Feature Article

Analyzing Website Traffic

by: Dan J Blackburn moneypumps.com

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of.

However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

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The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

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Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your company name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

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Dan J Blackburn is the owner of MoneyPumps.com a website that teaches you how to make money online by Turning Your Interests Into Avenues Of Income
www.moneypumps.com

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Second Article

Importance of Integrated Marketing

by: Scott F. Geld Marketing Blaster, Inc.

In today's world when there is a trend towards old wine in a new bottle thinking many a people don~t take integrated marketing seriously. They simply consider it to bet yet another fad, here today gone tomorrow. However, this is not the case. In fact, integrated marketing is an amalgamation of all the marketing roles, resources and responsibilities catering to all kinds of customers. These customers could be present or future, internal or external. The function of integrated marketing is to attract the customers through marketing, promotional and customer service activities. It is due to the far-reaching approach of integrated marketing that many companies consider it to be the smart option.

The key driver for implementing integrated marketing is that when everything works together, you have a higher chance of delivering successful outcomes on your marketing and business goals. Having several different departments who don't talk to each other does not send a unified message to your audience and can wreak havoc with your branding. You are also wasting resources by not pooling ideas or having a cohesive unit that is strong and manageable. Unfocused marketing efforts are ineffective and wasteful.

Integrating all aspects of marketing into one department ensures that your company's strategic marketing plan is being followed because it can be led, driven, monitored and championed by one or two individuals. If each department does their own marketing, it's difficult to measure and evaluate the results effectively. Also, why leave the marketing up to accountants, assistants, and IT people? Marketing should be done by marketers. Accounting should be done by accountants. It just makes sense to get certain professionals to do the jobs they are trained for.

This new strategy of having integrated marketing set up, where all aspects of marketing are clubbed under one department ensures that there is one common strategic marketing plan which is being followed. Since there is one marketing department for all the divisions, the marketing plan will be driven, led, monitored and the responsibility of few select professionals. In a scenario where each division of the company has its own marketing plan and activities, it is difficult to measure and evaluate the results and effectiveness of each divisions plans. At times in these kind of scenarios, it is difficult to hire marketing professionals, specially if the amount of marketing activity for that division does not permit the hiring of an extra professional. In these situations say for an accounts division, an accountant will be given the additional responsibility of handling the marketing activities for that division. There is no point in getting marketing activities handled by the accounts people and vice-versa. Marketing should be done by marketing professionals and Accounting should be done by accountants, period. It makes good business sense to get certain professionals to do the jobs they are trained for.

For good and an effective marketing program it is important that all your marketing resources should work together each complementing the other. This is important to keep your brand identity strong. Don~t make the mistake of scattering your resources and saying one thing to the press and another in the print ad. All your messages to the people should say the same thing. Otherwise, you will end up with a weak, unproductive marketing program with thinning resources.

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Scott F. Geld is the Director of Marketing for MarketingBlaster.com, a company specializing in affordable traffic (5 cents/visitor) and direct links for $5/link. For more information please visit: www.MarketingBlaster.com

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