Click through to the blog post and you'll find 20 stunning stats that you can use to impress those around you ;-).

1. Check Online Traffic

Traffic is a top-line metric of website engagement that measures the amount of users visiting your site. Why is reviewing traffic important? Without sustained amounts of traffic to a website, regardless of industry, businesses will have incredibly low visibility online. Use your favorite analytics platform to review trends in website traffic over two weeks or more. Do the peaks in traffic from marketing campaigns or new blog posts match what you’ve done in the past? Were there holidays or other external factors influencing the traffic? Jot down a couple of notes about potential reasons for the trending up or down when compared to weeks past.

Got 30 minutes?

• For a deeper investigation, review traffic on a line graph against your conversion rates and sales trends.
• Make sure to also consider seasonality if that is applicable for your business by examining year over year data.

2. Track Sources

A sources report will allow you to review which channels are the most effective at driving website engagement. Review a line graph of organic search, social media, email marketing, campaign-specific, direct, and total traffic over at least two weeks. Any surprising trends? Review referral traffic by individual URLs -- any surprising referral pages? Are your blog posts generating traffic from quality inbound links? Take notes of the sticky content, and incorporate more of those topics into your content calendar.

Got 30 minutes?

• Take a look at the inbound links driving traffic to your website to see if there are any cross-linking opportunities to build authority for your site with search engines.

3. Analyze Keywords

Keyword analytics can be digested in many different ways. The most beneficial to your business in a quick-hit analysis is analyzing lead conversions by keyword. While traffic by keyword will show you which keywords are popular, lead conversions by keyword will show you which topics are bringing in qualified visitors. Do the keywords accurately portray your business’ products and services to drive leads? Your top converting keywords are invaluable to guide your website content, advertising buys, and even how you sell your products/services. Also look for keywords with low conversions. Usually these are opportunities to drive more leads. Add more of these keyword-focused topics to your content calendar.

Got 30 minutes?

• Review a keyword grader tool to access your site rank on the search engines compared to competitors for popular keywords.
• Be sure to add long-tail variations of top converting keywords to further refine your niche keyword opportunities.

4. Monitor Conversions

The conversion rate metric allows you to gauge the efficiency of your website’s performance. All the traffic in the world won’t help your business grow if your website isn’t able to turn visitors into business leads. It is important to note that every page of your website should offer opportunities for users to convert. In your review, jot down two pages with the lowest conversion rate. Examine those pages for any missed conversion opportunities. There are many different ways to optimize your pages for lead generation. For tips, review these lead generation best practices.

Got 30 minutes?

• Review your website's two worst converting forms against these basic lead generation principles for forms. Be sure you have a compelling “hook” for users to fill out the form as well!
• Also review your lead nurturing campaign(s) to jot down failed experiments or new content ideas to introduce.

5. Measure ROI

Finally, tie it all back to ROI. Take the sum of what you’re spending and divide by what you are generating in returns (sales) from the website. There may be other key performance indicators marketing managers can use for an online program, however. Perhaps you’re working against cost-per-lead. Has this changed over time as you’ve grown or taken on lower cost initiatives, like search engine optimization and email marketing? Jot down two ways to reduce overall cost to the program and/or get more leads to balance out the equation.

Got 30 minutes?

• Break down your ROI by traffic source. Any surprises?
• Write down goals for each traffic source and at least one step to reduce costs for each source.

As a best practice, always leave your analyses with takeaways and action items. Having these will encourage you to continue to reviewing your analytics regularly. Prioritize analytics for 10-minute weekly or bi-weekly reviews. Capture all your notes and high level metrics in an easy spreadsheet to keep history and share with your team.

Do you regularly review your marketing analytics to check the performance of your marketing? What other metrics do you track?

Another great post from Hubspot. Since measurement is the name of the game and there is no time to play, this helpful post will help you get some golden nuggets from your online efforts in just a few minutes.

Martell Home Builders is an Atlantic Canadian custom homebuilder. In the past, Martell relied heavily on realtors to keep their business moving forward. However, once they embraced social media, they were able to create a direct-to-consumer model where they were no longer reliant on a middleman to bring them business.

Martell started a content creation and blogging strategy to focus on their homebuyers’ needs. With topics such as “14 Must-Have Tools for New Homeowners” and “Home Staging Tips & Techniques,” Martell was able to grab the attention of homebuyers. Today, about 86% of all their leads come directly from consumers.

Notice in the image below the placement of their email capture box as well as their social media channel buttons. Prime placement of both components (above the fold and in the right sidebar) is the key to grabbing attention and encouraging interaction.

Note: Studies show that more people subscribe to blogs by email than RSS feed readers. Martell’s call to action—”Get the blog sent to your inbox. Enter your email”—is a smart move to capture leads while promising value in the form of new blog updates.

Martell also takes advantage of geolocation technology by mounting GPS tracking devices on their contractors’ vehicles, making it easy for their customers to always know where their contractor is when on the job. This eases the customer’s mind and allows Martell to extend even greater customer service.

In the image above, Martell's customers can track their contractor's location when they're on the job.

With innovative strategies, Martell has made the homebuilding experience social. One great strategy is their use of photo galleries of the clients’ homes being built. Not only can the homebuyer watch the progress in pictures, but also they can share their excitement with their family and friends on social networks. This is not only a great experience for their clients, but Martell is able to gain excellent social proof and even more visibility online via these photos as seen below.

Martell also uses the Facebook Like box, as seen below. This widget is dynamically updated; pulling content right from their Facebook page each time someone visits their site. The Like box is great social proof. It shows how many people have Liked your page and also shows faces of your Facebook fans.

The benefit of having this widget is that people can become your fan without leaving your company website. This encourages viewers to stay on your site longer and allows you to increase your fan base from your own website.

Tip: Think outside the box, like Martell did by allowing their clients to see where their contractors were at all times while on the job and by giving access to photos of their homes being built. By providing real-time, socially connected customer service, you’re able to create even more trust with your clients.

Outstanding look in to what Martell Home Builders is doing online that transformed their business!

Keyt takeaways: Social media is a great way to build trunst with prospects and customers. Get creative for the biggest impact!!

Instead of sending a news release to a media list just because your boss says, "Get me some coverage." Use the tips Shel Holtz offers, like piggy-backing off of current news in a meaningful, informative and interesting way.