First off, what do I mean by "middle weight" CMS? I'm defining this class loosely as a tier of blogging platforms that is between full-on CMS solutions like Wordpress and templated CMS solutions like Ning and these other simple CMS. Squarespace is a mid-weight favorite because there are no extra modules to download or configure and yet it's easy to create a customized, beautiful site in the eyes of your visitors, search engines and social media networks.

Big Picture Web has been powered by Squarespace for several months now. And while my review of Squarespace has been largely positive, I will acknowledge that nothing is ever perfect. For example, Squarespace's blog commenting system sorely lacks any reply or email notification capabilities that would enable visitors to engage more fully with the Big Picture Web community, key functionality that's critical to the blog's "stickiness" factor. (Disclaimer: I'm in no way connected to Squarespace other than being a mostly happy customer of theirs.)

While Squarespace has been good about releasing smaller updates to fix obvious flaws (e.g., SEO-friendly 301 redirects came out back in December), their ravenous community is beginning to point out the platform's faults and cry out for the next major upgrade. Nearly all of the 12 comments on Squarespace's most recent blog post involve some sort of speculation and/or dismay about the blogging platform's next big step forward. And Squarespace's response? Nothing. Not a single employee comment on their blog in response to the conversation. And in a day and age where ignoring your community can be a death knell for any company, does this mean the mid-weight CMS market may just be ripe for the picking?

If they're not careful, Squarespace could see a dip in sales or even worse, a mass exodus of its core fan base. Where would they go? Tech giant Google recently announced a major upgrade to Blogger's  design interface (some of it even oddly resembles Squarespace's interface). I'm sure Google would gladly take on any Squarespace defectors. And if that weren't enough, anticipation of Drupal Gardens continues to mount as its beta efforts gain steam. I have to imagine Gardens' free custom domain package will somehow cut into Squarespace's market. Bottom, line, blog platform creators would be wise to realize that the competition for this market is about to get a lot more fierce.

Whether its Squarespace vs. Drupal Gardens or Squarespace vs. Blogger, the best blogging platform will be the one that enables bloggers to grow their blogs easily and share the most with their communities. That said, what do you think is lacking the most from blogging platforms today?  What new features would make you try Drupal Gardens or Google's Blogger? If you're a Squarespacer, what features would compel you to switch? Or should everyone just learn how to use Wordpress? Leave a comment below to help us create a list of important missing blog platform features for blog platform creators that are willing to listen.

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(Google Trends search on the term "blog" - Click to enlarge)

Blogging has been around for quite a few years now but it's just now starting to really take off for companies, according to some recent articles by eMarketer.  Companies increased blog participation from 16% to 22% between 2008 and 2009. And bolstered by a lower-than-average cost-per-lead, companies are "spiraling" their spending towards blogs and social media as they realize the growing importance of the blog.

Benefits of a blog include promoting yourself in a friendly way by educating and entertaining the people researching your topic of expertise.  The goal of each post is to help solve a problem or answer a question, not to shill your product or service. Don't be afraid to point out the occasional chuckle, epiphany or brain-teaser in your industry. Ultimately, bringing your niche together on your website to have a conversation about something interesting also means potentially creating a lot of traffic on your blog.

Successful blog posts pull in tons of traffic from search engines, and other blogs/websites.  They can also provide huge spikes in traffic when they "go viral," which occurs when many people quickly spread a link to an Internet destination through social networks like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.  That traffic can then be routed through your company's online goal funnels to seriously move the revenue needle.  Just look at how easy Twin Cities Online Marketing firm Top Rank makes it look in their recent case study on a client's online revenue cycle.

Sometimes it just takes the right tweet to generate a large spike in traffic to your site.

Not every topic is going to be worthy of a conversation, though. That's why it's important to use a web analytics platform like Google Analytics to see which posts are creating the most results.  Over time, you'll see how consistently creating new blogs posts pulls in more and more traffic to your site. Think of it as planting seeds throughout the internet, growing into nice little streams of traffic, new leads and business. The brief little video that follows, courtesy of the Motion Charts feature of Google Analytic's Top Content reports, illustrates this effect by looking at some of Big Picture Web's recent traffic.

