Anyone reading this who has Google Analytics on their website and doesn't spend considerable amounts of time with it, is probably wasting a lot of money in lost marketing efficiencies. Printing out a graph of the total number of website visitors every month is, quite frankly, useless. Yet it's all that some companies do with this fantastic tool.

We recently did a two-hour exercise for a client, examining the true results of various advertising outlets they'd used in 2011. To their horror, only one online advertising initiative had generated profitable results, and over a third of the money they'd spent had produced no measurable results at all. Meanwhile, a relatively obscure website, which didn't even appear to offer any advertising opportunities, was sending a steady stream of good traffic. They'd never have guessed.

The key to this job, as with everything associated with website visitor analysis, is to ignore all the default data you're presented with, and ask yourself: "What do I really need to know, and can Google Analytics tell me that?" In this case, the client needed to know the amount of good quality visitors which various websites and emails had sent them, and to split that into those they'd paid for and those they'd have got for free anyway. Although in many cases things hadn't been set up to record that data as specifically as required, we were able to show how various external links could be changed so that the data would be recorded in future. Next year's annual review will be genuinely illuminating.

Are you making the most of your visitor analysis?

Of course, if I may shamelessly advertise the fact, you could get us to run your AdWords campaign for you. There are loads of good reasons for doing so, and you can request a copy of our 2012 AdWords Guide here if you'd like to be persuaded why. If your market is limited enough in size that there's only a few hundred pounds a month of search traffic out there, you may be better off running your Google AdWords campaign in-house. But when there's enough out there to justify about £750 or more, we think outsourcing the campaign makes a lot of sense.

Still, for industrial and scientific companies even a poorly-run, in-house Google AdWords campaign is better than none at all. Unless you're single-mindedly into branding rather than enquiries, every other form of advertising is, in comparison, a luxury nowadays. From what I can see, the response which businesses are getting from other forms of advertising is currently a bit of a joke.

Is February 2012 the time to make changes to your advertising?

What tends to happen with most company websites is that after they're built, there's a very short flurry of improvement as any problems in practice are ironed out, but then there's a gradual slide downhill over the next few years as the design of the site is left unchanged and it gradually becomes less fit for purpose. At a certain point, you then have to find £10,000 or £100,000 (and several months of your life) to completely rebuild the thing. The problem with this is that the site is, quite simply, rubbish for the last year or two of its life, and the cost of a poor website is only just beginning to sink in for most businesses.

The story of "Trigger's Broom" has made it into Wikipedia, as a modern-day version of the "Ship of Theseus Paradox". In an episode of Only Fools And Horses, the scene-stealing character of Trigger, the street cleaner, wins an award for owning the same broom for 20 years. He points out that it has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles, but insists it is still the same broom. A great gag; but surely that's also a better way of running a website? Having a new broom is very nice, but it doesn't make up for having a useless one while you organise for a completely new replacement.

I have been involved with several website redesigns where we knew no work had been done on the site over the years because the site owners didn't even know who originally designed their existing site! Maybe your website is already in such a state of decay that it'll need to be rebuilt soon. But this time, schedule regular, permanent discussions with the designers about the site's appearance and functionality, and you (or your successors) may never need to rebuild it again.

Can we learn something from the village idiot?

Some of the people you're writing for will want to do business with you. Many more will need to be convinced that your offering is better than what they have already, or what they've seen elsewhere. So every time you make a statement, you need to ask yourself the question they'll subconsciously be thinking: so what?

In a way, it's just a cute way of reminding yourself to write about benefits, not features. "Our widget is blue". So what? "Our widget is more blue than other blue widgets". So what? "Because our widget is more blue than other blue widgets, it uses less power". So what? "Because our widget is more blue than other blue widgets, it uses less power and saves you money". Nearly there. "Because our widget is more blue than other blue widgets, it uses less power and will make it easier to reach your MTBF targets".

Aha. Now it's getting harder for a prospect to say so what?

Have you asked the one question your prospects will ask?

So it was a surprise to hear him say: "Our real problem at the moment is our company website". People who consider the best business to be done over a lunchtime pint are often those who have little time for things like websites. As he genuinely seemed to know what worked best for his company, I was intrigued to learn more. The reason he was concerned about getting his website right was, I suspect, a good one. "Whenever we hand over a business card, or make an impression at a seminar", he said, "what's the first thing any potential customers do when they get back to their office? They look at our website. And even if our business is likely to be entirely face to face, they'll still look at our website. If I get chatting to a prospect, take their details and arrange a meeting at their office for one of our sales guys, what's the one thing they'll do in the mean time? Look at our website."

Fair enough. So what was the problem with the website? "We had it designed a few years ago", he said, "with the normal criteria in mind – explain what the company does, give technical specifications on our products, etc. It was fine. But it was designed, like most websites, as if the visitor didn't know us. In our case, that's not true: the vast majority of any real prospects have already met us in person, and will be looking at the website perhaps for more reassurance about the company. What our website should focus on is just that: our track record, case studies, and anything else which shows what a reliable supplier we might be".

A great point, and the wider lesson to be learned is that all our websites need to be geared up around the requirements of the visitor who might become a customer (as well as supporting existing customers). If you're the opposite of our friend above, and the bulk of your prospects are meeting your company for the first time on your website, you need to introduce yourself there. That's why you're beginning to see more websites which simply state: "We're the Blue Widget Company. We make the best Blue Widgets".

Are you introducing yourself properly?