The Demo Site

Evaluating Website Traffic

There are two popular tools used for evaluating website traffic. Both are good in their own ways. I hope this summary helps you use both tools to your advantage!

Google Analytics

This is a tool for evaluating the habits of visitors to your website. To use this tool, you need to register and set up a Google Analytics account (this is a free). Once you have your account set up, Google Analytics will generate a piece of computer code that you or a computer programmer will need place onto your website. Once this code has been in place for 24 hours, you can log into to your Google Analytics account and view your traffic information. Google Analytics is a popular tool because: 1) The information gathered is confidential to the website owner, 2) The data is very accurate because of the computer code that sits on the website, 3) You are given tons of information such as visitor computer browsers, keyword searches, pages viewed on the website and e-commerce trends. Overall, this is a tool that I highly recommend. You can access Google Analytics by going to www.Google.com/Analytics

Alexa

This is a tool used for evaluating website traffic. To use this tool you do not need to register for an account, you simply go to their website and view the data (it is free). Instead of gathering data from code that sits on your website, Alexa gathers data from visitors that have an “Alexa Toolbar”, “Sparky Toolbar” and other “Confidential Sources” (possibly spyware). Since not everyone that uses the Internet has an Alexa Toolbar and many people now block spyware, most industry experts agree that the data is assumed to be possibly incomplete and therefore bias. This tool is very popular because it is the only tool that allows you to see what is happening at other websites. All data and information is public. You can access Alexa by going to www.Alexa.com

When I work with Google Analytics and Alexa, there are 4 things that I immediately evaluate. They are:

1) Visitors & Traffic Rank. For Google Analytics Users, “Visitors” is the number of times people visited your site. You want to see this number grow and get bigger, which means your site has more traffic. For Alexa Users, “traffic rank” is a computed number that reflects website popularity and traffic. You want to see this number get smaller. A site such as Yahoo or Google will have an Alexa Traffic Rank of 1, which is the best of the best. Notice that traditionally Alexa gave you a three month number, you can now click on the word traffic rank and get a 7 day number.

2) Bounce Rate. Not all traffic is good traffic. You want traffic that values your website and visitors that are going to stay on your site, not immediately leave. The bounce rate is the percent of people leave a website almost immediately. You want to strive for a bounce rate of less than 20%. You can have great overall traffic but if 50% of the visitors bounce off your site, you may be spinning your wheels with current marketing programs..

3) Time on Site. You want to see this number grow. The longer visitors are on your site, the more likely they are going to turn into buyers.

4) Page Views. You want to see this number grow. The more pages visitors view, the more likely they are to turn into profitable shoppers.

I hope this helps you understand the basics of website traffic and two simple tools that are available to you. Feel free to ask questions. I am here for you!!

Working Hard for Your Success!
Debbie May
www.WholesaleSuppliesPlus.com
1-800-359-0944