Interpreting Website Statistics: Part 2

Recently, we discussed the terminology used in website statistics, and what they show about your website. Now, we will examine additional elements of website statistics and explain how you can use this information to learn valuable information about your website audience and marketing methods.

FREQUENCY

Frequency measures how often visitors come to your site. Through this metric, you can see the number of return visits there have been within the specified period, how long those return visits lasted, and if any of the return visits were bounces. This can be effective in determining audience loyalty... and interest in your content.

TIMES

This statistic shows you at what hours of the day people have accessed your site. It also tells you how many "actions" have been taken during each hour. "Actions" just refers to some interaction between a visitor and your website, whether clicking a link, accessing a new page, or submitting information through a form.

You can learn about your audience by looking at the times most frequently accessed. Do you have a lot of hits late at night, or do more people access your site midday? These questions are good to think about, but it is hard to make solid deductions from this information alone.

INTEREST

Interest shows you how long your visitors are staying on your website, and how many pages they are viewing.

TECH PROFILE

The Tech Profile shows very interesting data about the computers and web browsers that visitors use to access your site. Many web browsers have slight variances in how they display information. If you know which browser is most commonly used by site visitors, you will be able to design and test new pages to make sure they look perfect on these browsers. Similarly, the screen size of a person’s computer will affect what they see. If your site is too wide, it will appear cut off on smaller computer screens. This Tech Profile will let you know the most common screen size used by visitors, so that you can make sure your content displays accurately and appropriately.

The Tech Profile can also give you insight into the type of visitors that are accessing your site by the browser and operating system information. For instance, the common Internet user will typically use Windows as their operating system, and Internet Explorer as their web browser. If you find many of your visitors fit this profile, they likely have a working knowledge of the online world, but are not familiar with more sophisticated aspects of the Internet.

If, on the other hand, you found that your users viewed your website on Firefox or Google Chrome, you’ll know that they are probably more technically inclined. The bottom line here is that by reviewing this data, you will learn about your audience and in turn be able to cater your content to it.

SEARCH ENGINES & REFERRERS

This is perhaps the most important information provided.  It will tell you about the origin of your website visitors. You can also learn what search strings people used to find your site on search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.

It shows how many visitors come directly to your site, are referred from other websites, and are referred from search engines. Our system further breaks down that data by telling you from which search engines you’ve received hits, as well as the popular terms users have searched which ultimately led them to your site.

It also tells you the website from which people were referred to yours. You’ll see in the example below, social media sites are common referrers. The more places you can advertise your site online, the better. To see how you can use social media networking sites to your advantage, check out these blog articles. 

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

One of the main benefits of taking the time to review and consider your website's statistics is that you can monitor the effectiveness of changes over time. For instance, you can work on adding specific words and phrases to your website content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes. By viewing the Search Engines and Referrers section of the Website Statistics panel, you can see if that work was effective or not. Are you getting hits from the words you were working with?

This not only provides insight into what needs to be done from an SEO perspective, but also enables you to track improvements or changes in your website traffic. In short—these trends can guide you to create a better website overall.  And, as mentioned in my previous post, you can use the data to determine the level of success of specific marketing campaigns, leading to a better understanding of the return on investment.

So why not try it for yourself? Experiment by viewing your web stats this month. Then try a marketing technique – perhaps start up a Facebook Fanpage, or blast out an e-newsletter advertising your website. Then track the changes by viewing the website statistics week-to-week. Did it make a difference? Do you notice any trends developing? These trends can help you decide which marketing techniques work for you— and which ones don't.

Authored By: Tara, Client Relations