Archive for the 'Web stats' Category

It always sounds fantastic when you’re told by your web agency, “We’ve got all these great stats on your users. We’ll send them over to you to have a look and be amazed. And then you get them and you go, “Uhh?”

Usage Statistics can be pretty confusing until you know what the different terms mean. So here, in a nutshell, are the terms explained.

Hits
Hits aren’t the same as the number of visitors viewing the website. They actually tell you the number of server requests made. That could include the images, files associated with viewing a page, as well, as the page itself. Don’t too smug when your agency say “Your site’s had million hits this month!” A page with 1,000 little thumbnail graphics visited 1,000 times will give you a million hits alone.

Impressions
Impressions, also know as ‘unique impressions’, is a much more accurate guide for the traffic generated by a website. A unique impression will measure the number of actual people visiting the website and no matter how many “hits” a visitor registers on your website, the server will record the session as one unique visit.

Entry Pages
Obvious really. Entry pages tell you which page people are using to enter your website. Most visitors will enter via your home page, but if you have a large, content rich site, you might noticed a large percentage of traffíc originates from pages other than your home page.

Exit Page Statistics
Again, straight forward this. These stats show you where people are leaving your website. If you find a high percentage of people leave on a certain page or collection of pages, try experimenting with them to stop the flow away from you.

Bounce Rate
The bounce rate provides a percentage of people who visit your website and immediately leave. Bounce rate can be high. 50% is not uncommon, so don’t get dis-spirited if your site falls into this category. If you experience a high bounce rate, try introducing a more engaging design, less text and faster loading pages.

Average Time & Page Views Per Visit
Upon visiting your website, most visitors will merely scan the page to quickly determine whether or not it contains the information they are searching for. The average amount of time spent on your website and the average number of page views per visit allows you to determine how engaging your website’s content is and how quickly user find what they are after. The key to retaining visitors and increasing the number of page views is to have relevant and interesting information on your website. Remember - content is king!

Top Referring URLs
Top Referring URLs let’s you know where the bulk of your website’s traffíc is coming from. This is important if you’re pursuing a online advertising campaign or search engine optimization campaign because you can easily judge the campaign’s effectiveness by looking to see how many visitors each marketing method is generating. You can very quickly see how much impact those £1,000s you spend on online advertising have done for you in terms of clicks through to the site. (not much I would wager )

Top Search Words & Phrases
With this information you can gauge the effectiveness of a search engine optimization campaign, or get an idea of how your website’s keyword density should be altered to position it for the keywords and phrases that you’re targeting.

Browsers, Platforms & Screen Sizes
This information provides a really useful insight into the type of software and hardware your visitors are using. What a great way of understanding the technical status of your audience! Pay attention to the screen size and resolution in which your visitors are viewing your website. If your site has been designed for 1280 resolution and the majority are viewing your site in 1024, then you know you’re in trouble with horizontal scroll bars - urgh!