The votes have been counted, so to speak, and we’ve chosen Deb Howard Greenleaf as the winner of the Ask_NetBiz contest. She gets $1,000 in Search Engine Placement services for free! Deb was chosen for her very valuable question.

Great question Deb! Every Web site owner needs to have analytics tracking of some sort. There are many free offerings that do a great job for people who are new to running Web sites.

Just in case you’re wondering, here’s our response to Deb’s question: it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you looking for deeper engagement with your customers, or more traffic, or are you trying to guide people to a specific page on your site? The answers to these questions will give you the direction you’re looking for.

I recommend that you review your Google Analytics traffic several times per week and look at these key factors: unique visitors and traffic sources, your bounce rate, and your highest trafficked pages. This info is very beneficial and provides a great starting point for improving your Web site. If your traffic is low, then you need to work on increasing your links and/or advertising. If your bounce rate is high, then you need to change the content of your site to match what your customers are looking for, and guide them to the pages they need to find.

Deb’s bio:

Deb Howard Greenleaf is the principal of Greenleaf Accounting Services, LLC, helping solo-professionals who struggle with their billing and bookkeeping. Deb has over 17 years of experience in finance and accounting, with a focus on QuickBooks since 2002. A Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor since 2006, Deb achieved the Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor designation in late 2007. Out of more than 44,000 ProAdvisors in the country, approximately 15,000 are certified and only 990 hold the Advanced ProAdvisor certification.

As any business owner knows, taxes are a necessary evil when running a business. Deb is an Enrolled Agent (EA), an IRS-licensed tax professional. As an EA, Deb can defend you in an IRS audit, help you deal with payroll tax problems, or get you caught up with non-filed returns.

A frequent instructor at the Manufacturers’ Association of Northwest Pennsylvania and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Gannon University, Deb enjoys sharing her love of QuickBooks and small-business accounting.

A proud graduate of Bowdoin College, Deb has been a lifelong resident of Erie County, Pennsylvania. She shares a home there with her wonderful husband, two mischievous kids, and a half-dozen dogs and cats. For more info, visit her Web site GreenLeafAccounting.com.

We would like to thank our two launch partners for the Ask NetBiz.com contest.

On September 2nd, SmallBizBee.com featured a column written by Cory Huff from NetBiz.com. Netbiz Case Study: the Importance of Online Reputation Management is an article about how NetBiz.com is making changes in the way that we interact with and listen to the community around us, as well as launching our Ask NetBiz.com contest, where small business owners have a chance to win $1,000 in free Search Engine Placement.  Thanks a lot SmallBizBee!

Sparkplugging.com also helped us out by running an article titled Ask Netbiz Answers Your Internet Marketing Questions, helping us launch the Ask Netbiz giveaway. Thanks a lot to Kelly & Wendy from Sparkplugging.

Sparkplugging & SmallBizBee are both great websites to get helpful information on what it takes to run a small business.

We begin taking entries on Monday, September 7th, so check back with us and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or leave a comment here at the blog to get your questions answered!

From September 7th until September 21st, you have an opportunity to win 2 months worth of free search engine placement on Google (valued at $1000)!

Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Follow @Ask_Netbiz on Twitter and ask us a question about small business internet marketing.  We’ll answer your question and enter you in our drawing. Just @ or DM us to submit your questions!

• Every time you Re-Tweet our contest, we’ll give you another entry in our drawing.

• Become a fan of Ask Netbiz on Facebook and ask us a small business internet marketing question there.  We’ll answer your question and enter you in our drawing.

• The NetBiz.com Blog – Return here often to get news and tons of useful information on Internet marketing, search engine news, and get in-depth answers to your most pressing questions.  You can ask questions via the comments section.

It’s that simple.  Ask a question, get an answer, and as a bonus, we will give one lucky business owner two month’s worth of Search Engine Placement at no cost to you!

Check back with us on September 7th to get a full run down on the contest. In the mean time, subscribe to our blog or our newsletter to get free news updates and helpful advice on Internet marketing for small business! Contest Terms and Conditions.

I wrote a blog post over at Sparkplugging.com about how to add your business to the Google Local Business Directory.  Check it out, and also check out this free webinar that Google is putting on about using the Local Business Directory to enhance your business.  Thanks to Shannon from the NFIB, you can attend a virtual summit that will help you with your internet marketing efforts.

Visit the NFIB Summit page to get registered for the summit.  It’s in September, but I would image you’d want to get registered now.  It’s not every day that Google, Ebay, and Dunn & Bradstreet offer to give a free webinar!

“Google is going to do a free webcast about this (the promo code to get in free is bgg737).” – Shannon