Why You Must Know Your Traffic! The Power Of
Using Web Analytics
Author: Karra Maxim

Who are your customers? Who is coming to your site and how are
they getting there? How many of them are purchasing services or
products? How do you know?

If you don't use web analytics to track the behavior of traffic
to and on your site, then you won't know the answer to any of
these questions! If you don't know the answers to these
questions, then you won't know if you need to change your
advertising sources, upgrade your products or services, or
rearrange the content and pages on your site. In order to know
what is effective and what isn't, you have to analyze your
traffic.

How do you analyze traffic? The best way is through tracking
software. Tracking software will let you know some key
information about your traffic. One of these is 'bounce,' that
is, when a visitor comes to one page on your site and doesn't
explore further before leaving. If most of your visitors bounce
right off your site, it doesn't matter if you get 10,000
visitors a day. What you need is targeted traffic, visitors who
land on your site and stay there, exploring what you have to
offer.

You may find that your bounce rate on one page of your site is
extremely high, while other pages exhibit a lower rank. Now,
not only do you know that this is happening, but you know
exactly where it's happening and you can fix that page so that
it entices people to stay.

The next thing that your web analytic software can do for you
is check out where your visitors are coming from. How many
typed in your address directly? How many came through a link on
a search engine? How many linked to you through another site?
You may be paying for advertising on a site that is creating
any traffic for you. Now you know and you can cancel that
advertising subscription and save yourself some money. You may
see that you are getting a high amount of traffic from another
site. Perhaps you will choose to target similar sites for link
backs in hopes of getting the same results.

Where do your visitors go once they get to your site? Are they
landing on the pages you want them to? Are they filling out
your forms or purchasing your inventory? How many are returning
and how many come just once? It is with this information that
you will be able to use web analytics to further figure out
what it is that your site needs in order to convert visitors
into buyers. This is called a conversion rate, the percentage
of visitors to your site who make a purchase or subscribe, and
it is critical in building a successful website for your
business. In fact, it is the entire point of web analytics and
the reason for carefully and accurately tracking your visitor's
activities: to raise your conversion rate as much as possible.

Improving your conversion rate starts with tracking and web
analytics. Without the accurate information, you cannot analyze
the activities of your visitors. When you analyze the activities
of your visitors and compare the results to what you would like
to see happen on your site, page by page, then you can make
changes to achieve those goals. After you make changes, check
your numbers and use web analytics again to figure out what
needs to be changed next. In this way, you can stop wasting
your time and money on advertising and SEO techniques that
aren't drawing or maintaining traffic and stick to what works,
pulling targeted traffic and turning customers into repeat
customers.


About The Author: Author: Karra Maxim Website:
http://www.bluepec.com Karra writes for Blue PEC, a cheap web
design agency.