Are you analyzing your website traffic correctly?
Are you analyzing your website traffic correctly?
Analyzing your web traffic numbers can be vital for several reasons if you are serious about your Online Shopping presence. However, before you can make full use of this data, you need to recognize how to interpret the information correctly.
Most web design and hosting companies will provide you with the necessary web traffic data, but this is not enough. You must then interpret the data thoroughly to make pertinent use of it.
However, the data you obtain from your hosting company can be overwhelming if you do not understand how to apply it to your website or for that matter, your business in general.
To begin with, let’s take a look at the primary data you receive from your hosting company. Usually the average visitors you get daily, weekly, or monthly.
Although these numbers can be the simplest way to measure your website’s activity, a word of caution; Just because you seem to be getting lots of traffic to your site, it does not mean that all is well, as major search engines, especially Google also check the behavior of your visitors.
They don’t care that you receive thousands of hits to your site. What they are looking for, however, is effective quality traffic. That does not mean traffic you may have paid for, a trap many of us have fallen into in the past.
Just think about it; A hit to your site can equate to the number of graphics you may have on any single page. For example, say your homepage has 20 pictures on it, then the server records this as 20 hits. Of course, in reality, we know that we are just getting a single visitor who happens to be scrolling through a page of our website.
So, now that we are aware that it is not just the number of visitors you get to your website that reflects the overall health of your site, how do we use this data to monitor the overall trends and alter site structure to ensure that search engines will no longer impede our rankings in their search engine index systems.
A good starting point is to determine how long visitors spend on your site once they have entered a search query.
If the time spent is relatively brief, or a visitor clicks out of your site even before it has had the chance to load, you have a problem. Search engines will see this as a bounce and demote you so far down its index ranking that your site will never turn up amongst other search queries. The website you have toiled over for so long will be dead in the water.
Your priority should be to improve the bounce rate of your website with the above in mind. I have included a few tips below.
The reasons for a website having a high bounce rate are many; however, it could be that your keywords are sending the wrong kind of people to your website, or your graphics are both intimidating or confusing, thus causing visitors to exit the site quickly.
Authors note: Be aware that, on average, you have 10 seconds to get a visitor’s attention. Any longer than they will go their way, never to return.
Once you have gleaned how much time visitors are spending on your website, use it to pinpoint other particular problems. Once you have corrected them, continue to use the time a visitor spends on your site to indicate how successful your solution was.
Next, determine both the ineffective and effective areas of your site. Then, once understood, consider the following:
If a page is underperforming, try making links to that page more noticeable and enticing. However, if visitors appear to be spending a lot of time on pages you think are less important, consider moving some of the more relevant information you want the visitor to see over to another page.
Authors note: Do not forget it makes no sense to have a web page just filling space. It is better to delete it. You will save both time and bandwidth.
As you can see, website statistics reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, visitor habits, and, most importantly, what motivates them. These statistics are essential for all future successful internet marketing campaigns.
So, how do I know if I have correctly used my analyzed website data from services like “Google Search Console,” Google Analytics, and Google Domains (all free services, by the way)?
Quite simply, when you notice that users are discovering your website by just inputting your company name, then break open a bottle of champagne, as it means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, which is a sure sign of burgeoning success.
Well, folks, we have come to the end of our short narrative, and I thank you for taking the time to read it. It is most appreciated. I would also like to thank our hosts, BargainBrute.Com, voted America’s favorite place to shop online in 2020, for making this post possible.
So on behalf of the Vandergraph family and every employee at Bargainbrute.com, we “Thank you.” If there is a bargain out there, BargainBrute is sure to have it all in stock, ready to be shipped directly to your door.
