Analyze Your Website Traffic

Jim was doing his routine jogging with Ray, his next door neighbour. He also got involved in net marketing.

Ray :"Jim, I can see my website is getting more hits, but I am not getting more sales. I wonder if my site needs further improvements."
Jim :"Well Ray, hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. A hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page. Say your site 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. It's the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis that you should be examining."

Ray :"I see, so you must look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site."
Jim :"Precisely. The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis."

Ray :"Besides the behavior, what other things should I look into to figure out how my site is working for my visitors?"
Jim :"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. 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. Pinpoint specific problems, and fix them, then continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been."

Ray :"I never knew web traffic stats could tell that much about a website."
Jim :"True. They can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page. If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page."

Ray :"Those things you mentioned are indeed essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign."
Jim :"Does your website have exit pages, like a final order or contact form?"

Ray :"Yes, why?"
Jim :"This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. This is normal unless you notice an exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page."

Ray :"You just brought to my attention the thing I never cared before."
Jim :"Most people don't care about it either. 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."

Ray :"Right."
Jim :"Now 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."

Ray :"Some visitors type your company name directly to find you too, don't they? I mean they already know you by name instead of through keywords."
Jim :"True and it's a good sign. It means you have achieved a certain level of brand recognition. That's what we should keep working on to improve."

They had jogged back to their houses.
Ray :"See you same time tomorrow morning?"
Jim :"Yes, same time tomorrow morning."

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Author : Linggar Sentanu Japra
Blog : http://huge-traffic-marketing.blogspot.com