Tapping Into Website Conversion with Statistics

More and more people are trying tap into there website profits, since many of the measurement tools are free it’s a great way to learn about visitors and improve profits. However, most people don’t know too much about how to really leverage website statistical data, or how to even get started. Here’s some information designed to help you with exactly that- potent analysis from website statistics. Since Google Analytics is free to use I have focused main on that program, but beware; using many tools will enhance the collection of actionable data. Here’s some basic information on website analysis, and how you can get started.

Google Analytics Website Checklist

Roll the mouse over question marks for explanation.

About Your Website
If your site starts with www.example.com then changes to subdomain.example.com or www.anothersite.com (e.g. checkout to third party billing) then your site spans multiple domains.1) Does your site span multiple domains?
Some websites are created using frames. This means each page is made up of more than 1 page. E.g. Frame 1, Frame 2 and mainframe= 1 page. This is referred to as a frameset. 2) Are any pages created in a frame set?
Event tracking is used to track how people interact with website objects such as videos (stop, play, rewind) or flash objects (clicks, actions or usage). 3) Do you require event tracking?
If you are using Adobe Flash files as part of your goal funnel we will need to modify the tracking code to trigger a pageviews from a flash event. It's OK, sounds difficult but it's not. 4) Do you require flash goal funnel pages?
It is possible to track how many times a NON html files (e.g. PDF downloads) are downloaded with minor modifications to your source code. These changes have no effect on what the user sees 5) Do you want to track Image based pages or non html files, e.g. PDF downloads?
When a website does ecommerce transactions we can track all activity in Google Analytics. Ecommerce goal funnels are very powerful. We will need to modify your checkout form to log transaction data accurately 6) Does your site use Ecommerce software? If so, what type? E.g. Analytics Supported Custom
If your website processes transactions on another domain we will need access to that domain to place modified tracking code on it. 7) Does your site process ecommerce transactions on the different domains? If “no” list URL

Custom Tracking
If you are going to take advantage of Google AdWords advertising we must also make sure Adwords is talking to Analytics (linked properly) along with optimized filter settings. 8) Are you using Google Adwords?
Website visits from your own IP address should not count in data. In Google analytics we can block your IP addresses or IP range. 9) Do you want to block internal IP Addresses or IP ranges (networks)
Learning what phrases are being entered into your site search engine can be exposed by activating site search. 10) Do you want to track internal searches? E.g. phrases people enter into your own site search engine.

Goals, Site ID & Access
Goal funnels are configured within Google Analytics settings. There are many ways to configure goals which are best determined prior to installing the code. 11) Do you want to track goals on your website? E.g. every time someone makes a purchase, completes a lead form or views important pages.
For reporting, advanced segmentation and custom reporting, keyword focus will help us find your sweet spot faster. Do you know your money keywords? If not we'll find em in Analytics, over time. 12) What are three important keywords that describe your business?
When we do an optimized Google Analytics set up we will require administrative access to your Google Analytics account. 13) Do you know how to give administrative access privileges to other users?
Defining your website type helps uncover the best goal to configure in Google Analytics 14) What type of website do you have? Ecommerce, lead generation or brand lift?

Squeezing the Fruit to Get the Juice with Website Statistics

Have you ever thought of using website analytics to help with website development? Most web development firms don’t think this way because building a site is all about a fresh look and a new approach; what about historical data? What we should consider is the natural rankings, current keywords rankings, general themed relevance, and current quality score with PPC advertising. Successful website advertising is like fine wine it takes time to mature; the same applies to search engine rankings. Using historical online statistics for a facelift on a new website will help staying insync with traffic sources that are already visiting a site. Why throw it away with poor planning?

Is Google Analytics your Top Choice?

What percentages of your visitors are making it to your finish line? How many visitors purchase your product or make an enquiry. Once you learn your successes it’s time to work on improving weaker areas of all aspects of your site. Use Google Analytics to track entire campaigns, with special filters you can extract even more data from Analytics to improve your AdWords spending along with organic traffic streams.

The Google Analytics interface is not easy at first but if you continue learning and exploring it starts to become apparent what level of vision and power you have to change the future. The best metrics to watch are goal focused. You will you soon figure out that the goals of your site are at the core of statistical research.

Tip: When you see the “/” in your Google Analytic stats t is your website’s home page. In order to change it you need to set the default page in Google Analytics to the URL of your homepage, e.g. index.html. While you are at it you may want to run through a website checklist.

What Happens with the Data in Google Analytics?

Traffic statistics you get from GA are accurate and insightful when code is installed properly and configuration is optimized. Some people fear that data will be used as data by Google to provide better advertising relevancy making their dominance a monopoly, if it isn’t already. In a sense you are helping your competition if there is any merit to this belief. Providing Google with conversion data is hard earned website statistics that rightfully belongs to you. The fact is Google owns the data in analytics and you cannot change historical data of your own site, even if you wanted to. With all that in mind Google Analytics is a good choice for the small business, any site exceeding 5 million page views per month is better to go with a paid solution.

What to Look at in Website Analysis?

The good news is yes but I still recommend Google Analytics implementation if you are an AdWords user. Other free options for tracking your website statistics include

  • Stat tracker
  • Stat Counter
  • Awe Stats (will analyze distinct log file formats of Apache and IIS servers)
  • Log file analyzer- good for generating custom log file reports.
  • Server Stats- Check your own server log files

Use other web analyzer tools to maximize your marketing and advertising efforts. Quickly discover which keywords convert the best, this can mean larger profits overnight. You can find out the pages that deliver the strongest sales conversion and dig deeper to learn why. See what websites send you the most customers. Use website statistics to help mold a better future for website performance.

Internet Statistics to Show Your Potential

On the internet there are many free services that you can rely on to help get the picture of what’s hot on the internet now. For example here is some statistics help on the most popular social networking sites based on Unique Visitors up to July 2009.

U.S. Unique Visitor (000) Trend (Source: comScore Media Metrix)

Source

Use Website Statistics to Convert more Visitors

Over time statistics change. That is why it is frequent checking of website statistics that result in the highest reward. Then dig deeper into the data and compare different time intervals. Learn to leverage unique hierarchical reports to reveal hidden patterns. Do this by generating custom reports. You will start to see trends like which sites good visitors come from and convert to action. Make changes to your site and focus on that specific statistic with the applicable web metric. Set your goals and make sure your main website pages lead to goal fulfillment. Your visitors should easily achieve those goals. Remember to adapt quickly when you identify new trends.

Tracking Customers

For website effectiveness and attainment of set goals, tracking your visitors will allow you to learn web site trends and most valuable traffic sources. The more you learn your statistics for a website and what they mean, the better Google ranking web site abilities will be. Web site Google ranking is ultimately decided by the Google algorithms. Effective online research missions can give you insights you never had to influence conversion statistics and ranking abilities. You can cross examine visitor’s sources with keywords and find out what keywords work best for pay per click (Google Adwords) and natural traffic.

Stuff A Web Analyst Can Look At
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