comparing apples to apples - understanding website analytics (the basics)
How well is your website doing? For many website owners, understanding how their website is performing can be a confusing task. It can be very difficult to determine success, especially for business owners, who may not be involved in the technical creation or maintenance of their websites . In fact, defining success can become a Herculean task. Consider the following:
- How much traffic does your website get?
- How many visitors email you after viewing your website?
- If an ecommerce site, how many sales do you make?
- Are visitors able to find the information they need?
How do the answers to these questions relate to the overall success of your business? In other words, is the website having an impact? Even the answers to these questions lend to the confusion due to the variety of statistics available on the web.
In my experience, the first problem most business owners face is understanding what statistics are meaningful to their business. For instance, I was once approached by a client who was extremely concerned about the number of hits his website was receiving. His main goal “I want to generate 1 million hits.” But upon further discussion, I discovered that he was confusing hits with unique visitors. And with a graphic laden website, the number of hits his website received was disproportionately high relative to the number of unique visitors to his website. At the end of the day, his real concern was with unique visits, and not just that, but also how those visits converted to sales.
For a more in-depth discussion of website analytics, visit amyrivers.com/resources.
In addition to website statistics, there are many external ways to gauge the success of your website. For instance, many website owners look at Alexa ratings to determine the success of their website. And while these ratings can paint a picture of day-to-day changes in website popularity, it is important to consider how these ratings are determined.
With Alexa, the traffic ranking system is based on information gathered from Internet users who have voluntarily installed the Alexa toolbar in their browser. On the Alexa website, you will find a description of the Alexa traffic ranking system, as well as some disclaimers regarding known limitations in this data.
Ultimately, the business owner needs to determine the statistics and analytics that are right for them. If you need to track traffic, finding a good analytics program will go along way to more effectively monitoring the performance of your website. And you need not break the bank to access these stats. Most website hosts already track statistics for your website, so contact your host or webmaster to learn how to access this information.
Alternatively, you can sign-up for Google Analytics. By uploading a small piece of code to your website, you can take advantage of Google’s free Analytics program, which allows you to track traffic and to set specific goals for determining website success.
No matter which course of action you take, make sure that you are comparing apples to apples. The results you see in different website analytics programs may vary, so it is important to gatehr statistics over time using the same program(s) so that you can compare information that was gathered using the same sets of criteria and methodolgy.
