Use Your Web Traffic Statistics
Knowing where people are coming from when they visit your site, along with what pages they visit, how long they stay on your site, and other relevant information, should form an important part of your overall site strategy. It amazes me how many people overlook this simple, but obvious requirement. How can you make improvements to your site if you have no idea how the site is being used? How can you determine what promotion strategies are working and which aren't?
Installing a package that collects, collates and analyzes your web site traffic should be an essential part of your ongoing site improvement decisions. It forms the basis of you understanding what is working on your site and what isn’t. It also provides an excellent means for determining what ads, backlinks, articles, blogs and so forth are bringing traffic to the site. If you are paying for an ad that only gives you a few hits a month, it’s time to jettison that ad.
There are a number of packages available to you that work with both ASP and PHP. Others are script independent. Some of these are free, some aren’t. My personal favorite is Traffic Facts, but there are many others. There is a small fee for this product, but in my opinion it is worth every penny. You can also check places such as aspin.com or hotscripts.com for ASP and PHP scripts.
If you were running a traditional "bricks and mortar" business, you would want to have some understanding of who was coming into your business, and more importantly, who isn't. You would also want to know what ads and other promotional avenues you are paying for were actually working. Running an online business is no different, and in many ways, it's even more crucial.
Your site statistics will tell you what sites your potential customers are coming from. This would include ads you've placed online, email lists, traffic exchanges, backlinks from other sites, and so on. If you are paying, say, $50 a month for an ad on a particular site, it would be highly beneficial to know how many people are actually visiting your site from there. If your site statistics tell you that you are only receiving 5-10 visits per month from that site, you might want to reconsider where you spend that $50.
Using two-way backlinks from other sites, as offered by link exchanges, can be useful. But are you getting return visits from all of those mutual links. Why would you keep a link on your site to another site if you are only receiving a handful of visits in return. A good statistics package will help you determine what sites are useful for you to exchange links with, and which aren't.
A good statistics package will also tell you whether potential customers are just coming to your site and then leaving from your homepage, or if they are drilling down further into your site. Having people visit your site is meaningless if they aren't following the links to your sales pages. This can be particularily important if you are paying to use facilities such as traffic exchanges. The TEs will get you a boatload of "hits", but those hits don't mean a thing if they aren't converting to sales.
The same principle applies to how long people stay on your site. If a large number of your visitors only stay for a few seconds then they are obviously not bothering to obtain additional information abour your products or services. Again, this becomes a factor when using facilities such as TEs with their 20-30 timers. If those people are only waiting for the timer to count down to zero so they can move to the next site it doesn't really help your sales. If it isn't costing you anything then there's no loss. But if you are paying for these services you need to know if they are delivering the goods.
Your ability to draw in potential new customers is limited. Use your statistics to determine what is working and what isn't. Find out where potential customers that view more than just your homepage are coming from, and then maximize those facilities. A careful analysis of your site statistics may help you identify seldom accessed pages. That, in turn, may indicate a problem with your navigation scheme. Too many people don't understand that using your statistics can actually help you improve your site.
You won't be successful just by hoping for the best. A good businessperson continually evaluates his/her promotion strategies. Web site statistics offer a wealth of information when it comes to online business. Not using that information reminds me of the old Yogi Berra quip: "You have to be careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."
It all boils down to a simple question: are you trying to obtain as many "hits" as you can to your site, or are you trying to increase sales. They are not the same thing.
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