How do you know it's broken?

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Madeleine

Madeleine

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Very good question. How can we answer it? A little background: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/06/ping-me-when-its-broken.html
So, how do we know something isn't working when we don't know it isn't working?
 
Yes, he says "The web can work that way (but only if you let it)," but he doesn't really tell HOW to make your website let you know when something there isn't working.
He's forcing me to think, and I already have a headache.
 
Arkansawyer said:
Yes, he says "The web can work that way (but only if you let it)," but he doesn't really tell HOW to make your website let you know when something there isn't working.
He's forcing me to think, and I already have a headache..
Click to expand...
This is why I asked. I know several people have signed up with the tracking service that lets you know where your guests bail. Were they looking at dates when you are full? That sort of thing.
Otherwise - how do we know what we don't know? Every last lovin' one of us has had at least one guest say they love our website. NO ONE calls to say the website is horrible and there is no way I would book there. It's a conundrum.
 
Madeleine said:
Arkansawyer said:
Yes, he says "The web can work that way (but only if you let it)," but he doesn't really tell HOW to make your website let you know when something there isn't working.
He's forcing me to think, and I already have a headache..
Click to expand...
This is why I asked. I know several people have signed up with the tracking service that lets you know where your guests bail. Were they looking at dates when you are full? That sort of thing.
Otherwise - how do we know what we don't know? Every last lovin' one of us has had at least one guest say they love our website. NO ONE calls to say the website is horrible and there is no way I would book there. It's a conundrum.
.
Click to expand...
Madeleine said:
NO ONE calls to say the website is horrible and there is no way I would book there. It's a conundrum.
Click to expand...
Well I had one to email me with all sorts of nasty comments saying our website locked his computer and would not let him leave our site. Said he would never book our place. So what do you do then? We apologized that it was our site that the issue froze on but that we had no other issues reported to us to make us think anyone tampered with our site. But that we would check our site for issues in case someone had. And then told him he should run a virus scan on his PC. What else can you do? Like we would intentionally sabotage our site - the site we use to market our B&B.
 
copperhead said:
Madeleine said:
Arkansawyer said:
Yes, he says "The web can work that way (but only if you let it)," but he doesn't really tell HOW to make your website let you know when something there isn't working.
He's forcing me to think, and I already have a headache..
Click to expand...
This is why I asked. I know several people have signed up with the tracking service that lets you know where your guests bail. Were they looking at dates when you are full? That sort of thing.
Otherwise - how do we know what we don't know? Every last lovin' one of us has had at least one guest say they love our website. NO ONE calls to say the website is horrible and there is no way I would book there. It's a conundrum.
.
Click to expand...
Madeleine said:
NO ONE calls to say the website is horrible and there is no way I would book there. It's a conundrum.
Click to expand...
Well I had one to email me with all sorts of nasty comments saying our website locked his computer and would not let him leave our site. Said he would never book our place. So what do you do then? We apologized that it was our site that the issue froze on but that we had no other issues reported to us to make us think anyone tampered with our site. But that we would check our site for issues in case someone had. And then told him he should run a virus scan on his PC. What else can you do? Like we would intentionally sabotage our site - the site we use to market our B&B.
.
Click to expand...
Well, yes there's that. I got that yesterday. She made a rez but it didn't take. It locked her computer. I told her she could just close the screen down, I would take her rez on the phone. Not to worry, it wouldn't go thru twice.
She really didn't understand that I was telling her it was ok, to not worry, her computer was fine. She may still be sitting there waiting for the 'thank you' page to come up.
But other than big problems, no one ever lets us know something isn't how they would like to see it. They just move on.
 
Fixed? No, but it sure as hell helped me tweak things. My bounce rate is low and I get a lot of hits.
It's better than flying blind.
 
Proud Texan said:
Fixed? No, but it sure as hell helped me tweak things. My bounce rate is low and I get a lot of hits.
It's better than flying blind..
Click to expand...
So how did knowing the bounce rate help you tweak? I'm not getting this at all. You don't know why they bailed, you just know they did.
I have a overall bounce rate of <20% but on some searches it's 95%. I know why the 95% leave but don't care. What I don't know is why the <20% don't book.
 
Madeleine said:
Proud Texan said:
Fixed? No, but it sure as hell helped me tweak things. My bounce rate is low and I get a lot of hits.
It's better than flying blind..
Click to expand...
So how did knowing the bounce rate help you tweak? I'm not getting this at all. You don't know why they bailed, you just know they did.
I have a overall bounce rate of <20% but on some searches it's 95%. I know why the 95% leave but don't care. What I don't know is why the <20% don't book.
.
Click to expand...
Madeleine said:
So how did knowing the bounce rate help you tweak? I'm not getting this at all. You don't know why they bailed, you just know they did.
I have a overall bounce rate of <20% but on some searches it's 95%. I know why the 95% leave but don't care. What I don't know is why the <20% don't book.
Click to expand...
You can get a graphical view that shows the percentage of the traffic on your landing page and what they're clicking. This helped me redesign (by trial and error) my navigation and keywords in my code. I also have the Analytics code embedded in my ResKey page so I know how many visitors are checking my calendar.
We target a specific demographic, as I'm sure you do. We don't appeal to everyone and don't try to. Rather, we focus on being the best at what we do in the area. We have heads in beds, so we're doing something right.
 

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