Track Your Visitors

In my previous blog I discuss the importance of your web report and go over several terms and definitions of your report. This update to the blog will give you real examples of how a web report can help you not only in marketing, but also in how you spend your marketing dollars.

Below I have listed scenarios that almost all website owners and marketing staff will face, and the solutions using very little programming and your web report.

SCENARIO 1: You signed up for a 3 month banner / text ad with another website and it is time to renew.

Solution: Out of all the different scenarios, this is the easiest to track and determine how effective your ad was. First you will login to your web report, then you want to find your section called "referrals". Then scroll through your top referrals and find the website you have been advertising with and see how many referrals they have sent you in the 3 month advertising period.

Once you have determined your total number of visitors, you can use some simple math to determine what you are paying per customer and how effective your advertising dollars have been.

As an example, lets say you spent $300.00 for a banner ad for 3 months. After viewing your report, you see the ad generated 3000 visitors, that works out to 10 cents per customer and is probably definitely worth renewing since it would be very difficult to find advertising that inexpensive per customer. On the other hand lets say you generated only 300 visitors, your cost per customer now raises dramatically to $1.00 per customer. In this situation you know have to weigh the effectiveness and detrmine if the ad is worth renewing

SCENARIO 2: You have signed up for a 3 month print advertisement and want to track how effective it is.

Solution: This scenario is actually fairly easy to implement, but the accuracy can vary, so when reviewing you need to consider other factors. To implement you would contact your webmaster and tell him you plan on placing an ad in a specific magazine. Your webmaster can then implement various methods, but for me, I prefer to create a directory and place a redirection script in it. For example if the ad was in Sports Illustrated, I would create a directory called "SI", and then have my clients place that in their web address for the ad (www.myweb.com/SI). When a person types that address, it will just redirect them to the home page and they will not notice anything.

Now when you login to your web report, instead of ggoing to your referral section, you will look in your "Directory Tree" or Pages to see how often the directory was visited. Once you have your total numbers, you repeat the steps listed above to determine your cost per customer.

In closing using these simple tips above can save you greatly in time and most importantly money!

Understanding Your Web Report

One of the most important tools for a website owner is their web report. In fact when I am contacted to discuss redesigning an existing website, one of the first things I'll ask about is the web report. The thing that surprises me most is that many website owners have never viewed their report or they have viewed it but don't understand it.

Even though I always advise my clients of their reports and the location to view them, most people just don't refer to them that often, if at all. I highly recommend that all website owners get familiar with their reports and if needed call their webmaster to discuss the report in greater detail.

A web report is a treasure trove of information and anybody serious about marketing will have a good understanding of their report and the terms used.

There are many types of reports, but the basic terms and functionality are the same. Below are terms that are most often used in a web report and their definitions.

Term: Unique Visitors
Definition: A count of how many different people access a Web site. For example, if a user leaves and comes back to the site five times during the measurement period, that person is counted as one unique visitor, but would count as five "user sessions."

Term: Visitors / Sessions
Definition: The total number of distinct visits made to a site for a given period. A visit starts with an entry click and ends with an exit or a 20 30 minuteperiod of inactivity. Every visitor can make an unlimited number of visits.

Term: Page Views
Definition: Pageview: A single web page viewed by a human through a browser is a pageview. Technically: a file, or a combination of files, sent to a visitor as a result of that visitor's request being received by a server.

Term: Hits
Definition: The retrieval of any item, like a page or a graphic, from a Web server. For example, when a visitor views a Web page with four graphics, that's five hits, one for the page and four for the graphics. For this reason, hits often aren't a good indication of Web traffic.

Term: Entry Page
Definition: An entry page is located on your site. It is the first page through which a visitor enters your site, aka 'landing page'.

Term: Exit Page
Definition: The last page a visitor views before leaving your site.

Term: Referrer
Definition: Third party website (i.e. search engine, link, banner) through which a visitor reaches your site. Search engines are the primary example, but other sites with links leading to your site are also referrers. Examples are forums, banners, links, directories, etc..

Term: Key Phrases
Definition: Phrases used in a search engine that return your site within the search results.

Term: Key Words
Definition: Single unique words used in a search engine that return your site within the search results.