The most difficult thing about writing these articles is covering all the great features in a certain word count. Today, I want to take a moment to examine 1 feature in your Google Analytics that you should spend some time reviewing.

Visitor Flow
This feature can be found under the standard reports area as an option under the audience section. This section offers a graphic representation of the flow of your customers through your website. By reviewing this section you can see where your users enter your site, what the drop off is from the entry page and where they go as they walk through the website.

The Visitor Flow allows you to review this visual by:

• All visits
• Search traffic
• Referral traffic
• Paid visits
• Non-Bounce visits

I could go on and on…

You can then break out the report by up to 5 Customized dimensions like:

• Visitors like city
• Traffic sources like keyword
• Content like event category
• System like web browser

This tool will allow you to spend time analyzing all your traffic visually and identify areas of weakness in your website.

Spend some time with your visitor flow as you get to know the new look of Google Analytics and start planning your web updates around how your customers walk through your website.

On May 17, 2011 Network Solutions produced an event to support Small Business Week. The event was “Mobile Marketing for Small Business: Fact vs. Fiction.”

While you might not think about it, when you’re Googling a restaurant, store or movie theater from your Blackberry, iPhone, Android or ipad- You’re participating in mobile marketing! This technology is not only handy and fun, it can be pretty lucrative as well. One in three searches on a mobile device is local. After searching for a business on their mobile device: 61% call the business, 59% visit the business; 88% take action the same day!

Moderator: Rieva Lesonsky, founder and CEO of Growbiz Media, a widely recognized small-business expert and author of the bestselling book Start Your Own Business.

Panelists:
• Ramon Ray, journalist, technology evangelist, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com and author of “Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses” (Amacom).
• Jennifer Shaheen, Technology Therapist and yes, founder of The Technology Therapy Group.
• Tim Gorin, Yelp’s Small Business Advisory Council Member, VP of Business Development, MyEyeDr
• Navin Ganeshan, Principal Product Strategist, Network Solutions

Here’s some things the average consumer or marketing guru could take away from the panel discussion:

1. Just because you might not be using this technology, that doesn’t mean your customers or other business partners aren’t.
As Jennifer mentioned and Ramon, Navin, Tim and Rieva echoed, not just the younger generation uses technology like cell phones and tablets. And while you as a business owner might not be actively embracing this new technology, you should find out if your customers are. A great way to do this is through your Facebook page. Poll your audience-are they using this technology? As Rieva pointed out, while a lot of business owners sometimes think customers just want this technology because of the novelty or “fun” factor it presents, it really can make a difference in driving your bottom line!

2. Tailor your web presence to your small business’ unique needs
Take an inventory of what your customers want in greater detail, take into account what you and your company needs internally, and create a strategy based on that data. Tim urged the audience to spend the time and if necessary, the money to make your small business’ mobile presence efficient. If this means focusing on just the basics of getting a clean, dynamic mobile presence live, that’s fine. Just make it easily searchable, convenient to get to, and ROI-friendly.

3. Consider using a QR (Quick Response) Code
Ever see those barcode-looking squares on your bottle of wine, cereal box or bag of chips? Those are called QR codes, and they’re a great way to get your business recognized and accessible. With a simple scan on your smartphone, you can get a bevy of information about a business. And while they look complicated to create-as Tim mentioned- you can easily have a QR code supplied to you through the Google Places application. This tool not only gives the consumer or potential client more information about you, it’s a cool new way for people to find you!

4. Optimize your mobile web presence
The panelists said the best way to get your small business started in the mobile world is by making sure your website is oriented to be ready for mobile use. How annoying is it when you can’t find the same great website you look at online on your mobile device? A good technique Ramon mentioned was: if you’re selling a specific product, have your top-selling items easily accessible and seen on your mobile website. Having a mobile web presence isn’t just great for b2c, but b2b as well. For instance, many IT companies can use their mobile web presence to assist in customer service issues, build applications to monitor sales, and decide when to perform certain tasks. The bottom line is, even if you’re doing nothing with your web presence, it’s still up there-so why not make it great?

These are just some highlights from the exciting panel discussion. Read more from the panelists about ways to make your small business’ web presence mobile-friendly.

On June 14, Jennifer led an NYC SCORE Presentation on Preparing Your Business For the Mobile World. Here’s a link to the slides.

With the popularity and enhanced tools of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, it may seem like websites have become obsolete. This would be a false assumption, and it is particularly not true in the case of small businesses.

Jennifer’s advice? Go back to the basics!

The future of the internet is going to see the rise of engaging, easy-to-use platforms. Instead of relying on everybody else’s social technologies, why not take the conversation to your website? Take advantage of the outside tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, to bring the conversation closer to your audience.

Take a look at the clip below to learn more about how to integrate social media into your website. You can also download the full Powerpoint.

Clip of Jennifer Shaheen at the New England Business Expo: