My Red-Haired Step Child Page...

I've had Google Analytics on my site for the past year or so and every time I go into the reports, I find something new to analyze. I'm almost finding it an addiction; tweaking the website, going to analytics and either grinning from ear to ear or staring horrified that my bounce rate has increased exponentially.

I'm starting to play with the Google Website Optimizer. You see, one of my pages is my red-haired step-child and it's wreaking havoc with my pay-per-click results. With the Website Optimizer, I'm able to create 2 pages and test them against each other to see which one gives me better results. I'll keep you posted on what I discover. Are you playing with Web Optimizer? How is it working for you?

What To Do With Negative Comments?

I was teaching last night at the Lake George Chamber of Commerce and I had an interesting question posed. This hotel had a nasty comment posted on Trip Advisor and wanted to know how to respond. I suggested responding with all the steps taken to ensure every guest has a quality stay, however, this client seemed to think this comment was posted by a competitor. So whaddya do?

I thought maybe he could send out a survey to his existing client base, asking how their stay was and with each completed survey, offer a coupon, gift, etc for taking the time to help improve the experience. Then you get to see if it's really a problem or if it's just sour grapes. It also gives you some valuable feedback to know who your target audience is and how to attract more of them and less of the sour grapes.

That was my idea, however, some people felt that may be an intrusion on their guests. What do you think? Have you tackled something like this in the past? Let me know your solutions in the comments below.