Website Statistics Primer
Did you establish web presence? Excellent, but this is just the beginning. To maximize return on your investment, one has to track site performance on a regular basis, understand what is working and what is not, and make the necessary changes required to enhance website effectiveness. A website statistics package such as Google Analytics can assist us to gather information about site visitors, and understand and improve site performance. There are many types of site statistics, and the most important ones are given below:
» Visits
The number of different visits to the website that reflects overall site traffic over a given time period.
» Unique Visitors
The number of visits from different computers. The difference between total visits and unique visitors reflects return visits.
» Page Views
Total number of pages viewed during the report period.
» Pages/Visit
The average number of pages viewed per visitor.
» Pages Viewed
The number of times each website page has been viewed.
» Average Time on Site
The average time visitors spent on the website.
» Traffic Sources
Specifies where the website visitors came from: A search engine, direct typing of the URL, or a link in another website.
» Conversion Rate
The percentage of site visitors which performed a desired action, e.g. online purchase, form submission, newsletter registration, file download etc.
» Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitors who left the site after viewing only one web page. Values greater than 50% might indicate a problem.
Other statistics that need to be reviewed once in a while include geographic locations and IP addresses of visitors, days and hours of visits, browser types and operating systems, expressions used in search engines to reach the website, etc.
» Summary
The wealth of information available to us through these systems helps to understand visitors' behavior patterns and recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the website. We should use this information to improve the website and provide the visitors with a better web experience that will ultimately help the website achieve its goals.
