Website Traffic: How to Analyze it

For many reasons, web traffic statistics analysis can prove to be a valuable tool. Before you can fully make use of this tool, it is important to learn how to interpret the data. Many web hosting companies provide basic web traffic information which you need to understand and make appropriate use of. 

The data that you get from your web hosting company can seem overwhelming if it isn’t clear how you can use it for your business or website. Let’s first look at the most basic data, which is the average daily, weekly and monthly visitors to your site. These are the most precise measures of website activity. This would seem to imply that the more traffic your website receives, the better it is performing. However, this perception is incorrect. It is important to look at how visitors behave once they arrive on your site to gauge its effectiveness. 

Many people have misconceptions about hits and quality traffic. Hits simply refer to the number of information requests sent by the server. A hit simply refers to the number of page graphics. This is how overblown the notion of hits can become. The server may consider a page with 15 graphics as a hit, but in reality, this is only one visitor who visited that particular page. You can see that hits are not helpful in analysing website traffic. Your interpretation will be more accurate if you have more visitors to your site. The more visitors to your website, you can interpret visitor behaviour trends better. An anomalous visitor can distort an analysis more than a large number of visitors. To determine how well your site is performing for your visitors, you can use web traffic statistics.

You can find out the average time your visitors spend at your site. If your visitors spend a lot of time on your site, this usually means that there is an underlying problem. Now it’s time to find out what the problem is. You might find that your keywords don’t direct the right visitors to your site, or your graphics make it difficult or frightening for them to understand, leading to their exiting quickly. To pinpoint the problem areas, use data about how visitors spend time on your site. 

After fixing them, continue using the time spent to determine how effective your fix was. You can also use web traffic stats to determine which areas are most effective or ineffective. It is worth paying attention to pages you feel are important, but your visitors are leaving it quickly. One way to improve your link to this page is by making it more prominent and attractive. Another option is to make it easier for visitors to access the relevant information. On the other hand, if you find that your visitors spend a lot of their time on pages you don’t think are as important, you might shift some of your sales copy or marketing focus to that page. These statistics will give you vital information about page effectiveness and visitor motivations. This data is vital for any Internet marketing campaign. There will be exit pages on your website such as final orders or contact forms.

This is the page where you can expect your visitor to exit quickly. You should know that not all visitors to your site will find the exact information they seek, so you may see statistics showing different exit pages. This is normal, except if you notice an exit trend at a specific page that was not meant for this purpose. You should examine the page closely if a significant number of visitors are leaving your website from a page not meant for that purpose. If you find potential weaknesses in a page, small changes to the graphic or content can have a dramatic impact on keeping visitors on your website instead of leaving the wrong page. Once you’ve analyzed your visitor statistics it’s time for you to start looking at keywords and phrases. 

You will notice which keywords are directed to a particular type of visitor to your website. The more targeted a visitor is – that is, they find what you are trying to sell, fill out your contact forms, or make purchases – the more valuable that keyword will be. You should adjust a keyword or phrase if you see a large number of misdirected visitors to your site. Keywords are crucial to attracting quality visitors to your site. Analyzing the keywords that visitors are using in order to find your site will provide you with valuable insight into your visitor’s motivations and needs. Finally, if users search for your website using keywords, pour some champagne! This indicates that your brand is well-known, which is a sure sign you are on the right track to success.