Do you know the “true” value of your website? It can easily take your business from blah to FANTASTIC! One of the things that you need to learn is how to use your website stats to get your site to that “FANTASTIC” stage!
Website stats can tell you different things, but here are just a few things that your website stats can tell you:
- You can find out what keywords your visitors are using to search for you, your product and/or service.
- You can find out which page or blog posts is getting the most rave and traffic.
- You can learn what your visitors like and dislike
- You can find out what countries your visitors are from
- You can find out how many new visitors you have received
- You can set goals to track sales and conversions and measure your site engagement goals against: threshold levels that you can define
Here are five website statistics’ tools. Some of them I use for my websites and clients’ websites, and others that I’ve heard about:
Google Analytics: I used Google Analytics even before I began creating websites. It’s easy enough for anybody to use and understand.
Google’s definition is “The enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way.”
Woopra: When I went to WordCamp Dallas in June, I learned about Woopra. What impressed me the most about Woopra is the ability to have everything that Google has and the ability to see “real-time” stats. I also appreciate the clean interface
Woopra’s definition: The world’s most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application. We deliver the richest library of visitor statistics in the industry through our innovative desktop application. But Woopra is more than simply statistics.
AWStats: A free powerful and featureful tool that generates advanced web, streaming, ftp or mail server statistics, graphically. This log analyzer works as a CGI or from command line and shows you all possible information your log contains, in few graphical web pages.
eLogic: Tracks and monitors the activities of your website. Provides stat counters, basic web stats and small business web analytics services to help you stay on top of your game.
W3Counter: Free, hosted website analytics solution foree, hosted website analytics solution for answering the key questions about your website: who’s your audience, how they find your site, and what interests them.
Just like any other part of your business, it’s important to create goals, test, track and measure your website activity so that you’ll know what’s working and what’s not.
Bait and Hook ‘Em!
Do you know what’s one of the most important things to consider when writing press releases, articles, books, website copy, etc.? If you guessed the title, then you’re correct! Think about the last time you were at magazine stand browsing around, the titles stood out more than anything. Typically, you don’t have time to read the entire article right there. Always use “fantastic”, eye-catching, jaw dropping titles for our online and offline marketing to get more visitors, readers and feedback.
Title Nitty-Gritty
Each page’s title can be used to optimize your website, which is what everyone wants, right? Don’t think of the title as a little blurb at the top – take full advantage of it. For example, if you’re a Life Coach, your title shouldn’t just be “Jane Doe – Life Coach”. Include some of the following to further optimize your page and site:
- Keywords – Use some of the keywords that you normally use on your web site on your page title also. Keywords are used to improve your rankings. Make sure that you have carefully chosen these through research. Choose your keywords carefully so that as someone would use to search the product and/or service that you offer.
- Bait and Hook – What do your target market want to hear? What is going to keep them reading the entire page as well as visit other pages on your site? Numbers and bullets always seem to make it better because it breaks it down into smaller pieces. Numbers are even better because people know how much they have to read to the end.
- Spotlight – A title should be one line, and use a minimum amount of words that will appeal to readers. The title should include a keyword or a keyword phrase. Use that keyword again in the first sentence of the opening paragraph to emphasize the title.
Even if you use titles on your blog posts and articles, you can still benefit from a headline on your web page. The post is just one portion of the information contained on your web page. Your blog posts’ titles should be optimized as well.
- Font Size – Your headline needs to stand out from the rest of the information on the page. Use a larger, bolder font, but nothing too fancy. You want your readers to see it AND understand it.
- Use Keywords – Give a brief description on what the post is about. Use that keyword your readers will know if the information will pertain to them.
- Use a Link – When someone runs their mouse across the headline, they will realize that it is clickable. It can link to your home page, your site map or anywhere else on your site that may be helpful to your readers.
Titles and headlines are front and center on your page. Make them eye-catching and enticing so your visitors will stay and read more.