Big Picture Web's Blog Post Pageviews Per Day, 12/5/09 - 3/7/10 (via Google Analytics Motion Charts):

As you watch the video, you'll see the number of pageviews each article received over time. As I added more posts to Big Picture Web, I slowly built my overall website traffic. Posts like my short review of Squarespace (the yellow bar on the chart) delivered a steady trickle of pageviews by consistently ranking in search engines for searches like "squarespace review." On the other hand, you can also see when Twitter delivered a spike of traffic to my blog when Avinash Kaushik (a Web Metrics Ninja) tweeted a link to my post on using Google Analytics to track comments on your blog (the orange bar on the chart).

In the end, blogs help build the most important aspect of any relationship, trust.  It may be days or months after someone reads your how-to article until they decide they want to call in the pro's.  But when it finally comes time for them to make a purchase, they're remember that you were the expert that helped them. You demonstrated your skills through all your helpful blog posts and have overcome a major hurdle to new business just by consistently sharing your thoughts. And therein lies the importance and benefits of a blog.

What tips could you share about your industry through a blog to help to your community? And how are you using your web analytics platform to gauge your success? Leave a comment below to continue the conversation.

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1. Free Google Blogger SEO Tools

When you're writing your blog posts and especially post titles, it's important to include popular phrases and terms specific to your line of work. Including these "keyword phrases" more throughout each article helps Google deliver more searchers to your doorstep. Google has several free tools that always come in handy:

• Google Insights for Search - This search aggregate tool can help you spot trends in what people are searching for over time and by geographic location. Make investments in future SEO traffic by writing about topics that are gaining in overall popularity.

Insights for Search provides search trending analytics.

• Wonder Wheel shows relationships between search keywords.Wonder Wheel - In Google's mind, all search terms are related. Blogging about closely related topics over time will create signals of authority from your site that Google references in its search algorithms.  You can access Google's Wonder Wheel through any standard search result by selecting Show options from the top navigation, then Wonder Wheel from the secondary navigation that appears.
• Search Keyword Tool - Still the best free SEO tool out there, this Google tool allows you to see which keywords people are searching for most and how much competition there is to rank highly for each term. Bloggers typically have the the most luck attracting SEO traffic by selecting keyword phrases that are the ideal mix of high volume and low competition.

 The Keyword Tool shows potential traffic and competition for target keyword phrases.

2. SEO Site Tools Chrome Extension

SEO Site Tools is a new extension for the Chrome web browser that quickly allows you to compare the relative SEO value of a web page.  I had the opportunity to provide some beta testing to Twitter friend and fellow blogger, Carter Cole, who recently launched his new SEO tool on his blog and SEOmoz. SEO Site Tools presents standard SEO scores (e.g., AlexaRank, MozRank and Google's PageRank) as well as all sorts of other SEO bells and whistles, such as features for social media and SEO suggestions.  Tools like Carter's help bloggers aggregate SEO research into one tool, helping them to quickly assess their ability to rank for a particular keyword.

Carter Cole's new Chrome SEO extension

3. Create Excellent, Linkable Content

Many traditional on-page SEO tactics just aren't as effective as they used to be.  Optimizing the placement of keywords throughout your site provides less benefit than it once did.  Instead, the overall trust and authority of the site plays a much more important factor on how a page ranks for Google.  And the ultimate signal for Google for trust and authority is an inbound link from a related website.  If people with similar sites are including links to your site in their content, it's a pretty good indicator that they're referencing you as an expert. Creating plenty of excellent, linkable content is one of the best ways to attract maximum SEO traffic to your blog.

Blogging on behalf of your business can be a great way to establish credibility and obtain low-cost leads. But SEO is just one of many tactics to attract traffic to your website. And there are many more tips out there. Leave a comment below to share your blogger tips, SEO or otherwise, on attracting traffic to your blog/website.

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1.  Your Brand is as Good as the Customers' Experience

New friend and brand expert Pat Dawson recently launched his website/brand consultancy with TheBrandChiropractor.com. Dawson and fellow branding experts blog about their observations of brands that convey a message far different than the version of the brand customers experience, both online and offline.  For example, Dawson's most recent post outlines a difference in customer experiences across Rainbow Foods grocery stores in the Twin Cities and suggestions for how their owners could put their brand back "into alignment."  Managing Your Brand Online Tip #1: Strive for alignment between customer expectations and customer experience.

