A recent post by Lauren Warden of Albuquerque, NM asked "How Good is Your Website?" got me thinking.
How well do you use your website? And I don't mean just adding content. Information rich websites are definitely the way to go- but do you use the other features of your website? With the help of my web coach- I have started to use my web statistics. I had a website for 2 year without knowing how to read my stats. Once I did, it become unbelievably clear that my website was failing.
Your stats can tell you important things. It's just another measure of how effective our marketing is. It's really not any different than counting the heads that walk into your open house and asking them to sign in, or working the averages of calls you get off your direct marketing- or even (cough) cold calling or wait-let me rephrase that- prospecting. Using your website stats will help you in learning what's working and not working on your website.
If you don't know how or why your website is failing, trying to fix it is like throwing darts at the wall in the dark expecting to win. You can keep throwing them- sooner or later you will hit something. OR- if you turn on the light- you'll see where you need to aim.
The stats have taught me:
1. People come to my sites from my other listing ads I have out on the Internet. They come to see my listings- and leave. That's not what I want. I want them to bookmark me and come back.
2. Most people come to my website during lunch hour, before the end of their business day and again at night. This is when I get the most hits. So I make sure that I answer my email during these times at a minimum. I always get a spike in visits when I put on a new listing. But the hours they visit are consistent. (In another life we called that the "busy hour")
3. My stats also told me how people were finding me on different search engines. Most were finding me using my name (that means they are my clients) or from my other Internet listings. This means that my website wasn't working for me the way I wanted. It wasn't until I started added local content about neighborhoods and new construction that I started to get hits from other topics. That's when I started getting contacts from people that didn't know anything about me. (That's better than cold calling for me!)
4. At first only 3% of my hits stayed on my website less than 60 seconds!!! I've increased that to 15% just be adding more local content- but I want that number to be at least 50%. So it's always a work in progress.
You won't know how GOOD your website is working without looking behind the pages. You should be learning how to USE all the information your website host provides. If you can't identify what's broke- you won't know how to fix it.
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