Tracking Website Activity
Website Statistics
Tracking website activity and evaluating the results of your website marketing is a complex task. A website statistics package is a good place to start. There are many software packages to choose from and most host servers will provide one. Within these statistics packages there are many tools you can use to review your website activity.
One of the more important reports will be the statistics collected on unique visitors. This report tracks the number of single visitors to your website by collecting and recording the visitors ip address (an ip address is a unique string of numbers separated by periods that identifies each computer attached to the internet). The unique visitor statistic counts each ip address only once giving you an idea of how many people are viewing your website. This will be a general estimate due to different variables such as a person having a dynamic ip address that changes weekly.
Another important feature to look at when reviewing website statistics is the top 20 search strings. This feature shows you the most common words or phrases people are using when coming to your website from a search engine. This is an effective way to evaluate your website visitors’ areas of interest. It allows you to update website content based on this information in order to increase website traffic.
On-line Forms
Along with a statistics package you can track activity through the on-line contact forms on your website. These forms are a good way to collect e-mail addresses and see trends in website activity. Monitoring these information requests allows you to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, as there should be increases in sign-ups when there is a marketing activity going on.
Tracking Over Time
Tracking the activity on your website requires analyzing trends over periods of time and reviewing those trends along with the marketing, industry, social and even weather events happening during those periods. By tracking and recording the visitors to your website, you can develop best practices for promoting your website. You will also gain an understanding of how outside events and issues have an influence on your website activity.
Tracking website activity and evaluating the results of your website marketing is a complex task. A website statistics package is a good place to start. There are many software packages to choose from and most host servers will provide one. Within these statistics packages there are many tools you can use to review your website activity.
One of the more important reports will be the statistics collected on unique visitors. This report tracks the number of single visitors to your website by collecting and recording the visitors ip address (an ip address is a unique string of numbers separated by periods that identifies each computer attached to the internet). The unique visitor statistic counts each ip address only once giving you an idea of how many people are viewing your website. This will be a general estimate due to different variables such as a person having a dynamic ip address that changes weekly.
Another important feature to look at when reviewing website statistics is the top 20 search strings. This feature shows you the most common words or phrases people are using when coming to your website from a search engine. This is an effective way to evaluate your website visitors’ areas of interest. It allows you to update website content based on this information in order to increase website traffic.
On-line Forms
Along with a statistics package you can track activity through the on-line contact forms on your website. These forms are a good way to collect e-mail addresses and see trends in website activity. Monitoring these information requests allows you to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, as there should be increases in sign-ups when there is a marketing activity going on.
Tracking Over Time
Tracking the activity on your website requires analyzing trends over periods of time and reviewing those trends along with the marketing, industry, social and even weather events happening during those periods. By tracking and recording the visitors to your website, you can develop best practices for promoting your website. You will also gain an understanding of how outside events and issues have an influence on your website activity.