2. The Power of a Brand with Power

More new friends include John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell, founding principals of Pollywog, a Twin Cities naming and branding firm.  Their patent-pending brand process helps you create a powerful brand that will stand out in an online landscape, cluttered by over 5.5 million worldwide brands. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #2: Create a brand that stands out and is easily understood and spread by word of mouth.

3. Let Your Customers Help Shape Your Brand

We recently tested a few visual design changes on our website at work with a few of our customers.  We developed three different designs and then asked our customers to select five adjectives from a list of fifteen that best described the designs.  We were then able to leverage the customers' feedback in our decision-making process with evidence supporting the path we selected. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #3: Let customers help make big branding decisions.

4. Use the Online Brand Management Tools

Conversations occur about you online whether you're listening or not.  It's easy to mange your brand online with free tools and little time here and there.  Check out this recent blog post about free online brand management tools you can use to stay on top of what's being said about your brand online. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #4: Use free and cheap tools to alert you when your brand is mentioned.

What tips do you have for managing your brand online? Have you seen a particularly memorable brand recently? Post a comment with your thoughts.

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We use Google Analytics here on Big Picture Web (along with Quantcast, 4Q and Get Satisfaction) to measure things that happen on our blog. You may be using a different tool.  That's fine.  Just be sure you're using something to measure and track your site. You can track pretty much everything that matters on your site... for free. Ok, I'm done with my measurement rant. Moving on.

In order to track blog comments, you must first set them up as a goal in Google Analytics. Once you've logged in, access your Analytics Settings, then your Profile Settings.  You'll then see a section on goals. You can set up to 20 goals for each Google Analytics profile. Some goals can be specific events such as submitting a contact form. These goals are reached when a visitor arrives at a very specific URL on your site. Some goals can measure broader engagement metrics, such as the number of page views each visit yields. We're going to set up a goal that will allow us to track blog comments.

This next part promises to get just a bit technical but it's worth it to continue on. There are three basic steps to setting up a new goal in Google Analytics to track your blog comments:

1. Goal Information
2. Goal Details
3. Goal Funnel

Goal Information

The first step in setting up a new goal is to define it. Provide a name and select the type of goal you're going to measure. Provide a name, control whether your goal is active and select the positioning of your goal in Google Analytics' reports. To track blog comments, select a URL Destination goal type.

Goal Details

Now it's time to define the point at which a visitor has reached a goal and identify the corresponding URL. For example, when someone posts a comment on your blog, they'll land on a distinct web page immediately after hitting the "Submit" button. That's the URL you're after. Select a Match Type (a whole other topic, but see here and here for help) and Goal URL. Then enter a Goal Value. Enter a specific dollar amount if one exists for your goal. Otherwise, you may be able to estimate an approximate value.

Goal Funnel

The last step is to define the goal funnel. A goal funnel represents the multiple paths people can take to complete your goal. For example, your visitors can most likely "Add a Comment" to a blog post from either the post itself or the home page if that post is featured there. Goal funnels are optional to set up but can provide some really neat blog measurement insights so it's usually best to define your funnel.

The really gratifying part comes when you look at your goal funnels in Google Analytics reports. From your dashboard, you can select Goals, then Funnel Visualization to see your goal funnel. For example, you can see that 45 folks reached my blog post for the time frame I selected. Two of them went on to fill out the comment form. Both of them ended up submitting the comments they created. I know that 4.4% of my blog readers end up leaving comments.

That wasn't so hard, right? Just a few minutes' worth of work and you just learned the basics of blog measurement and how to track blog comments. But now it's your turn. What are you trying to measure? Feel free to connect with me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook. I'd be happy to help you with any specific questions you have about measuring your blog or website. Or you can simply leave a comment below and make my day.

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• Focus on helping people and building a community.  Not every visit will result in a sale.  Blogging allows you to demonstrate your expertise to people over time so that you're on their minds when it's time to make a purchase.  Give today to invest in in relationships for the future.
• Blog about things that will be entertaining and engaging to your visitors but are specific to your market. Don't be afraid to tell a story or make them chuckle.
• What problems could you solve through your blog posts? Where applicable, tell people how to do what you do. You'll help folks out and maybe even get some new customers who don't have the skill or time to do it themselves.
• Resist the urge to deviate from the theme of your site. Many bloggers start sharing cooking tips and vacation stories as soon as they get an audience. Stay the course when selecting blogging topics. Be consistent.

