Analyzing Website Traffic

By: Andrew Wroblewski

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool
for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full
use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the
data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web
traffic information that you then have to interpret and make
pertinent use of. However, 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. Let's start by
examining the most basic data - the average visitors to your site
on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's
activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic
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.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known
as "hits" and what is really effective, quality traffic to your
site. 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.

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.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics 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.

Additionally, web traffic stats 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.

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.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or
contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit
rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find
exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you
a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you
notice a 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.

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.

When not on his soapbox, Andrew Wroblewski is doing battle with
the thousands of spyware programs that can affect you via his
ant-spyware and spyware removal website:
http://spyware.pcwash.com where you can get a free spyware scan
of your computer system.