subject: What are Website statistics, what will they tell me and why should I care? [print this page] What are Website statistics, what will they tell me and why should I care?
What are site statistics?
Site statistics collect readily available information regarding how and when your website is viewed. For instance you can easily see:
Which pages have been viewed the most
How often your site is viewed each day of the week and day of the month
What time of day your site is viewed
What search terms resulted in visits to your site
What external links were used to get to your site
How and when the Search Engines reviewed your site content
Which pages were the entry point of new visitors and which were the exit points
...and more.
Does my site have site statistics?
If your site was created by a professional web design company then it certainly should have, and you should also have been shown how to access the site stats and, more importantly, had at least a basic education as to what use you can put them to.
If your site doesn't have any site statistics then these can be added freely and there are a number of options available such as StatCounter http://statcounter.com/ and Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ . If you need a hand setting these up contact us for a helping hand.
What use are site statistics?
Ok, so you've got site stats or you've now set them up and you can see what days of the week people visit your site most often and what time of day. So what! Who cares? Well, you (should) do.
When did you last advertise in a local paper and wonder whether anybody read the advert? Now look at your site stats and a successful advert will nearly always result in a spike in visits just after the ad was released. If some adverts result in a spike and others don't you can be fairly certain that the ones that don't were in the wrong paper, or wrong time of year etc and therefore you might as well save your money. So site stats can save you money.
What about newsletters. Many businesses now send out newsletters to their clients advertising special offers, new products, open days etc. But when should you send the newsletter out? Does it really matter? Well if you know when your site gets most visits surely that is the time your potential clients are most receptive to your marketing messages so if you send your newsletter just before that peak viewing time it'll be at the top of their in-box. If you receive newsletters from any of the big stores have a look at when they've been sending them to you and see if there is a pattern to it. If the big players are doing it you can be certain they've got a reason to do so and with site statistics you can do the same.
Conclusion
Your website is on line 24/7/365 and is not only for advertising your wares to potential clients but it is also capable of collecting valuable information you can use to target your marketing more effectively. And that data is free!
If you don't yet have a professionally designed site please get in touch and stay one step ahead of your competition.
eSum Web Solutions, East Sussex and Kent Website designs that work!
