Danemco Website Services

Idaho Falls based web design and programming

3002 W. Pancheri
Suite A
Idaho Falls, ID 83402

Tel. 800.941.0645

Your Web Stats Speak

Posted: 12 August 2008 at 6:06 p.m.

Know How Many Visitors You Have

The primary measuring stick you should use to gage the overall popularity of your site is qualified Unique Visitors.  Knowing how many unique visitors you have come to your site will tell you how many people your website is reaching.  You can compare a month's total unique visitors with a previous month to determine if your recent marketing efforts have helped. 

Know Where Your Visitors Come From

Knowing where visitors come from is very helpful.  There are basically three ways people find websites:
1.They type the website name in on the web browser or clicking on the URL from an e-mail.  This is called Direct Traffic.
2.They clicked on a link from another website.  This is called Referral Traffic, as another site referred them to your site.
3.They found you in a search engine (normal or paid search results).

We have stressed in previous newsletters the importance of having others link to your site.  Even better is to have people write about your site, product, or service – an endorsement – and link to your site.  You can also boost your incoming search engine traffic by paying for advertising.  Beware, some advertising can get expensive.  An ad for the keyword “Quilting” is very competitive, and you may be paying anywhere from $1 to $2 per click from the search engine.  Flyers, sales receipts, and word-of-mouth helps with direct traffic.  That is why a catchy and easy-to-spell or easy-to-remember domain name is priceless. 

Know What Your Visitors Are Clicking On

The last part of the website statistics that I will focus on is knowing what visitors do once they get to your site.  The goal of any website operator is for the visitor to stay a while and click through past the home page.  By placing the most important information that you think visitors will be looking for towards the top of the page will increase the likelihood of the visitor clicking through to other pages of your site. 

Your website statistics can tell you how long an average visit on the site is, and whether or not people are “bouncing” -- leaving right after seeing your home page.  A website that I operate went from a 33% bounce rate to a 22% bounce rate by improving the quality of the referring sites.  Your website statistics can also tell you what the most popular pages are, and you may be surprised by what things people actually click on the most.  Begin by focusing on improving the most popular pages.

Remember It's The Conversion That Counts

Keep in mind that the number of visitors is not as important as the number of conversions (i.e. the number of people that buy your product or service as a result of visiting your site).  I recently read of a business that had the #1 spot in search engine results for a particular search term.  By rewording the title of the website to reflect a better selling message, the website dropped down to the #2 or #3 position, but the number of sales doubled.  It's better to have 10 people visit the site and generate 5 sales than 100 people visit the site and generate only 4 sales.

Want more? Website Statistics on Steroids

Danemco now offers Google Analytics as an upgrade option.  Understanding how people use your website is the first step to getting everything you can out of your website.  Imagine seeing a screen shot of your website with markings over all of the links showing you what percentage of visitors click on what link.  Imagine being able to see trends in your website's bounce rate in pretty graphs.  Imagine breaking down things by the week, month, or spanning multiple months, drilling down by what country people connect from, and getting ideas as to how to improve your site.  Analytics offers the same data provided by the standard Danemco website statistics, plus more.  Please call our office toll free, 1-800-941-0645 if you are interested in this service.  Valued at $200, a special discount – 50% off – will be available to existing Danemco clients by responding by the 15th of September.



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