Google Analytics is one of the many traffic statistics services out there. It's free and it records in-depth data, and has many advanced features such as the ability to track conversions.You can use an existing Google account if you have one. Once you've logged in, Google will guide you through the process of setting up your first site. You'll then be given some tracking code to place in your blog's theme.
Three important terms for dealing with traffic are:
You can divide the pageviews by the number of visits to find out how many pages the average visitor views. For example, if you've had five visits to your site today and fifteen pageviews, the average visitor views three pages per visit before leaving.
This gives you an idea of how interesting your site is. If your pageviews are about equal to your visitors count, it may mean that your site isn't attracting people to stick around and explore. Consequently they arrive and immediately leave, totaling just one pageview per visit. While this happens for some users no matter what site you have, it shouldn't be the average as that should be taking into account people who explore deeply through the site.
A typical pageview per visitor ratio is about 2 or 3 pages per visit. This takes into account the people who leave immediately, or who just visit from their RSS reader to read the latest post, and balances them out with people who stick around for a long time.
Analytics will provide you with another useful statistic that's relatively similar in terms of what it tells you, and that's how long (in minutes and seconds) the average user spends on your site. You may discover that despite your pageviews-to-visitors ratio being fairly low, the average user spends five to ten minutes on your site because you publish lengthy and engaging pieces.
One feature of Google Analytics that is particularly useful is the compare date range feature. On any page showing you a traffic graph over time, click on the arrow next to the date range text above the graph and you'll see a calendar appear. Tick "Compare to Past" and fill in the date ranges you'd like to compare.
Using this feature you can easily see how much you've grown in comparison to a certain timeframe. Maybe you're comparing 2010 to 2009, or just one month against another. Either way, this tool is great for seeing how your short-term growth compares to your long-term growth.
To be honest, it's also handy when you're feeling a bit discouraged about week-after-week traffic, because you'll usually feel better after seeing how far you've come in a year!
It's important to keep your eye on visitor demographics because it can give you hints as to how you should tailor your content. Americans and New Zealanders may want to read different things, as might people using Firefox and Internet Explorer.
It's up to you to make an analysis and determine how these users are different, but if you pay enough attention, you can make a real difference in the quality of your content for the people that are most interested in your site. There's also the possibility that you're trying to engage a certain demographic, so it's good to be able to tell whether you're succeeding or not.
Google Analytics provides quite a bit of demographic information, including location, ISP, connection speed, and information about the user's browser and operating system.
A lot can be gleaned from this seemingly useless technical data; if many of your users are coming from a university network, you're no doubt attracting a bunch of students. If your users are on dial-up, they may be older people or not very good with computers. It can also be an indicator of socioeconomic status in certain countries where high-speed Internet is pricy. If your visitors are coming from a bilingual country, you can also determine what language they speak.
Traffic source is one of the most useful types of data that Analytics records. It's very helpful to know where visitors are coming from, which search engine keywords you're doing well with, and so on.
You can find out who is linking to you and thank them. You can determine which target audiences you've attempted to draw traffic from are working best, and change your search optimization strategies for coming months based on how effective search traffic has been for you in the past.
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Webworldarticles.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.
This article was sent to us by:
Roger Hill at
02172011
1. Creating Your Own Wordpress Template Tags
All articles in this directory are property of their respective authors. Additionally, read our Privacy Policy
© 2010 WebWorldarticles.com - All Rights Reserved. Partners: Gunblade Saga