By Amanda Bala

Now that you are aware of what analytics are, where to find them and what you need to be doing, the next step is to figure out exactly what data you need to be analyzing.  What information do you want to know?  Here are a few key pieces of you might want to look at.

Visitors:  You want to look at how many visitors are coming to your site as well as how many unique visitors.  If you are getting a lot of traffic, but your unique visitor number is low, it might mean that you are having search engine issues.

Length of time on site:  If you are getting a lot of traffic, but the visitors are not staying long, then that can be an issue.  Again, you might need to add to your content, make your site more inviting or interactive or even more interesting.

Traffic Source:  What sites are referring people to your website?  This is very important because it will impact where you decide to promote your content in the future.

Top Content: What content is being looked at the most on your site?  Once you know, you can expand on those topics and try to bring in more traffic. You must also look at the content that is not eliciting a lengthy stay and take that as a sign that you need to change that page.

Referring Keywords:  This will tell you what words people are typing into search engines to find you.

Location: This identifies the geographic area of where you are receiving traffic. 

Campaign Tracking: This feature helps you track visitors from your ads, wherever they appear, to a particular goal, page or conversion at your website.

It is important to know what is happening with your website.  Do not overlook the importance of analytics.  Find a system online, and start tracking!

By Amanda Bala

Does your website have analytics?  And… if so, do you check them regularly? Though most business owners understand that using an analytics package is important, many do not do it.  Well, seeing that it is the New Year and we want you to get off on the right foot, now would be the perfect time to start using analytics.  In this two-part article, we will look at what analytics are, why we should be using them and how to do it.  In the second part, we will look at exactly what data you need to be analyzing from your website.  

What are Analytics:  Analytics are overall statistics about traffic and visitor trends in regards to your website.  This is the data you need to look at to determine if your website is having any sort of impact.  Some examples of data you can get from your analytics include: number of visits to your site, what pages visitors go to, how long visitors are on your site and what sites are referring people to you.  These are just a few.

Where Do I Shop:  Analytics programs are all web based and found online.  You do not need to purchase software or anything for them.  The most well-known and free system is Google Analytics.  Others systems may charge a fee (prices vary).  Some systems include: VisiStat, Chartbeat, Mint, Woopra and Clicky.  Research the different systems and find one that you are comfortable with, both with use and cost.  Then ask your website developer to incorporate them into your website. 

Common Pitfalls:  The most common mistakes people make are that they either look at their data too often or not enough.  There is a balance that needs to be attained.  Looking at short time frames generally will not give you very useful information.  However, once you begin using your analytics system, it is easy to become obsessive in trying to see what is happening on your site.  On the other hand, you want to make sure that you are looking at the data often enough.  By waiting too long, you can often miss opportunities to see which things you are doing that are creating changes in traffic or conversions.  The best way to avoid both of these situations is to set a regular schedule to look at your analytics.  Pick a certain time each month, the end of the month usually being a good time, to go through all of the data and determine what is working and what is not.