| If you're an Internet marketer, you'll want to | | | | Visitors that are coming to your site each month. |
| track your activity and gather it into statistics on | | | | If the same handful of people are hitting your site |
| a monthly basis at least. You cannot adjust your | | | | dozens of times a month that's not very |
| marketing plan or strategy if you don't know | | | | effective or profitable for you unless they are |
| what's working, what's not working, and what the | | | | buying from you every time (which they aren't). |
| devilish details are--statistics tracking can certainly | | | | Next, you want to see which other websites are |
| help you with this. | | | | referring prospects to your site. |
| There are some statistics trackers that are free | | | | If you have a load of links on other sites like |
| or very cheap, such as free hit counters; these | | | | article directories and standard listing ads, then |
| are "off server" trackers, so their main advantage | | | | you'll need to know if these sites show up on |
| is in their pricing. However, off server trackers | | | | your logs as referrers. This is a big part of your |
| don't track with perfect accuracy, and they | | | | tracking and will enable you to monitor which sites |
| operate by "cumulative tracking", which is not as | | | | (on a free or paid basis) are directing traffic to |
| useful as monthly, weekly, or Date Range | | | | your site. If the traffic from certain sites is |
| searchable tracking. | | | | substantial then you will want to keep a link on |
| There is another class of off server trackers for | | | | that site and possibly investigate if there is more |
| which you must pay a decent amount. These | | | | you can do to improve click rates on the good |
| work more accurately in exchange for the money | | | | ones. |
| you pay, of course. What's good about these is | | | | The other way tracking is useful is in the way it |
| that when you move your hosting provisions | | | | gives you more information about what people |
| they'll move with you. They also offer a more | | | | searched for to find you. You can then analyze |
| robust amount of tracking data--they aren't | | | | those keywords and optimise your web pages |
| limited to the simple cumulative tracking which tells | | | | accordingly. For example, if someone typed in |
| you nothing about the devilish details. | | | | 'Silver gemstone Jewelry' on your 'jewelry site (if |
| However, these might cost too much of your | | | | you had one) then you could go to google, type in |
| advertising budget if you are starting out or still | | | | this exact term and then see where you are |
| small, and they still may not track as accurately | | | | placed in the search results. If you are getting |
| as you desire. | | | | visitors from appearing on page three, just |
| Then there are the server side trackers. These | | | | imagine how many you could be getting if you |
| are trackers that are typically on the same | | | | were on page one for this term. You can then |
| server as your website, and as a result your | | | | optimise that page and key term by getting more |
| stats will be highly accurate, as these track all | | | | links into your site for that keyword. |
| pages from all referral companies. You can use | | | | If you are sure you have a hot product and a hot |
| these to gather stat analyses on a monthly or | | | | website but your statistics tracking shows you |
| weekly basis, and they'll give you date range | | | | don't have the best traffic frequency, it means |
| statistics, too. | | | | you need to change your marketing strategy and |
| But keep in mind that the hosting company might | | | | how you optimise the main landing pages of your |
| charge you extra for this service. Also, if you | | | | site. If your conversion rate from 'landing to sale' |
| change hosting companies you won't have access | | | | is poor, you need to write more specific content |
| to the stats you had before the switch. | | | | which is both unique and interesting to the type of |
| The first thing you want to pay attention to for | | | | visitors that will order from you. |
| your marketing purposes is the number of Unique | | | | |