Using Website Development Stats To Measure Your Gains
19 January 2010Your website development is a potential gold mine. It can take your business from so-so to WOW! All you need to do is learn how to use your statistical information to help you get it done.
Website statistics can tell you a lot of things. They can show you which products are doing well and which are not. You can learn what visitors like and dislike about your website development. Are your keywords working? That needs to be explained as well.
By starting a plan for your business, you will be able to map out where your sales should be year by year. With an online business, this can be accomplished through website statistics. In this way, you can measure various initiatives on your site that can directly impact your business.
Website Statistics.
Traffic is paramount. Without traffic you won’t get any sales and your business won’t grow. Your marketing plan outlines how you will proceed with getting that traffic. It’s not a foolproof way, however.
You won’t know if your efforts are working unless you measure them. Statistics will help you here. Do you know what to measure? Here are a few examples:
* Unique visitors (different people going to your site).
* Keyword analysis (to tell you which keywords would bring in traffic).
* Conversion rates (to track when visitors progress from reading to actually buying).
* Webpage analysis (see where visitors go to when they are in your website).
* Page views (the number of visitors to each individual page within your site).
These are just a few of the stats that you will be interested in knowing. When you begin marketing, the statistics can help you to see if you are on the right course.
Do the keywords you use drive traffic?
While you can gather statistics monthly, sometimes it takes a few months to identify a trend. Trends are a measure of the way that your current plan is taking shape. Because of the lag time, it’s not wise to make changes to your plan for several months, to give it time to work, or not work. When starting out, it often takes that long to accurately identify sales.
Site statistics give you somewhere to start. If you don’t have a way to measure things, you don’t know whether you’re hitting your target or missing it. Looking at all the statistics together gives you a better idea of what to change first in an attempt to improve your business.
To start off with, make sure you have a way to measure site information, right now. There are software tools (both free and paid) that can help you compile these statistics. It’s also possible to employ specialised companies to measure and analyse this data, advising you about your next move. For a small online business enterprises, the software should help the owner to make a reasonable assessment to start out with.
Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an Experienced Executive Virtual Assistant who collaborates with businesses and individuals with the sole aim of accomplishing their professional goals. Want to learn more about these comprehensive online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Today!
