Top 7 Reasons to Review your Web Traffic Analysis
Understanding your Website's traffic logs is a crucial component
of your online marketing mix. It tells you what your visitors
do, of their own volition, so it's "market research that cannot
lie!"
If you understand what you're seeing, you can make some great
strategic and marketing decisions, not only for your Website,
but for your business as a whole.
Here are seven key marketing elements to study in your traffic
analysis:
1. General Statistics
Remember that a "hit" is recorded every time the visitor gets an
image or some text from your site -- what you need to know is
unique user sessions, and how much time people spend on the site
-- how "sticky" and engaging it is. If you have tons of traffic,
but the average time spent on your site is less than a minute --
you've got a problem!
2. Most and Least Requested Pages
So what's really hot, and what's not on your site? The most
popular pages give you great clues as to what to offer more of.
The least viewed pages may tell you that some of your content
isn't as fascinating as you think, or this maybe a heads-up that
your navigation isn't driving traffic as effectively as it
should.
3. Top Entry and Exit Pages
These are great reminders that not all your visitors come
through your home page, so you need complete navigation on every
entry point to your site. And if people are leaving from pages
that you don't want them to, perhaps you need stronger calls to
action in those areas.
4. Single Access Pages
These are the pages where a visitor looks at the site then
leaves immediately. Since the job of your home page is partly to
filter the traffic that's not right for you, there'll always be
some of these. But if you have a splash page, and significant
numbers of visitors don't stay through it... perhaps it
shouldn't be there?
5. Cities, States and Countries
No, your site isn't a huge hit just in Virginia -- those are all
the AOL users! Unfortunately, because this information depends
on where the ISP is based, it can be pretty misleading. But if
you are getting a lot of hits from other countries, that might
be a hint for some second language content.
6. Referring URL's
This tells you which search engines are sending you traffic, and
which of your advertising and linking strategies are working. It
also tells you about sites that may have links to you that you
didn't know about -- check these out -- it's a great
relationship builder to send a thank you -- you might even get
some new business from it!
7. Top Search Keywords and Phrases
Once the search engines have listed your site, these tell you
what the really hot search terms are for your business. Pay
attention to these -- they may have some surprises -- one of my
clients recently wrote a book on a subject that was really
sought after on her site -- until she saw the top keywords, she
had no idea it was so popular!