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Web Statistics Explained
Introduction
Web statistics can be confusing as hell for a noob. Especially if you have just had your business site built for you and are trying to make head or tail of statistics provided by software such as AWStats or Google Analytics.
It is important to understand the statistics you have about your website. It can guide you as to which pages are working effectively for you, what people are typing in to Search Engines in order to find your website and whether or not your website is holding visitors attention when they get there. In all honesty you can't really be effective in Search Engine Optimisation without understanding the information you have about your website.
This is a brief article explaining some of the key terms to help you to get to grips with what you are looking at when it comes to your website statistics.
Visits
First we will look at 'visits'. This is the total number of visits to your website. Think of it like a 'session'. If a visitor finds your website then this will be counted as a visit. It makes no difference if they view one page or 15 pages, it will only count as one visit. They will also be counted even if they have visited your website a number of times before. Visits is really the key statistic for website performance.
Unique Visitors
'Unique visitors' are the number of new visitors who find your website. Unlike 'visits', if a visitor returns to your website then they will not be counted again.
Page Views
When a visitor views a page on your website then it will be counted as a 'page view'. If your 'page views' are similar to your 'visits' then it might be an indicator that your design or content is putting visitors off almost as soon as they find your website. Probably time to go back to the drawing board!
Hits
'Hits' count the number of requests that are made to the server when each page is viewed. To break this down, your web page might have a number of images including a header, footer and three images. Downloading all of these to a viewer's browser will appear as five 'hits' when the page is visited. Of course this also applies to all other files that can go to make up a website page such as; video, javascript and css. This means that your 'hits' will be far higher than the number of page views. It is worth remembering that a user's browser will cache information to allow for quicker page download times. Elements of a website that stay constant, such as a banner, will usually be requested from the server only once. If you are offered advertising space on a website based on 'hits' and the site has countless thumbnail images or other files then ask to see the 'page views' stats as well.
Bounce Rate
The 'bounce rate' is a statistic used by mainly by Google Analytics. It is a way of showing how engaging and useable your website is. If a visitor reaches a page on your site and then clicks away from the site straight away without visiting another page then the 'bounce rate' is 100%. The actual sum used to calculate the 'bounce rate' is Total Number of Visits Viewing One Page ÷ Total Number of Visits. Obviously, the lower your bounce rate, the more engaging the content on your website and the harder it is working for you. A good rate is round about 20%. Over 45% and you may want to start investigating the reasons why. Over 60% should be a serious cause for concern. I pay particular attention to the 'bounce rate' for Corrosive Online to make sure that my range of articles or tutorials are targetted enough to encourage visitors to stay on my website and giving me higher income from website advertisers.
Entrance and Exit Pages
'Entrance' and 'exit' pages show on which page a visitor has landed and then which page they visit last. This is a good way of tracking a 'customer journey' through your website. Imagine you sell ball gowns. A customer finds your home page. The next page they look at is your portfolio of gowns. They then exit at this page. Your ideal 'customer journey' is for the visitor to land, view your portfolio and then visit your 'Contact Me' page and make an enquiry. If your stats show that your highest 'entrance' page is 'index.html' and your highest 'exit' page is 'portfolio.html' then there is probably something wrong with your 'Portfolio' page. Is it badly laid out? Is it unappealing? Or are you behind the fashion when it comes to ball gown design?
Traffic Sources and Referring Sites
Where are your visitors coming from? The 'traffic sources' information provided in web statistics can often let you know where you need to concentrate your marketing spend. You might invest £500 per year in a 'Yell.com' advert but only get five visitors a week from that source whereas the same investment in 'Google Adwords' is yielding 30 visitors a week. In this case you may consider investing all of your next year's budget in 'Adwords'.
It is worth taking note of where 'converted' visitors are coming from. If your five visits from 'Yell' are all turning in to work but your 30 from 'Google' are all time wasters then you are getting a better quality of lead from 'Yell' and your account is paying its way.
'Traffic sources' will also let you know if all that 'Twittering' and 'Digging' is paying off or whether you would be better off contributing to a forum and leaving links in your signature. It may also be a call to 'get off your arse' and go and do some foot canvassing!
Keywords and Phrases
What words and phrases are Search Engine users typing in to find your website? This can be very important information when it comes to tweaking your text to maximise the visitors to your site. If you find that they search phrases and keywords used by visitors are not what you expected then you may want to try some alternative text in the pages you want visitors to find. Google have a great system called 'Website Optimizer' to help you try alternative content on pages at the same time.
Robots
No, not 'Bender' here but 'robots' are non-human visitors to your website. These are the 'spiders' that crawl through websites and send information back to Search Engines so that pages can become 'indexed'. It is important to know which 'robots' have visited you website and which pages they have 'crawled'. If certain pages in your website are not being reached by 'robots' then you may need to look at your website structure. Are there 'broken' links? Are there 'orphaned' pages? If the 'spider' cannot crawl easily through your website then the chances are that human visitors will also struggle to find all of your pages.
If the Search Engines you want to find your site are staying away then you may want to submit your website manually and also use some of the 'Webmaster Tools' available with Search Engine accounts.
Conclusion
Understanding these website statistics terms is your first step towards doing your own Search Engine optimisation and deciding where to invest your precious advertising budget. Use these to understand how visitors are finding, navigating and viewing the information they need on your website. Most web hosts will offer these kind of statistics when you sign up for an account and I would recommend 'Google Analytics' and 'Webmaster Tools' for truly understanding the effectiveness of your website.
I would also remind you that you should take what your web stats will teach you as a whole package. Don't make a knee-jerk change to your website based on one statistic. Learn to read what your stats are telling you and make changes based on the whole picture.
