| Jun. 07 2006 at 11:01 AM |
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This article gives some good information regarding "How to gather information from your website". Personally, the hosting company that I use, www.webmasters.com , gives me a very detailed Logs and Statistics section that breaks everything down very nicely. I also use Google Analytics. However, I have yet to understand all of the information that is gathered from that program. If anyone would have any suggestions on how to read and utilize the Google Analytics information I would be very interested in speaking with you. Best Wishes!
Ken Schroeder ~
Ken Schroeder,President
The Schroeder Group
www.schroedergroup.biz
ken@schroedergroup.biz
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| Jun. 07 2006 at 11:17 AM |
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Hey Ken - what aspects or specific reports from the Google program create confusion?
chuck fuller
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| Jun. 07 2006 at 11:39 AM |
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Well, I am not quite sure how to utilize the Goal Conversion section. First I don't understand how to set Goals. Second, I don't know that with my website being more of a "Brochure Ware" site, that I can even really utilize this section. That will be the first part Chuck. Thanks for your help!
Ken Schroeder~
Ken Schroeder,President
The Schroeder Group
www.schroedergroup.biz
ken@schroedergroup.biz
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| Jun. 07 2006 at 12:25 PM |
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You should be able to use it Ken - every website should have an end goal in mind for a user - if there's no goal you're setting for a user to complete, what's the purpose of having the website?
Generally with a site that's brochureware, your goal will be centered on something like a request for a white paper, or submission of a contact form, or a signup for a newsletter. In some cases it may just be making sure that visitors are reaching the really impactful page or pages on your site, or perhaps sticking around for a certain length of time or other measurement.
To utilize the Goals section in the Google program, you're going to need to provide them with a "conversion" page. Essentially a page that can be reached only when someone has completed the action you want them to complete. Using the newsletter signup I mentioned earlier, this would likely be the screen the user sees once they've successfully submitted their email address through a form (or the page they see when they confirm the email address, if you're using this type of opt-in). What you'll do is enter that final confirmation page as the "Goal" - and if there are any pages that you want to track as the path to that goal (required or otherwise), you'll enter those in the appropriate space.
Once you set that goal up, those visitors who complete this action will be tracked against all others, and the results will populate a standalone report, as well as being used throughout several other reports (i.e. in conjunction with your report on PPC activities).
I'd need to know more about some of the specifics of your site to provide more advice, but hopefully this gets the ball rolling.
chuck fuller
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| Dec. 05 2006 at 1:26 PM |
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I just wanted to say "Great article, Chuck!" 
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| Dec. 05 2006 at 1:38 PM |
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Thanks Chris! If anyone has any website stats questions, feel free to throw them up here for everyone to learn from!
chuck fuller
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| Dec. 07 2006 at 6:05 PM |
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One stat that I love looking at on my client stats is the EXIT PAGE area. This tells me the pages that people leave on my client's site. This can be very valuable in terms of pages that are not converting and bascially making the user click "goodbye" to my client's site.
There can be many causes for this like:
1. Ugly images that people just don't like like an animated gif in your face
2. Colors that annoy
3. Poor content that is of little interest.
4. etc. etc. etc.
Knowing which pages people are leaving your site can help you keep them there if you edit and fix the page's problems.
One time I had a client who was selling this pear product and the picture of the pears were in a sepia format so they were darkish brown and most likely appeared like rotten pears. Once I changed the picture and put a bright bowl of yellow pears on it, conversions increased and exits from this page diminished.
So it is also good to watch your exit pages as they tell you a ton and often times are easily fixable.
Tawnya
Certified Internet Marketing Specialist
Turning Clicks Into Cash For Her Clients!
Founder of the popular, informative, educational & resourceful Virtual Assistant Networking Association and Author of The Virtual Business Startup System
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| Dec. 08 2006 at 2:54 AM |
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I have strange exit stats and was wondering if someone could help me understand. The stats are generated with asstats, which seems to be a good program. What i am questioning is the exit pages alwasy show a huge number of visitors leaving from my 404 error page. This seems highly unlikley as there are no broken links or mssing pages on my site (www.golfasian.com). Does anyone know how this could occur? Does anyone have a clue how this can occur? (editor's note: this post was edited only to delete a table that was causing the entire page formatting to break, not for content)
Edited by: Joel - Apr. 19 2007 at 12:49 PMMark Siegel
Managing Director
Golfasian.com Co. Ltd.
+66-(0)2-714-9770
http://www.golfasian.com and http://www.thailandgolfzone.com
The golf experts in Thailand!
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