"/>Tips To Analyze Your Website Traffic Statistics
Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. But before you can make full use of your website traffic statistics, you need to understand how to interpret the data.
Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information. 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. 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.
One way to determine your website’s performance 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.
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.
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.
Dynamic Web Options can provide customized online marketing solutions to help your small business marketing needs. Contact us today to find out more. Whatever your business goals may be, Dynamic Web Options can help you combine the power of internet marketing with offline marketing to increase sales and profit.
Improving Your Search Engine Marketing Strategy In 4 Steps
Search engine marketing may seem complex with all the endless opportunities to advertise and market, constantly changing trends and technologies, and overly complex solutions all come with the territory. With this list of four things business owners can use in creating or evaluating their search engine marketing strategy will make simple.
Establish Your Internet Marketing Strategy Goal
When establishing your goal and creating an effective strategy, you need to ask yourself, “What is THE purpose of my website?”
Typically, people use their website for many different purposes. You may use your website to sell products or services, to generate leads, or for informational purposes.
2. Establish a Search Engine Marketing Plan
Search engine marketing is very popular because it works. It consistent generates leads, sales, etc. at a lower cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale than traditional mediums like TV or direct mail advertising.
When people want to find something online, they go to search engines, such as Google, and search for it. Search engine marketing is all about being where people people are looking when they search for what you sell, offer, or have on your website.
When creating your plan, you should focus on two areas:
1. Search engine optimization – showing up in the organic listings or sponsered”free” area of the search engine’s results
2. Pay-per click advertising – showing up in the advertisers or “paid” area of the search engine’s results
For search engine optimization, first realize it is not easy, nor is there a magic trick to easily get ranked consistently high in the search engines. It is a combination of many factors, but it always come down to one fact: build your website according to web standards, with a focus on accessibility for all.
Just as with search engine optimization, there is no magic trick for pay-per click advertising, either. Instead, the formula for PPC success is in well-placed bids (what you will pay to have your ad show up) combined with meaningful landing pages (where people go when they click on your ad).
3. Conduct Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The goal of search engine optimization is to make changes to your website to get higher rankings in search engines. The best strategy to take is a common-sense approach to SEO: develop standards for your website and adhere those standards to all pages.
Only once your web pages comply with the basic standards, you can then move to more advanced SEO techniques.
4. Leverage Pay-Per Click Advertising
Pay-per click advertising helps you get more traffic from search engines through advertising in search engine results. You pick terms that people search on and then bid a price per click on your ad that you are willing to pay. You ad shows up when someone searches on that term, and they click on your ad and come to your website.
By following the approach above, you can create or evaluate your search engine marketing strategy, focus on what matters most when executing your plans, and more effectively achieve your goals.
Dynamic Web Options can provide customized online marketing solutions to help your small business marketing needs. Contact us today to find out more. Whatever your business goals may be, Dynamic Web Options can help you combine the power of internet marketing with offline marketing to increase sales and profit.
