How to Analyze your Visitors to Improve your Web Site

8/18/05

By: Michael Rock

This article is a detailed description on how to interpret

your web hosting statistics software. Typically, the web

hosting you have comes with its own web statistics program such

as webalizer or awstats. There are also free traffic

monitors such as

servustats,

web stats,

and others. And for a nominal subscription of around

$15-$35 a month you can get a more detailed analysis of your

visitors with a paid program.

Why is it important to monitor your visitors?

You could gain a lot of traffic to your web site by simply

looking at the number of visitors per month, but what do they do

when they reach your site? Do they visit the pages you

want? Do they leave shortly after arriving? What

pages are they interested in? Etc. Armed with this

important information you can tweak your web site to help

achieve your goals. What good is it to have hundreds of

visitors go to your site if all they do is leave right away or

look at pages that are not important?

The Statistics Report:

Since most statistics software don't have the same options I

will use my paid subscription I use and go over the details

provided by it. You will find that the free stat reports

are limited to the information that you have, and after reading

this article it will also help you decide whether you want an

upgraded version of the statistics report. So let's begin!

Traffic

• Page Views
  
  
  
  • Page views are the number of times HTML pages are
    
    loaded in your visitors' browsers.
    
    
    
    
    
    "Page views measure the whole pages that are
    
    displayed to a viewer and do not include the supporting
    
    image files. Every time a complete page displays, it
    
    counts as one page view, even when the visitor just
    
    refreshes the page, or leaves it for a second and then
    
    comes back."
    
    
    
    
    
    "This determines whether your web site is interesting
    
    enough to look further into it and explore more pages."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Repeat Visits
  
  
  
  • Users who browsed your site more than once during
    
    the selected time period.
    
    
    
    
    
    "In other words, these are all visits minus the first
    
    visits (or unique visitors) in the selected period. The
    
    percentage of repeat visits to all visits will give you
    
    a good picture of how appealing the content of your Web
    
    site is."
    
    
    
    
    
    "Do you give your visitors a reason to return to your
    
    site? Is your site updated frequently with
    
    articles and content?"
  
  
  
  
  
  

Activity

• By Time Zone
  
  
  
  • "This report shows you what hour of the day they
    
    visited your site according to their time zone."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• By Local Time
  
  
  
  • "This report shows you what hour of the day they
    
    visited your site according to your time zone."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Day of the Week
  
  
  
  • "What day of the week they visited. Was it
    
    during a weekend or weekday? You can determine the
    
    best days to update your site or send out important
    
    information to your customers with this report."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Work/Leisure Time
  
  
  
  • "Do people view your web site during typical
    
    business hours or do they visit after they have gone
    
    home?"
    
    
    
    
    
    "What type of people visit your web site can be
    
    determined from this. Should you concentrate on
    
    business people or not."
  
  
  
  
  
  

Navigation

• Navigation Paths
  
  
  
  • A navigation path is a sequence of pages that the
    
    visitor viewed from the moment he/she enters the site to
    
    the moment he/she leaves.
    
    

    "From the marketing view, it is important to know
    
    the most common paths your visitors follow to get to the
    
    landing pages (that is the pages where the target events
    
    take place such as ordering, file downloading, form
    
    filling and submission, etc.). You will learn which of
    
    the navigation paths are the most effective."

    
    
    

    "The frequent exit patterns will show where your
    
    site is underperforming. You will see where to improve
    
    the content of your site to make your visitors'
    
    experience perfect."

  
  
  
  
  
  



• Entry Pages
  
  
  
  • The page that a visitor goes to when first visiting
    
    your web site.
    
    
    
    
    
    "By setting your links to go to specific pages of your
    
    web site you can determine which referral links are
    
    working and which are not."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Exit Pages
  
  
  
  • The page that a visitor leaves your web site from.
    
    
    
    
    
    "Do your exit pages match your entry pages? If
    
    so, then see what you can do to fix your entry page to
    
    keep visitors on your site. Is it a navigation
    
    problem? Content not good enough?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Pages Viewed After Home Page
  
  
  
  • "The success of your web site depends on how
    
    short the way from your home page to your target page
    
    is."
    
    
    
    
    
    "This also helps uncover any navigation problems or lack
    
    of interest in your web site."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Site Stickiness
  
  
  
  • These are visits grouped by the time that visitors
    
    stay.
    
    
    
    
    
    "It is a sign of how well a site's content captures
    
    the visitor's attention. Do they leave a few
    
    seconds after entering? Or are they thoroughly
    
    interested in what you have to say on your web site?"
  
  
  
  
  
  

Visitors

• Unique Visitors
  
  
  
  • Another measure of Visitor activity that counts only
    
    the first action of a visitor in a selected period of
    
    time.

    "This measures what a visitor does on the
    
    first visit only in a selected period of time. The
    
    software will grab specifically where they came from so
    
    you can tell the actions of one person visiting your
    
    site. In other words if you have three unique
    
    visitors visit your site ten times each instead of
    
    having a counter of 30 visitors you'll see 3 visitors
    
    and what pages they visited."

    
    
    

    "The number of unique visitors versus page views
    
    is an important indication of site performance. If you
    
    have a high unique visitor count, but relatively low
    
    page view count, this is a sign of low site
    
    attractiveness to visitors, so you should rewrite the
    
    site content. On the other hand, if you have a low
    
    visitor count and very high page view count, this shows
    
    that your site is stimulating people, however it needs
    
    more promotion."

