What can yor web stats tell you?

Reports — who needs them? In today's information-hungry business world, the answer is probably: You do. But you may wish you didn't. Reports are a double-edged sword. Too much information is useless if you can't review and process it; most of us suffer from information-overload. At the same time, well-selected information — backed up by a bit of analysis — can deliver value that helps you refine your communications with your target audience.

Report analysis is like a trip to the shopping mall. If you know what you're looking for, you can make it lean, mean, and effective. If you don't, you can wander for hours and go home tired. Or worse, you can spend money on something that you don't need at all!
So, two questions to ask about any report are:

1 – What do we really need to know?
2 – How can we turn this information around into strategic communications?

When it comes to websites, several valuable tools can help you learn about your audience. For example, through routine website statistics reporting, you can find out:

Exactly how much traffic arrives on your website, both in number of users, and number of repeat users.

When the peak times are for website visits, which often tells you whether your audience is visiting your site from work or home.

Key search engine referrals, sometimes with a list of keywords searched, which tells you which keywords actually work, and what your Web visitors are looking for. In turn, this tells you how to optimize your Web content to maximize the draw of your site, and it gives you clues on how to optimize your rankings with search engines.

What entry pages visitors use, i.e. where they enter your site. Whether from a user's "favorites" listing or a search engine, the pages users enter from (also called doorways into your site) tell you what is important to your audience. Once you know that, you can develop your website even further to address these interests.

What paths users take through your site, and where they leave. Most of us visit websites with an objective in mind. Where users leave gives you clues about what users were really looking for – or sometimes, where they gave up.

Where users come from, at least by a few general groupings and by countries.

How long users remain on your site. The bottom line is that despite all the tricks webmasters play to generate website traffic, it's all futile unless users find what they want to find on your site. Generally, the more minutes, the better you've connected with users' needs. You can validate this conclusion with a look at return traffic.

Which pages are most popular. Reviewing page-by-page "hit" counts helps you discover what content and features are truly relevant to your audience. A responsive webmaster uses this information to preserve/protect critical content and build on areas of interest to strengthen the website.

Where website users hit dead ends. Always to be avoided, a bad link or malfunctioning script can leave your users nowhere at all. A solid Web statistics reporting program will tell you, so you can correct any problems.

Related analytical tools can reveal your traffic ranking, which literally ranks the popularity of your website, compared with all others. A reverse link analysis (links TO your website) is also important, not only because reverse links boost your search engine ranking, but also because exploring your reverse links may trigger new ideas about where to explore alliances with others. They tell you, in essence, who is interested in you!

The Grossbauer Group can assist you with website analysis to meet your objectives. A great starting point is routine website statistics reporting, which we can provide for you through WebTrends software. For in-depth website analysis, we can assist you with tools such as Alexa ranking interpretation and Google Analytics.

Let's toss the paper piles and get to the nitty-gritty of how you can connect with your audience. After all, your website is not really about you or your organization. It's about the people who visit it, why they come, what's on their minds, and how effectively you listen to their side of the website "conversation". Your website stats are a starting point, your channel to feedback that opens doors.