Written by Anne Miller
Wednesday, 28 April 2010 23:33
Understanding Your Web Statistics
1. Make sure you have web statistics available!
The two most common types currently available are “Webalizer” or similar systems which are provided by your web host and “Google Analytics” which are provided free (after a bit of geekiness that your web builder can do for you!) by Google. Beware of free add-on counters that are shown at the base of the front page of your website. These not only cheapen the look of your site but may also provide some security issues. After your web stats have been running for a while, it’s time to get drill down into what it all means (remember, a few days isn’t enough to establish real trends …)
2. The two most important parameters to consider at first are the “number of visitors” and the “number of page views”.
The “number of visitors” shows you how many people have actually come to your website and requested a webpage. This visitor can move around inside your website visiting several pages, but will only be counted as one visitor.
The “page views” parameter shows how many pages have been requested. This measures the “stickiness” of your site, i.e., if you have 5 “number of visitors” but 50 “page views”, it means that on average each reader has viewed 10 pages! Likewise, if you have 5 visitors and only 5 page views, each reader has visited just one page (maybe accidentally) and then clicked away …
3. The number of “hits” is not important!
You often see people claiming that their website has received 100,000 hits a day. What does this mean? Well, what it doesn’t mean is that they have received 100,000 visitors or had 100,000 pages viewed. “Hits” represent the number of pieces of separate information downloaded by a user after they have requested a page. Each part of the webpage counts as a hit. So, if one person views a webpage that includes 50 images, this single visit will be registered as 51 hits (50 for the image components and one for the actual page itself.) Measuring “hits” is virtually meaningless so beware anyone who hypes this in their sales spiel!
4. Where are my readers coming from?
You should be interested to find out where your website visitors are coming from. Your web stats can show you which pages are the most popular “entry pages”, i.e. where visitors first land when they visit your website. For example, a recipe website may find that most of their visitors are landing first on the “spaghetti bolognaise” page after searching for this term in Google. The “apricot chicken” page, in comparison, is rarely an entry page … so this may be a clue to include more Italian recipes! Your stats will also include a list of the most common “exit pages” (the last page your users visited prior to leaving your site).
The list of “referrers” is also very important and many useful insights can be drawn from this information. “Referrers” are the other website URLs that lead a user to your site. The majority should be pages from within your own site (as people move around inside your site following links) however, if you ignore these you will see the external URLs that are most useful in enticing visitors to your pages. These external referrers are usually search engines (like Google) or other websites that have posted a link to your site.
Another important entry in your referrer list is labelled “direct request”. This shows the number of times somebody accessed your website by either directly typing your URL into the address bar of their browser or by following a bookmark. This can be a measure of the success of your marketing in other arenas, e.g. print advertising that includes your URL, and this can also indicate the usefulness of your website by suggesting the popularity of return visits.
5. What “keywords” are people using to find your pages through search engines?
This is extremely important as it is another gauge how best to optimise your website to attract your ideal visitor. Using the recipe website mentioned before as an example, it is no use if all the visitors landing on your spaghetti bolognaise page have arrived after Googling “spaghetti westerns”. If this is the case, it’s time to talk to your webmaster about better optimising this page!
These are some of the most important information that can be deduced from your web stats, but there are many. many others insights that can also be drawn. For example, where in the world are your visitors coming from? What type of web browser are they using (i.e. if your website looks great in IE6 but 25% of your visitors are using Firefox, it may be time to check out what it looks like in this other browser). What time of the day are visitors dropping by (at lunchtime, after work etc etc)?
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