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Blitz Ezine # 214 May 12, 2003
Web analytics, web site stats and what they mean

Note: This is an archived issue. Some links and/or content may be outdated

The Blitz-Promotions News Letter.
Issue no. 214, May 12, 2003

************ In This Issue **************
Comments
Food for thought
Articles
The Classifieds
Next Issues
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Blitz Comments
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An overview of our promotion packages -

http://www.blitzpromotions.com/compare.htm

http://www.ineedlinks.com/freelinks.htm

Coming Next Issue -
Useful formulas - how your stats can help build your business.

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Food for thought
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Make the most of today. Translate your good intentions into actual deeds.
Author: Grenville Kleiser

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Finances and the Long Haul
Part 3 - Your webstats and what they mean.
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Different programs use different terms with their stats - many times the same name can mean different things. The most important thing to remember is to be consistent in the numbers you track. If you track views this month, then don't track visitors the next (and vice versa).

Create a spreadsheet - down the left side of the sheet you'll put dates about a week apart for the next couple of months.

Create columns across the top of the page -

Visitors - Total Sales - Total Profit - Average pages viewed - Length of time on the site - Repeat visitors. One day each week set aside some time to fill in those numbers. We'll be talking more next week on many ways you can use these numbers.

You should have three main numbers -

Requests - Visits - Visitors -

The book says -

Requests - A request occurs when a web server is asked to provide a page, graphic or other object. This is frequently called a Hit. Requests may be generated either by visitor going to a page or by the page itself requesting an object (usually a graphic). Using the number of requests to gauge the popularity of a site can be misleading because pages with lots of embedded graphics can generate many more requests than sites with simpler graphics. For that reason, the number of visits or the number of HTML page requests will probably give a more accurate activity picture.

Visitors - A visitor is usually defined simply as a unique IP address. A particular IP address may represent a unique person but, more often, one IP is shared by many people. If your site uses persistent cookies to better identify people, Hit List can also produce reports that calculate visitors based on a combination of unique IP addresses and cookies.

Visits A visit is a collection of requests that represent all the pages and graphics seen by a particular visitor at one time. For example, a visitor to your site may go to 10 HTML pages and indirectly request 25 graphic elements. Those 35 requests represent one visit. The total number of visits is usually more than the total number of visitors because each visitor can visit the site more than once. Visits are just estimates because there is no way to be certain that a series of requests actually belongs to the same person, or, for that matter, to the same person during the same visit. Hit List determines visits based on several factors including IP addresses, cookies and the delay between consecutive requests.

In a Nut Shell -

Requests - When someone visits your site, every file they requests goes here. Every graphic, script, java, flash. etc. This will be the largest of the numbers and is pretty useless.

Visits - Again this is a large number in our example. It represents how many pages / images are called on. Ex. If I visited your page and viewed 10 pages and 20 jpeg files, this number would be 30.

Visitors - This is the 'best' number. Although not always accurate, it tells how many visitors come to the site (no matter how many pages, things they view, they are counted only one time).

You may also have an average for each of those stats. Make a note of them with the goal being to have those go up. You will notice that there is sometimes a decline when we get closer to spring and summer (unless you sell summer related products) that's because folks are enjoying the weather. You will also begin to notice dips that are related to your business. Our stats almost always dip around April 15th as folks are doing there taxes. Make notes and if they're consistent or happen every year, you may want to plan some downtime yourself during those periods.

Other useful tidbits -

Pages viewed - How many pages a visitor uses. The more pages they view, the more likely they are to buy. You can increase the number of pages viewed by offering good content.

Browsers used - Internet explorer, Netscape, etc. You may get some that you've never heard of. Make sure your site looks good in them all.

Countries - What country is most of your visitors come from. If you see increases in certain areas, you may want to cater some content just for them.

Operating systems - The OS that the surfer has on their computer.

Referrers - where are your visitors coming from. A good way to use this is to find good links that are sending you traffic and then

a) advertising on their site.
b) maybe do a front page link exchange.
c) work on a joint venture or affiliate program with them.

Average time per visit - how long does someone stay. Again the longer the better.

Request per hour - which hour do most folks visit your site. You can use this number to plan some advertising or specials.

Repeat visitors - how many people come back. You will need to give them a reason to come back. Again the more repeats you have, the more your business will grow.

Search words used - what words are folks using to find your site. You may find some hidden gems. Example - say you find "red tackle boxes" in your stats. You check on google for that term and find that you are on the fourth page. What would happen if you were on the 1st page. Create a page and optimize for that word, and watch your traffic increase.

Search engines - self explanatory.

Next week -
Part 4 - Useful formulas - money and your stats.