The purpose of analyzing your web site statistics is to look for trends and to research the success level of your marketing campaigns. The numbers themselves can be misleading, as statistical packages count "hits" in different ways. If someone visits a page on your site doesn't mean that they read it completely.
The idea with web site statistics, then, is to look for trends. Instead of looking at the numbers a concrete items, look at them over time to see if they're increasing or decreasing. For example, if you do an internet marketing campaign, then look at your web site statistics to see if the campaign increased the number of hits to your site.
With that said, here are some numbers you should look at:
Visitor Information
There are three areas that are important to review each month and during each marketing campaign. The number of unique visitors will help you to determine whether your site is receiving more or less visitors each month.
The location tells you what country, and sometimes what State, the visitors are coming from. This is important if you're concerned about your global reach to other countries, or if you've done a marketing campaign in other States. Note that this is the State of the ISP where they connected to the Internet. Because AOL is in Virginia, you will have an inordinate amount of Virginia visitors, even though these people are actually all over the USA.
An important distinction is the concept of "visitors" versus "hits". Each person who visits your site is considered a "visitor". Each time a visitor looks at a page, that page and its contents are accessed, including the graphics on the page. As example, say that your home page has two graphics on it, plus some text. That is considered THREE elements on the page. When a visitor visits that page once, your statistics will show ONE visitor and THREE hits.
Time of Day Activity
This area of your statistics helps you to determine which days of the week have the most activity, and which time of day is the most active. This can be helpful to know when to schedule chats and teleclasses. For instance, if Wednesdays at 3PM are popular times for your site, they may be popular times for teleclasses. It's important to note here that one of the most popular times for people to search the web is weekdays after lunch. (People are at work and having a sugar low after digesting their lunch and are surfing the net instead of working.) If this is a popular time for people to be surfing the net, then this might also be a popular time for an internet chat on your web site.
Referrals
This section of your statistics will tell you who is sending people to your web site. It lists which search engines people use, as well as which keywords or key phrases people use to find your site. In addition, this section will also list what other sites are linking from their site to your site. (When someone links from their site to your site, it's called an "inbound link" or "incoming link".)
Pages
This section of your statistics will help you to determine which pages are visited most often, how long people stay on a page (presumably to read it), and which page people exit your site from. Again, trends matter here more than the concrete numbers. Are certain pages more popular than others? Are people only spending 5 seconds on a page that should take 3 minutes to read?
Error reports
This section tells you where people had problems accessing your site. If people try to access a certain page and can't, it will be recorded here. If your site has been unavailable, you'll see these numbers rise.
For a list of all internet error message numbers and they're corresponding meaning, check out this website:
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/error.asp
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many number to look at in your statistics, and many ways to interpret them. If you pay more attention to trends and problems, and less attention to actual numbers, you'll be ahead of the game!
About The Author
? 2004 Karyn Greenstreet.
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to create and grow their businesses, stay focused and motivated, and perform at their peak. Visit her website at http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/error.asp
family-safe home cleaners Lincolnshire ..Isn't online a magical invention? Surely it is, just imagine... Read More
All of us want to increase traffic to our web... Read More
"How Can I Double My Sales?" - that must be... Read More
I am not a professional photographer nor am I in... Read More
Generating traffic for your mini-sites is the challenge.Search engines look... Read More
Traffic-generation is a hot topic for marketers. In particular, "free... Read More
One problem with websites is that they often go neglected... Read More
When you work with web site traffic, you must have... Read More
So you have decided on a design makeover for the... Read More
We all know that the secret to success on the... Read More
Want to Make Free Money on the Internet?One of the... Read More
One of the most common needs of online business owners... Read More
The future of online business rest in one word: traffic.... Read More
(Continued from Using Traffic Exchange Programs Part 2)Hello again!In the... Read More
Are you spending hundreds of dollars on advertising campaigns, only... Read More
It official Yahoo has dropped Google and will be using... Read More
Unless you're building a baseball diamond in the middle of... Read More
Do you ever wonder what the point is in spending... Read More
Links are important to you because of two main reasons:Google's... Read More
You want to start your own online business. You want... Read More
1. Make all or part of your site into a... Read More
Would you like to get unlimited viral traffic to your... Read More
Gary Halbert once said that the ONLY advantage he wanted... Read More
Link Exchanges are a very time consuming project. The time... Read More
Link popularity has been written about ad nauseum, but most... Read More
maide service in Buffalo Grove ..This day 4 of "Free Traffic Course" is devoted to... Read More
The one thing that any new Webmaster hears when searching... Read More
Sub-domains are websites that are located within a directory of... Read More
Nowadays there are just too many people trying to give... Read More
Looking for a way to increase traffic to your web... Read More
I have an ingenious concept in store for you!I am... Read More
Why submit to a Directory?Every webmaster is looking for ways... Read More
I have been reading, with great interest, all the online... Read More
It's a strange world, this place we call the internet.... Read More
For the past few years, I've been stashed away in... Read More
We all need traffic. It's the life-blood of an online... Read More
You want to start your own online business. You want... Read More
Winning the traffic exchange game can be done. I was... Read More
So we gather in all the relevant information we can... Read More
A classic way of getting seen and noticed on the... Read More
This is the first article of a three-part series. I... Read More
Online marketing is an area where you can find a... Read More
All of us want to increase traffic to our web... Read More
1. Trade links with other websites. Websites that are related... Read More
This is the first in a series of three articles... Read More
Let me ask you a question. What is the most... Read More
For all the seeming "intelligence" displayed by its system, Google... Read More
FAQ pages are an often overlooked way to generate free... Read More
There are many easy ways to get your name out... Read More
Every website owner wants their website to be popular; some... Read More
Traffic Building |