  
  
  
  
  
  



• New Visitors
  
  
  
  • This is a brand-new visitor, arriving at your site
    
    for the first time.
    
    
    
    
    
    New visitors are always unique, although they are not
    
    the same as unique visitors. The number of new visitors
    
    will always be smaller than the number of unique
    
    visitors, because a unique visitor is one arriving for
    
    the first time in the selected period (so the system may
    
    identify the visitor as unique in the current period but
    
    it also knows that he/she has been before). A new
    
    visitor is one on his first visit.
    
    
    
    
    
    "This will tell you if your web site is attracting
    
    new customers."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Frequent Visitors
  
  
  
  • "This report tells you how many times a certain
    
    visitor visits your site. Do they only visit your
    
    web site once? A few times a day? Once a week?
    
    Several times a week?"
    
    
    
    
    
    "This analysis is important to find out if people view
    
    your site as something to come back to and let you know
    
    if you need to make changes to keep people coming back."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Motivated Visitors
  
  
  
  • If two or more pages are browsed during a visit,
    
    this will be counted in the Motivated Visits report.
    
    
    
    
    
    "The ratio of visits when more than one page is
    
    viewed to all visits is a good sign of your site's
    
    attractiveness."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• New Visitors' Second Visits
  
  
  
  • "This report lets you know how many of the new
    
    visitors returned to your site. Not to be confused
    
    with repeat visitors, because this one monitors only the
    
    new ones."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Visit Frequency
  
  
  
  • The number of return visits all of your visitors
    
    take.
    
    
    
    
    
    "Do the highest percentage of all of your visitors
    
    visit only once? 2-4 visits? 5-10 visits? Or as much as
    
    300 visits?"
  
  
  
  
  
  

Referrers

• The reports here show you where your visitors came from.
  
  
  
  • Bookmarked Pages and Direct Typing
    
    
    
    • "Do people bookmark your web site to visit
      
      later?"
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  • Search Engines
    
    
    
    • "What search engine did they use?"
    
    
    
    • "What keyword did they type in?"
    
    
    
    • "Which keywords are the most popular?
      
      Adjust your web site to the popular keywords."
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  • Referring Pages (Links)
    
    
    
    • "What other web sites did your visitors come
      
      from? Concentrate on the higher traffic
      
      links."
      
      
      "Do they come from directories that pay off or not?"
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  
  
  

Pages

• Popular Pages
  
  
  
  • "What area of the site are people most interested
    
    in?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Unpopular Pages
  
  
  
  • "Are these pages to fix or delete?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Views Per Visit
  
  
  
  • "How many pages are viewed during their visit?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Views Per First Visit
  
  
  
  • "How many pages do first time visitors view?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Page Stickiness
  
  
  
  • "How long do they stay on different pages.
    
    Should you fix or delete the pages people don't spend
    
    much time on?"
  
  
  
  
  
  

Systems

• Browsers and Browser Versions
  
  
  
  • "It is a good idea to see what a majority of your
    
    visitors view your web site in. What does your web
    
    site look like in their browser? Try it, you may
    
    be surprised to find out that some content is not
    
    readable or supported. Or it may make your web
    
    site look awful."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Operating Systems
  
  
  
  • "Are your visitors using Windows, Macintosh,
    
    Linux, or WebTV?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Windows Versions
  
  
  
  • "Are your visitors up to date, or are they still
    
    using Windows 95?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Screen Resolutions
  
  
  
  • "What screen resolution do people view your site
    
    on? If a majority of people use 800 x 600 pixels
    
    do they have to scroll right and left to read the
    
    content on your site?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Color Palettes
  
  
  
  • "What capability does your visitors computer
    
    have? Should you concentrate more on using 'web
    
    safe colors' in your design?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Cookie and Java Support
  
  
  
  • "Do you use these scripts on your web site?
    
    If your visitors have these turned off they may not be
    
    able to view important parts of your web site. If
    
    a strong number of people have this support turned off
    
    consider using other options."
  
  
  
  
  
  

Demographics

• Countries
  
  
  
  • "What countries are your visitors from?
    
    Does this pose as a problem?"
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Languages
  
  
  
  • "What language do they use? If you see a
    
    growing number of a foreign language, consider making
    
    your site bi-lingual."
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Time Zones
  
  
  
  • "What time zone are they coming from?"
  
  
  
  
  
  

Until the next article, have a great day!

Copyright © Michael Rock







This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.










(You have permission to copy this article as long as it remains intact with the

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Web development contractor (Web Design and Hosting)


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The owner of this

registered company has over twenty years experience with DOS, windows business

applications, numerous programming languages, artistic development, and web

design. Other areas of interest include web marketing, web promoting, and

business marketing and development. After the persuasion of those praising

his work, he decided to go into business himself and highly suggests everyone

else to do the same.

Internet Presence

was founded in 2003 from a desire to become independent. Less than 1 year

later Internet Presence has had accounts in three different states ranging from

a locally owned auto collision repair shop to a glass packaging industry that

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Tags: page views, html pages, important information, free traffic, web stats, detailed description, image files