As I've mentioned previously in my blog, "Define Your Audience," one of the first steps in optimizing your site is to determine who you want to attract.  However, you also need to know who your site is currently attracting and where it stands currently in the search engines. Only after this assessment can you adjust or modify your site's design accordingly. A powerful tool for this assessment is Google Analytics. As pointed out by Eric Lander in his article, Google Analytics only measures user data.  Therefore, you would have to view your web site's log files to get a complete report of visibility and navigation through your site.  However, if you are interested user metrics such as page visits, bounce rates, time on site (these topics will be discussed in laters posts), then Google Analytics is a great tool for getting started.

Navigating through Google Analytics and interpreting the data reports can be pretty confusing for beginners.  Therefore, as part of my search engine optimization series, I'm going to be including some posts on how to interpret various parts of the reports provided by Google Analytics. More...

I've been asked to write an eBook on the why's and how's of marketing and search engine optimization for churches.  In preparation for doing so, I'd like to use this blog as a think tank for acquiring questions, issues, and comments for search engine optimization and marketing for religious organizations.  Therefore, I ask that you to be invloved in this process - I want to know your questions and concerns; I want to know your thoughts.

First off, if you'd like to know more about who I am, I would encourage you to check out the "About" page.  As for my "credibility" in search engine optimization (SEO), I will report that 90% of my clients are listed on the top 2 pages of major search engines for their targeted keywords and phrases.  I cannot, however, take any responsibility for my accomplishments - save my faithfulness to be obedient in using my gifts.  God has given each of us talents to use for His glory; and, when we use those talents, He increases our fruitfulness.  God does not call us to do things in which Has not first equipped us to do.  God has equipped me to do this, and He has made me successful in the online marketing arena. More...

Until June 17th, Google is holding a contest offering free optimization to a handful of sites.  Enter your site and win a free search engine optimization!

The URL is: http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/workout/index.html