We've written a few blog posts about content. Like this one about blogging and this one about content vs copy.

But we see websites with minimal content every day. Five pages, with a paragraph of text and that's it. And don't get me started about one page parallax scrolling sites. Why do we and every other online marketing person out there bang on about creating content?

In short, because without it your website is a useful as udders on a bull. Or as useful as a one armed trapeze artist with an itchy…. Well, you get the picture.

When it comes to your website, 'friction' is anything that make the visitor less likely to do the thing you want them to do.

That could be to call you, email you, read more content, sign up for something, download something or buy something.

The more of these points of friction you have on your website, the less effective it will be.  So how to you reduce or remove it?

This is term used frequently in online marketing conversations – so what does it mean?

It's an important concept that can make a significant difference to the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.

A question many a small business owner asks themselves.

Unlike a lot of the advice you'll get if you Google "Facebook marketing", we don't necessarily agree that Facebook is the answer to all your marketing challenges – especially if you are a small business with a few (or possibly only one) employee(s).

Much of the advice is very generic and, just like stretch pants – one size does not fit all.

Google regularly makes changes the layout of the search results page.   Recently they announced a change to the way it displays Adwords ads which has an impact on all search results and continues the slow decline of organic search results visibility. 

It will have a big impact not just for Adwords advertisers but for your search engine optimisation strategy as well.

So you have a great website with lots of good information.  But how do you get people to see it? 

And specifically, the people you WANT to see it - the people that will buy from you or engage your services.

This post provides a whole bunch of ideas on how to get those all important visitors to your site, using off-line and online tactics.

People often cry "My website gets plenty of visitors, but they aren't doing anything!" By 'anything' they mean they aren't filling out that form, requesting a quote, buying something, subscribing to a blog or whatever other action is required.

This can be very frustrating, as after all that's why you spent all that time, effort and money to get the website looking like the thing of beauty that it (hopefully) is.

The process of turning a visitor (prospect or lead) into a sale (sign up, enquiry or purchase) is what is know as conversion. Your website could (actually, no – make that should) have multiple conversion goals to support different stages in the buying cycle.

And if it's not happening on your website, the question is "Why?" and that's what this post is all about. But first things first.....

Ok, you're looking at your Google Analytics, and the number of visits you get. But you know some of them aren't good candidates to buy from you and you want to clear them out of your view. So how do you remove them from the data you are looking at?

Analytics segments, come on down!

Google Analytics is one of the most common reporting tool used for small-medium and even some large websites.

It's very powerful, with a huge amount of information that can tell you how many visits your website gets, where they are coming from and what they are doing when they get there.

But what does it all mean?

You've heard the advice – Blog! Blog! Blog! We've even said it ourselves. Ok, let's say you know why – but how do you do it?

One of the biggest challenges for any website owner or marketers is how to get more people to do something on your website whether it is buy, sign-up, download, subscribe or enquire.

Competing for that all-important attention from impatient website visitors can be a real head scratcher.  Enter pop-ups.

Historically pop-ups have a reputation as an annoying distraction, interfering with the user experience. Although they do have a bad reputation, but there is evidence that they a) work and b) done properly you can avoid annoying existing or potential customers.

If your website is busily attracting new customers, that's fantastic - but did you know it can do even more to increase the profitability of your business?

This is something I talk about when I hear a very common statement from businesses that goes "Our website doesn't really contribute to sales - it all comes word of mouth".

Wait, you're kidding, right?

If you didn't already know, updating your website regularly is important.

But in case you have a sneaking sense of cynicism about whether it's worth all the effort, here's a summary of why it's really important...

Pictures paint a thousand words. And let's face it, a post can be pretty boring without something to make it a bit more interesting, or even better to illustrate a point.

But let's be honest, most of us who blog would prefer to use a free image than pay for one.

Google Analytics is a great tool. Powerful. Free for small businesses. It's a million times better than AWStats or other similar free reporting tools that come with website hosting.

But it's not perfect. There are some serious issues that have escalated recently to the point where you just can't take the statistics at face value.