re at all hesitant to create a business plan, we swear, putting your ideas in writing are a good idea (we’d even go so far as tattooing them…but that’s your choice). Overcome the fear reservation of building a business plan. Then, check out the 15 reasons from Entrepreneur on why you need a business plan. And when you’re ready, here’s a lot of talent who can help you build one that’s perfect for whatever your business may be.

Scope Out the Competition

You’ve psyched yourself up about your business idea. You’ve told your mom. You’ve pitched that sweet old man at the bus stop. You know you’ve got a winner. But aside from family and friends, how do you know you’ve got any chance at making this crazy idea the next Uber? Have you researched your competition? And who you should be marketing to in your industry? The importance of doing market research before you build a business cannot be overlooked just ask the Pet Rock guy. Seriously. We knew him. And he got it.

Here’s some insight into why market research is so essential to building your brand or business and when you’re ready to get started, some experts who can help you conduct and analyze it.

Get a Logo that Doesn’t Suck

You’ve got big dreams. Billboards, blimps, red carpets. Your brand belongs on them all. But you’re not Nike, yet. You need a logo that can stand alone and stand out. Something that says everything you want to convey about your business, in a unique, custom design that screams YOU. So how can you get there? Start with some inspiration. Here are some of the best examples of logo innovation we’ve seen.

And cost? Pfft. You don’t need a multi-million dollar budget to get a high-quality logo. You can crush the competition on a budget, make it stand out regardless of your market, and make sure it’s the right representation of your business. When you’ve done your research, get some quotes from the professionals in logo design and tagline services.

What’s Your Story?

Since you’ve got the epic logo design, and because you don’t quit, you’re going to take it a step further. In addition to a logo, a tagline and brand story will further ensure that your customers connect: what drives your brand? And why did you create it? Developing an authentic brand not only gives your customers insight into your mission, but it also gives them something to connect to, in addition to your product or service. Which builds trust in your brand and, drumroll…brand loyalty! If your personality shines through via slogans, taglines, and details like email signatures and product names, customers will be more likely to engage.

Here are some great tips for going beyond the logo, and telling your brand story through video, as well as sharing your personality using social media. Check out all the branding service options available on LightenWeb Technologies.

Get Help. It’s Out There.

No matter where you are in your career, get someone in your corner. And not just your mom, but someone who’s been there before. Unless your mom is a successful small business owner, in which case, hell yeah, Mom! But no matter who it is, make sure this guru can guide you away from pitfalls, and toward success. With an amazing community like LightenWeb Technologies, there’s no shortage of experienced buyers and sellers in your industry. Go ahead, reach out, with these effective tips on finding a mentor and utilizing them. And take it a step further with additional tips and career advice from the professionals.

Find a Digital Homebase

OK. You’ve solidified your brand and business- now it’s time to take it online. The first step to building your brand online is finding the right (and available) domain. And while bestbrandever.com may not be available, there are tons of ways to find other strong, relevant domain options for your brand. And what a surprise, LightenWeb Technologies has an amazing community who can lead the charge on your behalf. That perfect domain is waiting for you– we swear.

Build a Website, An Awesome Website

Where do you spend most of your time? We’re guessing, here, online. Us too. And many of the most important interactions you will ever have with your customers, no matter if you’re an online store or local pizza joint, happen online on your website. Your searchable brand, your home away from home, websites allow you to create an experience for customers that is truly you. And believe us, not all websites are created equal. Learn how to build a responsive, and well-themed website here and find an expert to build yours here.

Go Mobile

With 80% of internet users using smartphones to surf, the importance of building a quality mobile site is only growing. Just a web presence doesn’t cut it anymore. While the idea of a mobile site may seem intimidating, creating a mobile app isn’t as hard as you think, and it’s where potential customers are, so you gotta be there, too. The user experience, design and interface are all things to consider when converting your desktop site to mobile.

Be More Social

If you are reading this guide, then there’s just about a 100 percent chance that you’re on some form of social media – either personal or for your newly formed venture. But, even if you consider yourself a pro, things are constantly changing in the social media world. There are always way you can Tweet, Facebook, Snapchat, Woof and Instagram better, especially when it comes to your business.

Check out some great examples of social media marketing. There are companies who are out there doing incredible things on social (cough cough, like us), and you should take note. Then, Find more insights and expertise from the amazing social media marketing experts on LightenWeb Technologies.

Now that you’ve learned all you need to know about building your business or brand from scratch, it’s time to start doing. And if you’ve successfully accomplished all of the above, wow, that was really fast. We’re really impressed.

A small business has it hard enough these days considering it has to constantly compete with big box stores and large chains that have marketing budgets, development teams, programmers and power pricing advantages. As “one of the little guys” it’s essential to find ways to give your business a boost.

One way to do this is by using the various online tools that have been built for the sole purpose of supercharging your small business. From heat mapping to email marketing, the best tools are designed to bring in more customers and assist in boosting your profits. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an online store or a physical retail shop with a small business website, utilizing marketing tools, lead-building software and data analysis applications are all part of keeping up with the competition.

1. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is one of the more impressive, yet simple, tools you can implement for generating effective content and understanding what people are saying about your company online. The premise is simple: Punch in whatever keywords you want to get notified for and Google Alerts will tell you when an article is published with one of those keywords.

For example, if you’d like to find content for your hardware store’s blog, you might have an alert with all articles with “spring cleaning tips.”

You can also receive alerts for mentions of your own company name, allowing you to share the good news when a quality review is posted or reach out to writers who are talking about you. You can also set up alerts for your competitors as well, so that when people online are talking about them, you know it right away.

Check out Google Alerts here

2. SumoMe

We would argue that SumoMe is an essential tool for small businesses. It provides a suite filled with free lead-generation and analytical tools. One of them provides a website welcome mat for explaining your business and collecting email addresses. Another is a heatmap with the ability to see exactly where visitors are clicking on your website. Along with dozens of other free tools like these, you can’t go wrong with at least trying it out.

Check out SumoMe here

3. Canva

Many small business owners have no idea what to do when it comes to graphic design. However, Canva makes your designs look beautiful even if you’re the worst artist in the world. Choose from a large collection of templates, and design items like social media cover pages, blog post featured images and presentations. It’s the closest thing to Photoshop for the beginner.

Canva makes design simple for everyone. Create designs for Web or print: blog graphics, presentations, Facebook covers, flyers, posters, invitations and more.

Check out Canva here

4. MailChimp

MailChimp not only helps you collect email addresses, but it has a great selection of templates for email newsletters and easy-to-understand analytics for understanding how your customers are interacting with your emails and newsletters and how you can improve.

Email marketing is one of the best ways to boost your user engagement, and the first 2,000 email subscribers are completely free. As your business grows, your MailChimp package can grow with it. Join more than 12 million people who use MailChimp to connect with their customers and grow their businesses every day.

Check out MailChimp here

5. Buffer

Social media is sometimes considered an insurmountable challenge to small business owners. The lack of a solid social media strategy can often cause a small business to miss out on huge segments of the market that their competitors are scooping up behind their back.

A good social media strategy takes up time, and most often requires multiple windows and browser tabs to get a post schedule going and maintained. With Buffer you can manage all of your accounts from one dashboard, and scheduling into the future saves you time and frustration. Buffer shares your content at the best possible times throughout the day so that your followers and fans see your updates more often. And you can even create images with the perfect size and format for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even Pinterest.

Buffer makes it super easy to share any page you’re reading. Keep your Buffer topped up and we automatically share them for you through the day.

Check out Buffer here

6. Zopim

Looking to optimize your customer service experience? You should be. Zopim offers a free plan (along with some great paid ones) for live chatting with your customers while they are online. Reach out and speak to the visitors who are wandering around your website, and personally give them the answers they are searching for. You have the ability to set triggers for when the chat box pops up, and Zopim provides a chat history to go back and see what you have talked about in the past with customers.

Furthermore, you are given real-time analytics to evaluate what users are doing on your site, which can drastically improve the effectiveness of your responses when chatting with potential customers. Finally, Zopim allows you to break your team up into departments so that your customers’ live chats are sent to the right people, at the right time.

Check out Zopim here

7. Zendesk

Businesses are made up of relationships and those relationships can be complicated. Zendesk helps make them easier by delivering an effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module for managing your contacts and providing the best customer support you can.

The help desk software has options for knowledge bases and reporting, and you can setup multiple agents so that you have more than one person interacting with the customers. Community forums, widgets and business rules are all provided for you to play around with as well. It’s no surprise that over 75,000 companies trust Zendesk with their customers.

Zendesk’s web-based customer service software and support ticket system used by 200, 000+ organizations worldwide.

