There are lots of things you can learn from the details contained in your web site stats. In this article I will show you how to “look under the hood” of your web site and find data you can use to get more traffic and make more sales.
While talking with a client, I asked where his web site traffic comes from: search engine referrals, links from other sites, etc. His answer? “I don’t know.”
There are lots of things you can learn from the details contained in your web site stats. In this article I will show you how to “look under the hood” of your web site and find data you can use to get more traffic and make more sales.
First of all, look at your stats. There are lots of sophisticated programs that will analyze your site and provide data. However, most web hosting companies include one or more stats packages with hosting. My favorite is AWStats, but there are others that are also very good. If you are not sure what stats are available, contact your web host and ask. BTW, http://www.MyFavoriteWebHost.com/ offers a choice of AWStats or Webalizer. Both are good packages, but I recommend AWStats.
Lots of people talk about “hits” when they talk about their web sites. Hits are meaningless. The important numbers are unique visitors, visits and page views. Those numbers tell you how many people are looking at your site, and how many pages they look at. These are good numbers to track if you are trying to build traffic to your site.
Now, where did the visitors come from? Your stats will tell you. You can see how many people were referred by each of the search engines, and what search terms visitors used to find your site. You can also see what other sites are referring people to you.
Entry and exit page data also is useful. Fewer and fewer visitors come to my site through the home page. Often, a search engine result or a link from another site takes them directly to a page within the site. Knowing where visitors arrive–and the last page they see before they leave–can help me make the site more useful to them.
Want to know when the search engines last indexed your site? Your stats should show you when you were last visited by bots from Google, Yahoo, and others.
So, how do you use all of this? Watch your traffic numbers to see if they are going up. If you are actively doing things to generate more traffic, you should see the numbers increase.
What search terms bring visitors to your site? I found a couple of surprises in my stats, along with the expected keywords. One term in particular brings lots of visitors every month to a page with a somewhat-obscure article. By determining how I can monetize that traffic, I can take advantage of a stream of potential new customers the search engines are already sending my way.
Which sites refer the most visitors to your site? When you know what links are effective in drawing visitors, you can pursue additional, similar links. Could you offer more articles to sites that are already sending visitors to you? Or find new sites with a similar audience? Interviews and media exposure can result in a traffic spike, so sending press releases and seeking publicity might be a good use of resources.
Get in the habit of looking at your web stats and learning from them.
As the Idea Lady, Cathy Stucker helps entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous. Get free marketing tips at http://www.IdeaLady.com/
