Analyzing
Your Website Traffic
We have all
heard how important it is to monitor and analyze
your website's traffic. Unfortunately, there
seems to be a lot of confusion on which stats
are most important and most reliable. I will
attempt to clarify some of those details while
explaining the inaccuracies as well.
Probably the
most popular statistical term related to website
traffic is the "hit". I feel it is also the
least understood. By
definition, hits are all the individual requests
a server must fill in
order to deliver a web page in its entirety. By this I mean
the basic HTML plus each individual graphic or sound file as
well. You can see how this number by itself is relatively
meaningless, especially if you have several
graphic or multimedia
files on you pages.
Pageviews are
a little more significant, but they still
possess too many
inherent variables to be accurate. A pageview is basically the
sum total that your visitor would actually see in their
browser window.
Here are two
major problems of both hits and pageviews.
--- Cache
Let's say
that someone views a page from your site. A
short time later in that
same session, they (or someone else in that
house) go to view
that page again. Most likely the page will be
loaded from their
browser's cache (temporary holding area) rather
than from your
site because it is faster. That person's ISP may
also have a cache,
particularly if it has a proxy server. These factors
definitely skew the statistics.
--- Spiders or
Bots
As the name
suggests, these software programs are designed
to crawl the
web, cataloging pages, collecting email
addresses or other types
of information. This registers as a hit. You
could build a
database of these IP addresses to ignore, but
that list would change
daily.
Counting
unique visitors is a little more reliable
especially if you use a
combination of IP addresses and/or cookies. This data is
useful when attempting to calculate how many
visitors it takes to
make a sale. The drawbacks of these are that
most people get a
different IP address each time they log on, and some people
may have the cookie feature turned off in their browser.
As you can
see, no single stat by itself will tell the
whole story and
most are only an estimate. To better evaluate
your site's
performance, it is necessary to review many
factors.
I will point
out the more important ones along with the
proper tools to
accomplish the task.
--- Referring
URL
This
information will tell you where your visitors
came from, such as a
link on another site or a search engine. If the visitor came
from a search engine, most stats will also tell you which
search term was used. An analysis of these
search terms can be
very valuable when creating or registering your pages.
--- Home Page
Views
Although many
people will enter your site through a sub page, most will
usually visit your home page while they are
there. This can be
used to gauge overall visitors.
--- Top Entry
Pages
If you know
which page or pages most people enter through,
you can optimize
those pages for even better ranking. You can
also review the
meta tags and build additional similar pages
which can enhance
your visitor's experience and your profits.
--- Top Exit
Pages
By knowing
which pages most traffic leaves through, you can decide how to
enhance those pages or eliminate them entirely.
--- Average
Time Per Visit
After
reviewing the data, you may see many people
leaving after 20 or 30
seconds, which might suggest your pages take too
long to load. It
could also indicate lack of content or other
design flaws. On the
other hand, if you see a lot of time spent in
one part of your
site, you can use that input to improve other
parts of your site.
--- Most Or
Least Visited Pages
It is
important to know what brings people to your
site initially or
keeps them there once they have arrived. These statistics
can help you determine that.
--- Activity
Level By The Hour of Day
All sites
require maintenance or updating of pages to
remain viable. These
activities are best accomplished when your site traffic is
the lowest.
--- Which
Browser Your Visitors Use
Although most
web page features are compatible with later versions of
Netscape or Internet Explorer, you may find your traffic is
stronger in one or the other. This fact will
help you optimize
design features for that browser. My own site
runs about 45% for
each (Netscape 6 and IE 6). The remaining
10% mostly uses
AOL or earlier versions of the above. Your
numbers may vary,
depending on your site.
Now that
we've seen which statistics are most important,
let's examine some
ways to monitor those. I'll begin with my
favorite:
-- eXTReMe
Tracking
eXTReMe
provide all of the above tracking stats and much
more.
It has an
easy to use graphical interface, quick set-up
and unlimited
URL's tracked in real time. A fully functional
free version is
available that requires you to post a small logo
on each page you
want tracked. Anyone can click on that logo and see all your
stats. If you don't like that idea, use the paid version which
is $5 per month without the logo, so your
privacy is ensured.
Go to
http://www.extreme-dm.com
-- Web Site
Traffic Report
After
registering (by filling in a short application
form) they mail you a
block HTML code (just 2 lines) to insert into
your pages. At the
end of each day, they will email you a FREE traffic
report for your site. The report will contain
summary statistics
and graphs of the traffic to your site for the
day, plus an
optional detailed line-by-line listing of each
visitor to your site.
I have not used this personally, but have heard good reviews
from those who have.
http://www.websitetrafficreport.com
-- The
Counter
This is
another free service with no visible logo. The
stats are not quite as
extensive as those above, but still a good deal.
http://www.thecounter.com
-- Web Stat
This very reliable
service comes with a 30-day free trial or you can upgrade
for $5 per month with many additional features.
http://www.web-stat.com
--- Web Site
Tracker
Web Site
Tracker offers their service free with no
banners on your page. It
tracks unique visitors (by country), IP
addresses, browser,
referring URL, average hits by the hour and much
more.
http://www.websitetracker.com
-- Web Trends
This software
is far from free (about USD350), but offers
some very
sophisticated tracking and report options. My
hosting company
provided me with a complimentary copy which I
use for more serious
analyses. This is one you may consider down the road when
your business warrants it.
http://www.webtrends.com
I hope by
now, you have a better understanding of website tracking and
the tools required to better accomplish the
task. It can be a
tedious process but one that is extremely vital
to the success
of your online business.
SK Kor
Internet Marketing Consultant
Return to
Internet
Marketing Tips Main Menu