New User Numbers Decreasing

New users in Google Analytics shows you how many new people have visited your website for the first time. If your site does not have many visitors then improving your site is the best way to attract new users.

As shown in the image, New users still active were forecasted between 5,302 and 16,681, NWTC.edu had 4,622 active new users within the past month. This month NWTC had 207K new users while last month from October 1st – October 31st NWTC had 227K new users.

There are many different ways to attract more new users such as identify and understand who your audience is, improve a users journey throughout your site. Ways to improve the users journey could be creating a better layout or improving paths. Other ways to attract more users include, using campaigns to track your traffic, discover what content is attracting the most people and improve that content even more.

User Acquisition

User Acquisition in Google Analytics is a report used to get data as to how users are finding your website or app. There are several different channels in User acquisition that show what kind of channel

On NWTC.edu the Organic search which is a free listing in a Google Search, has the highest number of new users at 114,894. There are ways to improve Organic Search rankings such as define a keyword list and target keywords that match a search intent (Informational, Transactional or Navigational). Other ways to improve Organic search is providing high-quality content as it causes viewers to be interested and to return to the site or share the site.

Below Organic search is Direct at 73,632 and Display at 6,539 new users. Direct Search is where the website visits traffic source is unknown or the referral source is tracked incorrectly. There are different ways to increase Direct search, such as include SEO Paid ads, Social Media or Email Marketing.

Display Search is traffic that discovered your site by clicking on an ad from a different website. Different ways ads can be shown is blog ads or image ads. Ways to increase display search is to create more ads that will link to your website from another website.

Low Engagement Time

Engagement Time is important to websites as engagement time shows content performance. As shown in the image, the average engagement time per session is significantly low at 57 seconds, with 1.1 engaged session per user.

Having a high engagement time is ideal as it shows that your content is sticking well with your viewers and shows that your content is something they find interesting or useful.

There are many ways to increase engagement time which include using Relevant keywords, Conduct user research to see what people your website attracts, having multiple CTAs (call-to-actions) to keep users interest or create more interactive content to keep the viewers interested in your site.

Traffic Acquisition

Traffic acquisition or the process of attracting viewers on your site is important as it is a way to understand where your website and visitors are coming from.

Traffic acquisition can be broken down into different channel groups such as Organic Search, Direct, Referral, Display, Paid Search, Unassigned, Organic Social, Mobile Push Notifications and Email.

At NWTC the Organic search which is a free listing in a Google Search, has the highest number of users at 126,705. Following Organic Search, Direct Search with 76,463 and Referral with 9,752 are the 2nd and 3rd channel group.

Direct Search is where the website visits traffic source is not known or the referral source is tracked incorrectly. Ways to increase Direct search include SEO Paid ads or Email Marketing.

Referrals are when a visitor ends up on your site from another sources link. Having a high referral count is ideal as it is a way to improve your brand exposure and become more recognized. With Referrals having a low number of users, there are ways to improve your referral count which include using Social Media, Media coverage, Partner or Sponsor websites or Email Newsletters.

Is separate-site or WordPress better for online stores?

Both separate-site and WordPress embedded ecommerce plugins are great tools for building a website however each tool has its own benefits.

However, WordPress provides a multitude of plugins to customize your site just the way you want it. WordPress also helps you to control your costs by providing you full control over your choice of hosting provider and what plugins you decide to use.

With WordPress you have control over your search engine results for relevant keywords, ability to translate your site to an unlimited amount of languages, and the ability to create multiple sites with one account.

Comparing WordPress to another ecommerce site, WordPress overall has the most benefits.

  • Thousands of themes to choose from
  • Offers free and paid plugins
  • Ability to sell products beyond the ecommerce store
  • Cost effective
  • Easy to install and set up
  • Search Engine and SEO Friendly
  • Responsive Web Design
  • Regular automatic updates to make using WordPress even easier

Wordfence Security Plugin

Wordfence Site

Wordfence Purpose

  • Reduce the chance of your website to be hacked
  • Monitor your websites security health
  • Security tools for Login Security
  • Protect against malware

What Wordfence Addresses

  • Malware scanner checks core files, plugins and themes for malware
  • Checks for bad URLs, SEO spam, harmful redirects, backdoors and code injections
  • Offers advanced security tools for the most security you can have
  • Login Security
  • Offers Wordfence Central – a spot to manage the security for multiple sites in one place
  • Uses a Web application firewall used to identify and block malicious traffic
  • Site checks for vulnerabilities and alerts you to suspicious activity or issues
  • Repair files that have been changed by overwriting them with the original version
  • Ability to track and receive alerts to important events such as administrator logins, attack activity and breached password usage.

Wix eCommerce Store vs WordPress Embedded eCommerce Store

Wix eCommerce

Wix eCommerce Site

Wix eCommerce is a all in one platform that allows you to:

  • Sell online through your eCommerce website, sales and social media channels, or in person.
  • Can also manage shipping, marketing, and payments on the Wix eCommerce dashboard.
  • Detailed tips/information depending on what stage you are in – creating your online store, moving online, wanting to move your store to Wix or wanting to connect with a Wix partner.

Prices

  • Free premium plan available but must be canceled within 14 days
  • Light $16 per month
  • Core $27 per month
  • Business $32 per month
  • Business Elite $159 per month

WooCommerce

WooCommerce site

Open-source eCommerce plugin where you can do a variety of different things such as:

  • Create storefronts with themes best suited for your brand/industry
  • Increase revenue with optimized shopping cart experience
  • Customize product pages
  • Sell subscriptions, memberships and bookings
  • Provides tools needed to sell online
  • Only you control your store data
  • Monitor your store, add features and grow your business anywhere you are

Prices

WooCommerce Express is free for 14 days, then 3 months for $1

Password Manager Tools

LastPass

LastPass Site Link

Price

LastPass has 3 single/family plans:

  • Free
  • Premium $2.10 per month
  • Families $2.80 per month

LastPass has 2 Business Plans:

  • Teams $2.80 per month
  • Business $7.00 per month

Pros

  • Autofill and access your passwords anywhere
  • Password vault for all of your passwords
  • Password Generator
  • Dark Web Monitoring
  • Digital Wallet for online purchases

Cons

  • Remembering to save each new password to LastPass can be hard
  • Limited live support
  • Occasional downtime issues

Ease of Use

LastPass is easy to navigate and provides a support center to ask questions as well as a resource center.

1Password

1Password Site Link

Price

  • Individual $2.99 per month
  • Families $4.99 per month
  • Teams Starter Pack $19.95 per month
  • Business $7.99 per month

Pros

  • Protects your devices data
  • Security breach alerts
  • Protects you from phishing
  • Removes secrets from your clipboard
  • Intelligent autofill
  • Always requires your input

Cons

  • Higher payment for services
  • Overwhelming user interface
  • No free plan to test if 1Password is best for you
  • Little ability to change all passwords

Ease of Use

1Password is overall easy to navigate once you become more comfortable with the interface.