Check out Zendesk here

8. CrazyEgg

It’s nice to see what your customers are doing on your website, but what is making them leave? CrazyEgg uses advanced heat mapping to highlight the buttons and areas people are clicking on your site. It also does a good job of revealing how far users scroll down your page and when they stop. This is an essential tool for understanding the behavior of all your potential customers, since you could quickly find out that your sales funnels or calls to action are not as effective as you may have thought.

Check out CrazyEgg here

Blogs are often looked down on as a place for amateurs to share their opinions on any topic. In actuality business blogging has become one of the most important marketing tools for any business. Blogging can be a great way to increase potential sales, customer interaction, and your customer base at a very low cost.

Below are 5 reasons why you need a blog for your business:

1. Talk to Your Customers

Blogging has become one of the best customer engagement tools out there. Readers can comment on your posts and you can easily reply to find out what they would like to learn about next. By creating relevant information that captivates your readers, you can quickly build your audience. Your new audience can produce more leads and these leads can become your new customers.

2. Drive traffic to Your Website

The great thing about blogging is that it can act as one big advertisement for your business’s website. By educating readers about your industry you can also subtly advertise different products or deals that are available from your business. Typically, readers are looking for help on various issues. Let’s say that you run a plumbing business; on your business blog you could write a post about how to unclog a drain and at the same time sell a product that would also solve the issue. Make sure at some point you give readers the option to opt-in or subscribe to your blog, so they will continue to see what your business has to offer.

3. Become a Knowledge Leader Within Your Industry

Maintaining a blog can show readers how knowledgeable your company is within your industry. Your posts can show readers relevant information, strategies, and helpful tips to help them move forward within the industry that you are a part of. Eventually your company will become a trusted source of information and a place they go in search for answers to their most frequently asked questions.

4. High Upside

Blogging might be the most cost effective way to market your business. Creating a business blog can be free or come with a low cost depending on what platform you pick for your business. Your blog for business is a huge resource of information that provides visitors with the ability to learn and grow. At the same time, it enables you to market your products and services, make readers aware of your brand and share news about your business. This will help to create trust and soon enough the people with questions become customers. The amount of sales a business blog can bring in highly outweigh the cost to upkeep the blog. This makes your blog investment worthwhile because it’s guaranteed to produce a great return on your investment.

5. Blogging will improve your business

It’s amazing how much someone can learn from simply writing (or typing) their ideas out. By continually writing about your industry you will be able to see the blemishes within your own company. Once the problems of a business can be spotted they can be easily fixed and improved. By continually writing blog posts, your business will be constantly improving.

So, you've developed an amazing site. You've put together some seriously valuable content, iterated on the design, and gathered a ton of feedback. Now, you're finally feeling ready to share it with the world.

And as soon as you publish your new site for the world to see, all of your content will immediately start showing up in Google, right?

Well, maybe. Although, it takes a little more than just hitting the publish button. To get your site listed, you'll need to check a few boxes first. Let's walk through it ...

How Google Finds Your Content

Google, in its own words, uses a huge set of computers to crawl billions of pages on the web. This crawler, called the Googlebot, essentially begins with a list of web page URLs generated from previous crawls and then augments those pages with sitemap data provided within Google Search Console. During the crawling process, the Googlebot looks for new sites, updates to existing pages, and any broken links.

If new pages are within your sitemap, Google will discover them and crawl the content and then potentially list the page within search results based on its evaluation of 200+ criteria.

Once the crawling process is completed all of the results are fed into Google's index, and any new sites or updated content will be listed accordingly. During the processing of results, Google looks at information on your page such as title tags, meta description, alt tags, and more. If you have dynamic content on a page, the Googlebot may not be able to read it and will crawl the default version -- it's recommended that your default version is optimized for search.

As a result of Google's crawling, you may never need to submit your website as it will be discovered automatically. The downside to this approach has always been that it's reliant on Google's timeframe to crawl and index your site content, which may not happen as quickly as you would like.

Want to check if a particular site is listed in Google? Just begin your search with "Site:lightenweb.com." For example, here's what is displayed in Google for lightenweb.com:

If no content is indexed yet for a site, Google will let you know that your search did not match any results.

If no content is found, your next step should be to create a sitemap that can be submitted to Google.

If you want more information about how to create a sitemap, take a look at this post.

(lightenweb customers: Your sitemap is automatically generated and maintained. Simply go to yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to see it.)

