Web Analytics - Understand And Use Your Hit Counter

Most web sites have a hit counter where you can find out how many people have visited your site. Dig a little deeper though and you can learn which pages your visitor enters and exits your site, how long they stick around and much more - great for learning how / if your web Appleton mortgage refinance and related advertising is working.

In this article :

Introduction to Web Analytics

Understanding your hit counter

Which numbers to fret over

01: An Introduction To Web Analytics

'Web Analytics' is the study of your web fast home equity loans visitors; or more accurately, their behavior on your web site. Using web analytics (ie, looking closely at your stats) we can work out whether your web site is performing how you would like it too and if not, why not.

02: Understanding Your Hit Counter

For this article we will focus on the free statcounter Insurance auto at http://statcounter In our example we have logged into 'Statcounter' and are checking the stats for one of our clients. Looking at the graph of stats we see colors :

The green bar tells us our amount of 'page loads'. A page load is the amount of pages shown on a screen (sometimes called 'hits'). If we add our amount of unique visitors to our returning visitors and then divide that by the amount of page loads, we get a rough idea on the average number of pages any one viewer looks at. Example: Monday had 38 page loads coming from 11 unique visitors and 1 new visitor so the average is 38/11+1=3.17 pages viewed per visit.

Don't forget - we WANT Return visitors - it is a fact that most people will view a web site 8 times before making an Gourmet Chocolates or purchase!

03: Which Numbers To Fret Over

Our calculation of 'pages viewed per visit' is probably the most important - if half your visitors leave before viewing two pages then you have a problem capturing interest. Problems such as this can be put down to the design or wording of the web site or the inability to compete with your rival businesses.

Secondly, the exit page tells us what page the user last sees before leaving your site - why are they leaving on that page? What can you do to improve that page?

Thirdly, the length of visit is important Debt Matters telling us how 'sticky' your site is - do you capture and hold the viewer's attention or do they get bored; maybe they read enough to generate interest but feel your prices are too high? Use this stat to improve your web site and watch your sales-rate increase.

Fourth is the 'came from' stats, these tell us how the visitor found your site; if they only seem to find you on Google or that one directory you listed your site in, then maybe it's time to do some promo work.

Finally, the 'keyword analysis' will tell you a whole lot of information - what did the visitor type into the search engine when they found your site? Do you feel they would have found what those keywords suggested (if your site is about yellow wellies and your keywords are 'Britney Spears' then most visitors will click away - you are 'false advertising'). Take a good look at their keywords, were they searching Google just for information or were they looking to buy..example keywords: 'buy a villa in Bodrum' means they were looking to buy a villa in Bodrum. If you rent villas in Bodrum then they aren't interested! If you have a lot of 'false calls' like this then you should edit the keywords which appear in the HTML code that makes up your web site.

Learn more at websiteking.co.ukhttp://websiteking.co.uk
Affordable web design, professional designs!