You have built a great website and have started to see your
traffic counter spinning up rapidly. This is good news right?
Maybe it is, maybe not. You need to look deeper than just the
number of visitors to your site. You need to analyze the stats
for a number of different reasons. But before you dive deep into
the analysis and make full use of this information, you need to
understand how to interpret the data.
Your web hosting company probably provides you with basic web
traffic information. The data you receive from your host company can be
overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular
business and website. There are two main stats you will notice; visits and hits. .
The visit figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity.
Hits simply means the number of
information requests received by the server. If you think
about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number
of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown
the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage
has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits,
when in reality we are talking about a single visitor
checking out a single page on your site. As you can see,
hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.
So it would appear on the surface that the more visits you see recorded,
the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate
perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come
to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.
The aim when analysing your web site statistics is to figure out
how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to
determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your
site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying
problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.
It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type
of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are
confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit
rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are
spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and
after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as
a gauge of how effective your fix has been.
Another excellent stat is the exit page stat. This stat will show you which
page your visitors are exiting your website from. This stat can help you determine
effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have what you think is a
great entry page and from there you expect visitors to move onto different pages
of your site you would expect the exit page stats to show this. But if you have
a high exit page statistics from your entry page then you know that visitors are
not navigating your entry page. This will tell you you need to adjust your entry
page.
As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital
information about the effectiveness of individual pages,
and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential
information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.
After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time
to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular
keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they
find what they are looking for on your site, and even
better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the
more valuable that keyword is.
However, if you find a large number of visitors are being
directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a
particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands
adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors
to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find
your site will give you a vital understanding of your
visitor's needs and motivations.
Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website
by typing in your company name, break open the champagne!
It means you have achieved a significant level of brand
recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.
As you can see keeping a close eye on your website traffic statistics will
turn your average website into a visitor friendly site. Happy site visitors
means sales!
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