Analyzing Traffic the difference between Visitors vs. Hits

11 March 2011

Understanding the importance of analyzing traffic to a website because it can determine where the traffic is originating from. It can also provide a clear picture of what the visitors are actually looking for. Understanding this information will help with marketing strategies and make a site more attractive to visitors who will stay on the site rather than leave it.

With this in mind, it is vital to be able to analyse traffic and just as important is to learn all the terms that are used in a website analysis report. This means getting to understand the difference between a hit on a page or whether a page that has been viewed. There is subtle difference that often gets confused. Not understanding the difference between the two may result in effective marketing turning into dismal failure.

Understand what the various sources of traffic are, learn how to track content performance and what to look for when analyzing navigation.

This is of the upmost importance as it will help with marketing strategies and thus make a site more attractive to any visitors that view it.

Most web hosting packages have tracking software and this should be used. There are software packages available specifically for the job of analyzing traffic, these packages are pretty cheap to buy. Google offers a free service with their Google Analytics which is a useful way of doing it at no cost.

It is always advisable to review the parameters within the software which will provide valuable information as to who is visiting the site and show if there are any problems with the site that need may need sorting out.

A list below will show the important things to look for when analyzing traffic on a site:

1. Check to see if there is traffic from abroad and make sure that the site has language options available that will help any foreign visitors which in turn will get them to stay on the site
2. See how much time a visitor actually spends on a site. This will tell whether they have found the site interesting or not and whether the site needs to be rethought
3. Check where the traffic is coming from. By doing this it is possible to see which source is the most productive and shows which sites are best suited to link to in the future

Known paying sources should be kept separately to determine how much productivity they provide to the site. This in turn will determine whether or not it is worth continuing paying for. Base any decisions on the traffic that it attracts along with the comparison to actual conversion and sales ratios. If analyzed separately from organic (non-paid link sharing) it will give a much clearer picture of how each of the sources are truly benefitting a site.

Stay focussed and do not become distracted by statistics that programs track. Try not to spend too much time deciphering numbers and always apply self discipline when analyzing traffic.