Traffic analysis is a key ingredient in online marketing
success. The numbers, charts and graphs provided by your
favorite web statistics software are invaluable.
But it's not until you begin to interpret those statistics as
part of a larger picture that you'll receive the full value of
your web analytics software.
A software package can only return so many lines of data. And
most of them do a good job at providing the most important ones.
But your real insights will be found at the intersection of two,
three, or even more of these statistics.
It's up to you to interpret what you see and turn it into useful
information, rather than staring blankly at the numbers and
recognizing a trend. When you see a trend you like or don't
like, your natural tendency is to try to emphasize the
conditions that caused the positive trends and eliminate the
conditions that led to negative trends. But how?
By digging. Let's say your visits are down. Now, you have to ask
yourself why? Perhaps, upon further investigation, you see that
the downturn in traffic is primarily coming from a loss of
repeat visitors. Dig a little further, and you find out that
visitors on dial-up stopped returning a few weeks ago. Now,
think about what could have changed over the past few weeks. Did
you switch servers? Add any large images or problematic remote
javascript code such as
Google">http://www.analyticsguide.com/articles/index.php/Google_Analytics
">Google Analytics?
Now, your digging into the statistics has brought you outside
the numbers and into the reality of your site and the way you
run it. Get into the mind of your typical visitor and see what
they see. Dig around for other statistics that may provide a
clue as to why you're getting the results that you are. Chances
are, when you stop and think, the answer will come from your own
mind, not one of a hundred pretty charts or bar graphs on your
web analytics software.
Visit
Web Analytics
Guide for more valuable insights, articles and FAQ on web
site statistics and analysis.
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