Kaushik's new book. See our book referral policy.Once you've figured out what to blog about, it's important to consider how you're saying it. One of my biggest heroes on the Internet is Avinash Kaushik (blogger, writer and Google's "Analytics Evangelist").  Folks like Kaushik can look at data from web analytics tools like Google Analytics and pull out brilliant insights on how to improve your website to better meet your business goals.

Anyway, Avinash recently posted about web metrics and a neat service called Wordle, which allows you to create a word cloud using the words appearing most prominently on your site.  Think of it as a way to see what overall themes and messages you're sending out through your blog. For example, you can see that Big Picture Web is big on Internet marketing, planning and setting business goals, etc.

After you've been selecting and blogging about topics for a while, use their free tools to put your articles into their word clouds.  What themes stand out?  It's important to take a look at these things to see if your blog is on course to serve your business or if you need to reconsider what to blog about.

And for that matter, this principle applies to your social media interactions as well.  Does your overall presence end up serving your community and your market?  What themes are you sending out through your tweets and updates?

What else should bloggers consider when determining what to blog about? How do you select your blogging topics?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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Help the Community and Watch it Grow

Having a budding community of our own, Big Picture Web is always eager to help you with plenty of best-practice, free online marketing tips each week with our blog posts.  We strive to live up to our tagline of "Complex Internet Strategy in Bite-Sized Chunks."

Vote in the Online Marketing Poll

So here's the deal.  In this post, I'm reaching out to you, my community, to see what help you need with online marketing.  Vote on the poll below to voice your opinion on which online marketing topics I should choose for the road ahead.  I'll make sure to post plenty of best-practice free online marketing tips based on your responses.

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This Week In Tech, Brought to You by Squarespace

It's been nearly two months since I changed my website hosting to Squarespace, the hosting/content management system (CMS) upon which Big Picture Web is built.  Podcast host Leo Laporte introduced me to Squarespace in an ad spot on his weekly show, This Week in Tech.  Laporte has a philosophy where he'll only accept advertisers if he truly believes in the product.  I was immediately interested when he plugged Squarespace.  I went to their site, took the tour and ended up signing up for two week free trial.  I haven't looked back since.

Create Content, Not Code

I started Big Picture Web using Drupal, another very customizable CMS.  Its open source platform made virtually anything possible with the right amount knowledge and skill.  But in the end, Drupal's versatility was its downfall.  I found it took me way too long to add, configure and customize all the necessary modules to make my site run.  Squarespace has allowed me to focus more on creating content than on creating my website.

If you go to their site, you'll see tons of videos and resources about how easy Squarespace is and how stunning some of their templates are.  I agree with them completely.  In addition, I've come up with three of my own reasons to go with Squarespace and one suggestion for improvement.

Three Pro's of Squarespace

1. Accessibility.  It's vital that your web pages load quickly for visitors.  A lot of folks will hit the back button if a web page hasn't loaded in under a second.  Squarespace's infrastructure appears to be much cleaner and lighter than what I had put together on the Drupal framework.  Just look what happened to my site load time since moving to Squarespace (courtesy of Google Webmaster Tools):
2. Time-to-Market.  Creating entire sites takes a fraction of the time it used to.  There are no modules to download or install.  Everything is intuitively integrated into the Squarespace administrative controls.  And while there is a learning curve to any CMS, I think Squarespace would be relatively easy to learn for most.  You won't be able to customize some areas completely to your liking but this will be offset by the time you save using the plug-and-play tools in most cases.
3. Constant Updates.  Squarespace is constantly releasing new tools to maintain your blog/site.  I can post new blog entries (including photos) from my iPhone thanks to their relatively new app.  Also, you can see that my search engine traffic is back in full force now that I've been able to set up my 301 server redirects from my Drupal-era url structure (courtesy of Google Analytics):

One Piece of Feedback for Squarespace

1. Comments.  While most of the Squarespace's features are near-flawlessly implemented, I think their comments area needs a little rework.  Best practices are pretty much in place with systems like Disqus, where you're notified of comments posted and you can reply to particular comments.  Being able to engage with your community is vital in this era of the social web.  I can't wait to see any improvements Squarespace rolls out in this area.

