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Use Your Website Traffic
Statistics To Improve Your Results
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by: Chris Stirling
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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
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