Keeping Up With Web Traffic Stats

Understanding how to analyze web traffic stats can be important for a variety of reasons. There are a few tricks involved in interpreting the data, however.

The most accurate data on traffic tends to come from the web hosting companies themselves. They, unfortunately, can provide so much information that it might overwhelm at first. Look for the data that applies to the business or website at hand. One of the first things to consider is the typical amount of visitors that stop at a site on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

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.

The more traffic a site gets, the easier it becomes to get an accurate interpretation of statistics. The lower the number, the more likely it is that the analysis will be distorted somewhat.

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.

Sometimes the problem is nothing more than poorly chosen keywords drawing in the wrong kind of traffic. The visual design of the site could be off, as well. If your site looks too confusing, visitors might steer away quickly. If you work to tweak things a little, check this number again down the road to see if the tweak worked.

Traffic stats are also useful for figuring out if certain areas on a site are working as they should. If visitors leave a page too quickly that you think is important, it might be time to improve that page or its incoming links. This works in the converse, too. If a page is getting more attention than you think it deserves, maybe shuffling its content with more important material will help since visitors seem to go there anyway.

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.

Beyond visitor stats, it's also important to look at keywords. See which ones are brining in good traffic, for example, the kind that really wants to visit your site. If visitors are coming in via your site's primary keywords, you're doing great. Those keywords that bring in visitors who buy items, look at ads or so on are valuable words.

Should a lot of visitors arrive by way of weak keywords that are not part of the theme, it is time to get rid of these keywords on your site. Since these visitors are not likely to buy or act because the theme doesn't fit your need, focusing efforts on these keywords can be a waste of time.

When it comes to figuring out a site's effectiveness, stats are very helpful. They can also point out weak spots and assist in fixing them. Those who read stats with care can really supercharge their sites and revenue.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Author Jeff Alderson is an expert on search engines and SEO tactics. To increase online traffic, Jeff suggests using a variety of SEO tools and techniques to increase online traffic fast.

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