The Final Squarespace Review

Your website hosting and platform should always be selected only after carefully reviewing your business goals.  Review the ones that meet your requirements and ultimately go with the one that delivers the best value.  If you're planning a blog or a website for your small/medium business, be sure to check out Squarespace in your review process. It's certainly been a positive experience so far for us here at Big Picture Web.

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User Friendly. Easier Said Than Done

Usability is the science of ensuring that your website is easily understood by your visitors and that the tasks they want to perform are clearly identified and simple to use.  Sound easy, right?  You'd be surprised.  If you've ever found yourself fumbling around on a website, chances are you've been the victim of poor usability.

If you have poor usability, it can adversely impact how customers perceive you.  Or even worse, your potential audience might not even see your message at all.  Testing for usability helps to be sure that your message will be clear and that your visitors will have fewer questions about how to further engage your services.

Four Steps of Usability Testing

In a nutshell, usability testing involves four main steps:

1. Take a drawing, a concept, a wireframe, an existing website... anything you want to test for usability.
2. Show your "something" to someone who has never seen it before.  Ask them to tell you what they think about it, what they would expect to be able to do and what other things strike them as interesting.
3. Encourage your test participants to always be broadcasting their internal monologue as they are performing the tasks so that you can tell when they've come across something that doesn't make sense, is unclear or when they're just plain lost.
4. Some usability issues will be more serious than others.  And many times it's best to make a prioritized list of the biggest issues and then to work on improving, then testing your site repeatedly over time.

The cool thing about usability is that you don't often have to make a huge investment to get huge insights.  Don't get me wrong, I think really good experts in this area are worth every dime.   But if you are strapped for cash, you can get by on a shoestring usability budget.

Much More to Learn

(Thank you! Please read our book referral disclaimer)I've barely just cracked the usability testing surface in this post.  For more information, I'd recommend reading the brand new Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems, by Steve Krug.  In it he walks through the process of testing usability step by step.

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Experts in Web Design

(Thank you! Please read our book referral disclaimer)In her recent book, Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? (New Riders Press), Dr. Weinschenk describes important aspects of usability and persuasive web design.  In plain terms, usability is the practice of ensuring that your website's layout and information is easily understood by your website visitors.  Persuasive design is the art and science of how to make your message more compelling, resulting in more website leads and sales.  Neuro Web Design was a great read and since then I've been looking at websites differently.

Practical Examples of Web Design

This week I came across an excellent example of good web design page layout in a site called Daily Mugshot.  Daily Mugshot is a free service that allows you to take a picture of yourself every day and then post them to a flipbook that you can share with your friends or embed on your website.  Today, I'm going to take you through seven examples of great web page design, thanks to Daily Mugshot.

 (Click to open a larger version in a new window)

7 Examples of Good Web Design Page Layout:

1. Home page link - It's now become best-practice to have your logo in the top-left corner of your website.  Clicking on the logo should bring visitors to the home page.
2. The "welcome mat" - Your website should have a section of the home page that introduces the visitor to your website.  You should give folks an idea of what your site is about and why they should be there.
3. Social proof - Visitors to your site want to know whether your product is any good or not.  Seeing other people who have taken the time to use Daily Mugshots sends a message that the site is worth it.
4. Search - Search is an important means of navigation for many web users.  A visible search box is a must of almost all websites.
5. Clear Call-to-Action - Your first goal in great web design page layout should be to provide a crystal-clear action you want your visitors to perform.  Notice how Daily Mugshot uses about three different visual cues to get you to sign up for their service.
6. Page Layout Navigation - Make sure your visitors don't get lost.  Provide clear navigation with intuitive page titles.
7. Clear Explanations - Be sure to use clear, concise language that your ideal customer/visitor would understand when you design and layout your web page.

Much to Learn

Great web design page layout requires that you take a lot of factors into account.  Neuro Web Design helped me realize that there is much to learn.  What are some of your favorite examples of good web design page layout?  

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