What to Watch When Tracking Stats

Don't Get Caught Up In Information Overload

The problem isn't information. It's usually too much information! With so much data, it's easy to get overwhelmed and not really know what to focus on. To avoid this, I approach Analytics the same way I approach SEO. Keep it simple and let the facts speak for themselves.

The Right Tools for The Right Job

The best way to get an objective overview of your site is to use different tools. Below are a few of the more valuable tools that I recommend.

Webalizer

Webalizer is a down and dirty stats program. It's great for those times when you need a quick snap shot and don't have time to really dive into your stats. If your website or blog happens to use Webalizer, I have a website statistics cheatsheet to help you understand what each bit of information means.

If you want a quick snapshot, pay attention to your visits and page views. Dividing page views by visits will quickly tell you how many pages (or post) the average visitor is reading.

Site Note: Never confuse Hits with Visits! They are not the same. A Hit is what's known as a request on server. In layman's terms, its how many times your browser downloaded (requested) an item from the server. One single visit could mean many requests (every image on a page for example)

I also use Webalizer to quickly see search strings. This tells me exactly what the visitor typed into Google or Yahoo to arrive at the site. Finally, I look at exit pages. I want to know what page the visitor was on when he left the site. This information is more critical for website rather than blogs because I want to see if they are leaving prior to filling out a form or making some form of contact.

Google Webmaster Console

In my opinion, this resource is one of the most overlooked tools when thinking about web statistics. But if used correcty, the Webmaster Console can be one of your best tools to help your site succeed.

The Webmaster Console gives me a break down of how Google sees my content. This way, I know if the content of the site is in line with the keyphrase I am optimizing for. I usually don't tell my clients to "blog for search engines" because I feel it can break their writing style, but I will make some suggestions if I see the content getting too far off base. The Console also shows me the anchor text that other sites are using to link to the site. Again, this way, I can see if everything is lining up with the correct keywords. Finally, I can view all inbound links to the site. This is great for determining what post or topics act at the best linkbait.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is great when you really want to get under the hood. For websites, I look at the Navigational Analysis. This allows me to see exactly how visitors explore the site. This way, I know where visitors are leaving, and the path they took before they left. I also like to take a detailed look at who is sending traffic to what pages. If there is one topic (or one source) that always generates more clicks, then I want to know!

At the end of the day, it's all about generating leads, so I will pay close attention to my conversions and study the funnel path (how the visitor went from a visitor to a prospect). Since Google has released it's new version of Analytics, you can now set reoccurring email reports of any information in the program. This allows you to get weekly snapshots of the most important information without getting caught up in all the extra stats.

Statistics are Worthless...

Statistics are worthless unless you take the data and do something with it. Simply knowing what's wrong doesn't make it right. But making refinements based off of your web stats is the formula for success!

To Greater Success,
Brad Carroll
Dakno Marketing - A Real Estate Web Design Company