Web Site Analytics 101
Mary C. | 15 March 2005 |
Web Site Analytics 101 - Back to the Basics
Christine Burke, Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.
In our recent newsletter survey, some readers asked for articles that aren’t quite as technically advanced as many we include. For those who don’t have extensive experience with trackers, here is an overview of the basics.
Question: I just got a new web site tracking service. What terminology do I need to know? What should I look for in the reports?
Answer: Let’s look at the following scenario. If I am looking for lodging in your town, I will search on the Internet, let’s say in Google, for "lodging in ‘your town’." Because of your successful promotion efforts, I see your listing on the first page of results. I click on the link, and arrive at your home page.
Visitors and Page Views
Once I arrive at your web site’s home page, the web site tracker begins tracking my visit. I am viewed as one new visitor, and I have viewed one page. Now, I click on the Rooms page. I’m still just one new visitor, but now I have viewed two pages. I then go to the Specials page, and back to the home page. The tracker has now recorded four page views for me as a visitor. Why? Every time I go to a page, the tracker records a new page view. For most web sites, the home page will get more page views than any other single page. That’s because it is the most common entry page. People won’t, for instance, usually enter a web site on the Contact Us page. The home page also gets more page views because visitors often navigate back to it while browsing through the site.
Notice that we are not talking about "hits". This word comes from web server technology. It takes several "hits" on, or requests to, the server in order to deliver a single web page, with all of its graphics, to a browser. Hits are not as useful to analyze as visitors and page views. Many newer trackers don’t bother to report hits anymore.
Now I close my browser and go to lunch. Later in the day, I decide to visit your web site again. This time, many trackers will recognize me as a "repeat visitor", rather than as a new one.
What does one make of all of this?
Trends over time are important, and can help indicate a need to modify the site’s design. If you have a peak season, you will want to see an increase in traffic when reservations are coming in for your peak season. If you make improvements to your site, you’ll hope to see traffic increase as a result. If page views suddenly drop for a certain page, perhaps a link to that page is broken.
A theme park promoted a special event during the Christmas holidays, and their web site traffic increased as a result.
You may have an important page, such as your Specials page, which is generally not getting as much traffic as you want. Improving the navigation to that page might help your results.
It’s an issue of concern if you have a high percentage of visitors who only view one page on your site. This is called a "bounce," and it shows a lack of interest on the part of the visitor. For more information about bounce rates, click here. You can calculate the "browse rate" of your site by dividing the total number of page views by the total number of visitors. For example, if there are 100 visitors and 350 page views, visitors looked at an average of 3.5 pages.
Referrers, Search Engines, and Search Terms
Now that you know how much traffic you have, you should learn where it’s coming from. A "referrer" is simply the last page the person was viewing before s/he arrived at your site. In the example given above, the referring domain for my first visit would be recorded as google.com. The referrer for my second visit may be "bookmark," if I have saved your URL in my browser. From your tracker, you can also learn which search engines and search phrases sent your web site the most visitors. With good promotion practices, you can improve traffic from search engines and other online resources, and refine under performing search terms.
If you have questions, feedback or suggestions for tracker articles, please send an e-mail to info@blizzardtracker.com.
Would you like to learn more? Here are two links of interest.
Tour of Blizzard Tracker-illustrates and explains tracking reports
Exit Links-Where do Visitors Go?
Email This Post
| 
Print This Post
January 5th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Very good explanation - personally for stat tracking I love stat counter, I use the free version but havent tried the paid version. The google analytics tracker works just as good in my opinion, they both have options to where you can block certain IP’s so when you are visiting your own page it doesnt mess you stats up.