Archive for September, 2011

Visit IQnection For Doylestown’s
First Friday October 7th

By admin - September 23rd, 2011

Come out to IQnection Internet Services on Friday, Oct. 7th to get a sneak peek and meet the creators of a major film that is currently being shot right here in Bucks County:  America’s First D-Day — Washington Crossing

Before General Eisenhower led American troops on June 6, 1944 on the shore of Normandy, France, there was America’s First D-Day – Washington Crossing. Our Nation’s Independence rested on this one last effort and General Washington’s password that was passed from regiment to regiment– “Victory or Death.”

first d day pic 300x264 Visit IQnection For Doylestowns  <br>First Friday October 7thThe film is currently being shot around Bucks County by Director, Rob Child and Producer, Scott Randolph. Rob Child has worked behind the scenes as a writer, technical director, and director for more than a decade with network clients including HBO, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, NBC, ABC, and CBS. Child produced a series of highly regarded and award-winning Civil War films including “Gettysburg: The Boys in “Blue and Gray” and the docudrama “Gettysburg: Three Days of Destiny.” Child also directed “Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: The Cost of Freedom,” “Silent Wings: The American Glider Pilots of World War II,” “The Wereth Eleven,” and “USS Franklin: Honor Restored.”

The film will be distributed through the historic parks and other venues and proceeds go to help preserve national treasures like Washington Crossing Park and the Trenton Barracks. Become a true patriot and help support this important historical documentary and help Washington Crossing Park continue to remain one of our most treasured historical landmarks.

IQnection is located at 28 E. OaklandAvenue, Doylestown, PA 18901. Revolutionary war re-enactors are welcome to come dressed in military uniforms.

share save 171 16 Visit IQnection For Doylestowns  <br>First Friday October 7th

Google Analytics VS. Log File Analysis

By admin - September 23rd, 2011

We have had several questions recently regarding the difference between the statistics seen in Google Analytics and statistics available in our Control Panel. I thought I would take this opportunity to explain why there will always be some discrepancies.

AWStats

Let’s begin with the statistics you find within the IQnection Control Panel. Depending on your account and hosting service, you may see a variation of statistics. The one most clients see is Advanced Web Statistics also known as AWStats. These reports are available under the Hosting Tab – Detailed Site Statistics.

AWStats was designed years ago to help Network Engineers & System Administrators. The data is pulled from the ‘raw logs’ of the server that your website is running on, making these reports very basic.

The major difference between AWStats and Google Analytics is the way the data is collected. AWStats logs the data from the physical server – where Google Analytics logs data from the website itself.

Comparing data from the 2 sources will undoubtedly show discrepancies. When comparing Page Views or Hits, AWStats includes all page requests to the server. These ‘requests’ can include more than what we think of as viewing a web page. These requests can include images downloaded to be viewed on the web page and file downloads which can include ‘scripts’ from the code of the web page – not actually the web page. It is normal for these statistics to be inflated in AWStats. Another source causing the difference could be the Search Engine ‘bots’ crawling your site. These ‘bots’ would not trigger the code Google Analytics relies on for their statistics.

Google Analytics

Where AWStats is a log analysis tool, Google Analytics is intended to be a measure of your website performance providing you with statistics that you, as a business person, will want to see.

Google Analytics relies on cookies and JavaScript code to collect the data. In Google Analytics pages simply means the pages that you have put tracking code on. So with Google Analytics the pages means literally what you think of as a Page View.

To summarize, web stats usually sees what a server sees, while Google Analytics usually sees what a visitor sees.

We suggest you set up Google Analytics if you are serious about finding out more of what is happening on your website and using tools to improve profitability. It is a very robust analytics program and it is Free.

View our Glossary of Web Analytics Term – A Guide to Frequently Used Web Marketing Terms.

 

share save 171 16 Google Analytics VS. Log File Analysis

Facebook and Secure Fan Pages

By admin - September 23rd, 2011

A few weeks ago, we gave you a list of 10 reasons you need a Facebook Fan Page.

The latest Facebook ‘buzz’ is their plan to force all fan pages to be ‘secured’ by October 1, 2011. What this means is your Facebook Fan Page must now reside on an https: site with SSL – Secure Certificate.

What is SSL?

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. Basically, it is the technology whereby a user’s browser and your server talk to each other using encrypted data. This makes it much harder for hackers to get personal data.

To secure your site, your server needs to have a secure certificate installed, either shared or a single certificate for your site only.

For clients with existing e-commerce websites this will not be a problem. The URL for your Facebook Fan page will merely need to be changed from http to https. The problem comes in for sites that previously had no need to purchase an SSL Certificate.

So, to secure your existing Facebook Fan Page or if you are in the process of developing a Facebook Fan Page you have limited options.

1. Purchase a Dedicated SSL Certificate for your domain

2. Use a Shared SSL

For clients that are hosting at IQnection, we have set up a process for a shared secure server. Your Facebook Fan Page(s) will be hosted on a ‘shared’ environment within the SSL Protocol.

Please contact Eric Jacobson in our Marketing/Sales Department (215-345-5424 x215) for more information on how your Facebook Fan Page can be moved to comply with Facebook’s plan of requiring these pages be secured.

share save 171 16 Facebook and Secure Fan Pages

Last-Minute Holiday Gift Purchases Will Be Mobile

By admin - September 20th, 2011

Google has done some calculations based on mobile search growth patterns over the past few years and have announced this projection for the coming holiday shopping season:

“44 percent of total searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices this holiday season based on historical growth rates.”

smartphonel 256x300 Last Minute Holiday Gift Purchases Will Be MobileIn reviewing the last 2 years of mobile shopping patterns, Google found what they are calling a “double-peak” on mobile devices.

  1. The first around “Black Friday
  2. The second followed the last weekend before Christmas

Google adds that people who are doing searches for products and store locations on mobile phones are more likely to actually show up and buy something.

Data from a 2011 AdMob survey says 65% of respondents answered yes to the following question:

“Have you used your Smartphone to find a business, and then made a purchase at that business-in-person?”

Google stated that its survey showed both Smartphone and Tablet users intended to start their shopping before Thanksgiving this year.

Taking together these surveys means marketers need to be ready for people doing a large part of their shopping on Mobile Devices and Smartphones.

However, you also need to be conscious of the growing iPad & Tablet users as well. Studies show that Tablet users are more engaged and spend more than other online shoppers. This data means it is imperative to optimize your web presence for these devices.

Google noted that a large majority of their major advertising clients – 70% as of February 2011 – still did not have an optimized mobile presence.

All of this data shows an accelerated rate of consumer’s adoption of mobile. The retailers and marketers that are not yet fully optimized for mobile or do not have a mobile paid search strategy are way behind and will lose sales.

Time is running out to catch up for this year’s holiday shopping.

Excerpts from http://searchengineland.com

share save 171 16 Last Minute Holiday Gift Purchases Will Be Mobile