How Long Does It Take to Index Content?

When publishing content without manually submitting an updated sitemap, Henry found that it took Google 1,375 minutes to crawl, while Yahoo took 1,773 minutes. To put those numbers into perspective, that's roughly a full-day just to crawl your content.

On the other hand if you are launching a new website, or adding a number of new pages, it may be worth submitting an updated sitemap. According to the same study, Henry found that after submitting an updated sitemap, the average time it took for a bot to visit the page was 14 minutes, compared to 245 minutes for Yahoo. In other words, your new page can start generating organic traffic and conversions on the same day.

How Do I Submit My Site to Google?

If you have a brand new site, you should first verify you own the site within Google Search Console and then submit it here.

If you have an existing site and are launching a number of new pages, then instead you should submit an updated sitemap to ensure it gets listed as quickly as possible.

To submit an updated sitemap, log in to Google Search Console > Crawl tab > Sitemaps. Once you're there you can submit your updated sitemap for Google so it can begin crawling it as soon as possible.

Based on the above, you may be asking if you need to submit an updated sitemap every time you publish a page. While you certainly could do so, it's best to manually go through the submission process if you're working with critically important content that needs to be indexed quickly. If you're just making minor updates or corrections to pages, then it may be ok to wait until Google crawls that page and updates its index.

Why that well-written marketing mail could be a spam? For a fact we know that almost 80% of the marketing mails that our hosting clients receive could be included in the spam category. And the spam doesn’t stop there…In addition there are forum posts, blog comments, irrelevant service calls and almost every other thing you use…There are number of ways at which a spammer can reach and influence your decision. With the spamming taking higher level of sophistication, having the right information could be the only way of being on the safe-side. With the years of interaction with our clients, we have developed an acute knowledge for internet spamming. So here are discussing the dark ways of spamming for our your own discretion.

What is Spam and Why Do They Do It.

The Spam is a message that deliberates misinforms and manipulates you into making an incorrect decision. The spammers usually tries to sell outdated product or services that are currently irrelevant or do-harm to your business prospects.(think of a marketing company trying to sell black-hat SEO banned by Google).

SEO Proposals

Almost every website receive their share of SEO proposals every day; Our SEO team has achieved top rankings for the highly competitive hosting related search terms; Even we regularly are offered helping-hands for an expert SEO, who barely understands how the cyber-world works.

Rule No.1 :

As a rule of thumb, always discard the anonymous SEO proposals. These include both the emails and entries at the website comment or spam sections. Play safe with a company who has reputed credentials and reputation. You may also need be independently verify the ranking claims and practices. Hiring the right SEO agency has taken an elevated significance as the wrong decision could put your website on harm’s way.

Comment Spamming

Among all the spams these are particularly smelly and aggressive! Here the spammers casually drop-off their description-anchor text upon your precious blogs or forums. These are the means of scavenging your visitors away from your website. If it seems that you are unaware or not-bothered, then your website is immediately slimed with spam. These can also be a means to link-out your website to potentially unwarranted spaces.

Rule No.2 :

Always monitor what is being posted on your website; You can use a wordpress moderator plug-in or similar plug-ins to ensure this facility. If you are allowing guest blogging or a forum, always ensure that you are never caught unaware.

Social Media Spamming

Be it facebook likes or twitter followers, today social media interaction is hot and current! If you have built a successful following in any social media, you are a hot target for social media spammer. The social media attacks also has some aspects of phishing and hacker attacks. These usually includes clicking an attention-grasping looking link or photo, which inevitably leads you to post an unintended marketing message on your profile.

Rule No.3 :

Always monitor what is being posted on your profile; If your profile gathers a healthy following there are increasing risks of getting hacked. If you notice a particular spam page, facebook has the facility to notify suspicious Emails and notifications. Twitter also employs active filters to eliminate the spam tweets.

Email Proposals

Although it isn’t directly connected to your websites, an article on spamming cannot be completed without the mention of spamming. Today the spam filters of major email providers such as G-mail and Hotmail is largely sophisticated. But still a large portion of spam mails slips through the filters.

Rule No.4 :

The phishing attacks generally follows a tried & tested sample format. It can be a generous offer from a billionaire under grief, marriage proposal or even a job opportunity. The marketing offers generally offers you a generous sample, which could lead into a sale.

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Free Analytic Tools to Help You Keep Track of Your Business Goals