Traffic Statistics
Your web host should provide basic statistics, but consider getting the free Google Analytics program or using the services of a fee-based web analytics company–you’ll get a deeper look at how your visitors travel through your website. You should be able to answer the following questions:
- What pages do your visitors leave your website from? For example, do they abandon your site from the order page without placing an order? If so, maybe there’s a problem with your checkout process.
- How much time do visitors spend on your site, and on each individual page? If they visit your home page and then leave almost immediately, you’re obviously not grabbing their attention.
- How do your visitors find you? Are particular sites sending lots of traffic your way? Can you capitalize on that by somehow partnering with them? Do most of your visitors come from one particular search engine? If so, what might be the reason for that–and how can you snag traffic from other search engines? What keywords and offers in your pay-per-click ads are pulling best? Can you incorporate them elsewhere on your site?
- What’s causing any traffic spikes? Where are those visitors coming from? Is there a new link pointing to your site? Is an e-mail campaign or PPC ad performing particularly well? Could there be a seasonal reason? How can you make this a regular occurrence?
- Where do your visitors live? If there’s a lot of interest from a particular location, can you tweak your website to cater specifically to those people (e.g., by offering services in another language)?
- What search terms and keywords result in the most traffic to your site? Can you place more of these–or other similar keywords–in your code and content to attract even more traffic?