Web Traffic Stats Are Important
December 28, 2007
Learning how to read web traffic analysis reports can be very important for webmasters to do for a number of reasons. Learning how to interpret these reports correctly can be a bit tricky though.
This data is available from most web hosting companies. They will provide you with a lot of information that can be pretty overwhelming to decipher at first. It doesn’t hurt to understand how to make it apply to the business and website at hand. The first thing to look at is the average number of visitors that land on your website. Take a look at the daily, weekly and monthly figures.
These numbers tend to be the most accurate in regard to a particular site’s activity level. Be careful not to read too much into the traffic numbers without delving deeper. While it might seem as if the more visitors who go to a site, the better the site is doing, it’s not always true. You need to know what visitors do once they get to a site. This is the real measure of effectiveness.
A lot of people confuse hits with quality traffic. Hits are nothing more than the number of information requests the server receives. Hits can actually equate to nothing more than the number of graphics on a page. Should, for example, your homepage have 20 pictures on it, the server will record 20 hits for a single visitor looking at that page. This means that hits are not that important when analyzing traffic.
These numbers do tend to become a little more accurate with more traffic. The lower this traffic number is, the more likely the analysis will be skewed.
The trick is to use traffic stats to determine how effective or ineffective your site is for visitors. One number that can help to this end is the length of time visitors spend on the site. If visits are short, there could be a problem, which should be solved quickly.
It is very possible that keywords have been selected poorly to attract the right type of visitor to the site. The layout and design might be the issue, too. If it’s too confusing or hard to grasp, visitors will likely leave pretty quickly. Time spent averages can help pinpoint problems. If something is tweaked, this same number can be used to see if the effort improved the issue.
It is also possible to use stats to determine how specific pages on a site are performing. If visitors move too quickly away from important pages, they definitely need improvements. If, on the converse, a page that isn’t important gets too much attention, it might be wise to put better content on it since visitors seem to go there on their own.
Learning to read stats and decipher them can be important for all sites. The practice is especially important for those who want to make money from their efforts. Using these numbers can really pay off in regard to tweaking a site to its optimum potential.
Stats can also be useful in regard to exit pages. Although you might have designed exit pages, like order forms, others will show up as exit points, too. Don’t panic. This is normal. If a certain pages shows up too much, however, it’s probably time to tweak that page.
Once visitor stats have been closely examined, the next thing to look at is keywords. See which keywords are working to bring in specific kinds of traffic. The more focused and targeted the visitors, the better. If a particular keyword is bringing in traffic that fills out forms, buys or so on, that keyword is very important to your site.
Should you find a big number of visitors being pulled in by a particular keyword or phrase that doesn’t relate, make changes. Keywords are what draws in quality visitors. Traffic that isn’t targeted won’t do you any good.
Traffic statistics are ideal for helping webmasters see if they are doing their job well. These can even be used to extrapolate areas where room for improvement exists. Monitor stats closely to make the most of your site and your traffic.
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