|
Click
Herefor more articles
|
|
|
|
Use Your Website Traffic Statistics To Improve Your Results
|
|
by: Chris Stirling
|
Copyright 2005 Chris Stirling
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!
About the author:
Chris Stirling's website is geared for people who are interested in finding an online work at home
opportunity or starting a low cost or free Home Based Business. If you would like to learn more visit his
website at: http://www.stirls.com For his Top Picks Home Business Newsletter visit
http://www.stirls.com/bizopps-newsletter.html
|
|