Understanding Web Analytics- What You Should Know

Web analytics are an important tool for anyone with an online business presence. It is essential to know where your traffic is coming from and what they are looking at. Read on and discover how to put web analytics to work for you.

Then most difficult aspect of marketing a new product or web site is to find enough people that are interested in it so that they are ready to buy. Mastering Google AdWords will enable you to drive traffic to your web site and start making sales immediately. You can create a Google AdWord campaign in a matter of minutes and be making sales within 24 hours.

So you've launched your website and you're happy with the content, the design, and with its placement in cyberspace. Now, it's time to track your traffic. How many people visit your site each month? Where are they coming from? What do you need to know to be an informed analyzer so you can beef up your site traffic? And what tools can help you along the way? Ladies and gentlemen, sit back, relax, and enjoy the following answers to all these questions.

Why You Should Know Your Dinner Guests

Knowing where your visitors are coming from and knowing where they go on your site are the two most important pieces of acquisition arsenal you can obtain. This is because on one hand, knowing where people are coming from will help you focus your offsite advertising and marketing plans. On the other hand, and knowing how visitors navigate within your site will help you gauge what pages work and which ones need to be revamped. Maybe you have important content that would be most appealing to your visitors but it is difficult to get to due to poor design choices and hence no one is going to that page. You can use metrics to figure out what pages are most popular. That is the best way to understand what type of content and design works and will guide the future development plans for your site. The main goal is to reduce what are know as the dreaded "bottlenecks," pages of your site where visitors exit before they reach your purchase or sign up page.

Know the Ingredients

First, acquaint or reacquaint yourself- as the case may be- with the terminology so that you know what you are actually analyzing. If you know that unique visits is distinct from unique visitors, for instance, you will have a better grasp of what figures to use for reporting purposes, setting advertising rates, and a host of other options specific to your company's needs. Learn what an entry point means and where people travel to once on your site. Some tools, like Webalizer, allow you to see what URL people visited before coming to your site. This is an excellent way to learn more about your audience and perhaps point you towards potential advertising or link exchange opportunities.

Know the Recipe

Analytics tools can be tricky. The most important research you can do is to find out how each metrics system calculates its findings. For instance, the company I work for employs several reporting tools to track traffic to the site. When we first started using these tools, we were very confused. Google Analytics told us a very different figure for unique visitors than Webalizer did. In fact, Google's figures were just about half that of Webalizer! After further investigation, we learned that Webalizer was picking up on traffic behind our paywall where Google was unable to track. Some worthy reporting tools that you should check out include AWstats and WWWstats. AWstats presents their data in an easy-to-digest format and tells us things like usage by the hour and a breakdown of what countries our visitors are from. WWWstats presents the data in a pretty raw format, but allows you to track things like transfers by client domain and transfers by URL or section. Both of these services provide fairly reliable information.

Google Analytics is an extensive - and free! - program that can help you measure just about anything on your site. This includes conversion tracking, which allows you to follow a visitor from the point of entry on your site to each subsequent page that he/she visits. This is an outstanding way of gauging your site's navigability index and where work needs to be done to maximize the user experience (and attract more traffic to places on the site where you want visitors most). You can also track how your keywords are performing on the major search engines. Google's reporting tools, though respectable, can be confusing to use. It is not entirely clear how to access certain tools and, although they offer video instruction for some of their services, if you have specific problems or questions, an actual customer service person is difficult to nearly impossible to contact.

Crazyegg.com is another lesser known tool for tracking your traffic. Though there is a fee to participate, you can try their services for free. They offer a full service program for setting up, deploying and tracking tests, advice on how to properly track click-throughs, live reports, and easy-to-read results. Hey, you have nothing to lose so it's worth trying a free test. Be sure to also check out these other good sites that offer reporting and analysis for your traffic: Clicktracks.com, Fireclick.com, NetTracker.com, and WedTrends.com.

Taste the Results

Perhaps the best way to gauge your traffic more accurately is to look at several different reporting tools and make an educated guess. More likely than not, the actual number of visitors to your site- much like the truth between the claims made of two feuding parties- will lie somewhere in between.

Remember, the web is still in its infancy in many ways and there is no one, overarching, epistemologically respectable reporting tool currently available that beats out all the rest. The existing tools may change as our understanding of the web becomes more comprehensible or if sites become standardized or regulated in some way. But for now, use the tools I've recommended coupled with your best judgment and you will be on your way to making your site the best it can be.

By mastering Google Adwords Ads, you can confidently expand your marketing campaign to include other PPC advertising companies ie Overture, FindWhat and also try offline advertising.

About the author:

Download a Free AdTracking Guide and to learn how Adtrackz will improve your http://www.squidoo.com/AdTrackZ-Review/. Read my AdTrackz Review.

Watch Your Search Engine Positions

A great article dealing with search engines and the important role that they play for any online venture.

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions - have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term marketing campaign.

About the Author:

Tyler Ellison is a successful entrepreneur who teaches free traffic hits secrets and internet video marketing tricks.

Internet Marketing - Tips, Tools, Tactics and Techniques

I cannot stress the importance of setting up an effective marketing campaign in regards to any online business venture. Whether you are an affiliate-based seller or run a large scale web retail site, marketing your business is essential and could determine whether or not you succeed in your online venture.

Street Smart Internet Marketing - Tips, Tools, Tactics & Techniques to Market Your Product, Service, Business or Ideas Onlineis a great book that shows some of the more successful strategies that internet marketers use today. From the review:

In his new book, Justin Michie reveals a rare compilation of the powerful strategies and techniques used by many of the top internet marketers to make a fortune on the internet.

If you have a product, service or idea that you want to turn into a cash generating system, the internet is full of effective, affordable, low-risk online marketing techniques for small business owners. In a simplified, user friendly format this how-to book will clearly guide you through the complete development of your own unique online marketing strategy.

It's full of practical ideas on reaching new customers and increasing sales, including fascinating strategies to drive qualified traffic to virtually any website. Learn from the real-world examples and recommendations what works and what doesn't, so you can avoid the common errors and pitfalls that many people make on the internet.

Learn how to:

• Drive tons of targeted traffic to your website for free

• Search engine optimize your website

• Build an email list in days, not months or years

• Create a high quality information product in your spare time

• Use the secrets of eBay to generate sales, leads and traffic

• Sell your product, service or idea online, successfully

If you are serious about generating online income, marketing should be one of your top concerns.

Know Your Target Audience

It is vital for anyone marketing a product or service to know exactly who they intend to market to. Read on for some great tips about knowing your target audience.

Do you know who your target audience is? If you don’t know, you are not maximizing your advertising and/or marketing efforts.

A marketing strategy blends the elements of the marketing mix, also known as the four P’s (product, price, placement, promotion). The promotion element involves communication, and one type of communication is advertising. The advertising strategy combines the elements of a creative mix. This mix includes the target audience, product concept, communications media, and the advertising message.

In order to create an effective advertising message, it is important to know who your target audience is. The target audience includes the end-user, the person who makes the purchase, and the one who influences the purchasing decision. For instance, McDonald’s target audience is made up of children and their parents. The children influences their parent’s purchasing decision. Therefore, McDonald’s advertising message is directed toward the children, as well as their parents.

The process of determining who your target audience is begins with segmenting the consumer market; finding the right niche. This process begins with identifying groups of people with certain shared characteristics within a broad market. The categories of characteristics are geographic, demographic, behavioristic, and psychographic. Then combine these groups into larger market segments according to their mutual interest in the product’s utility or benefit. From these segments, choose your target market. Your target audience includes your target market. The target market in the previous McDonald’s example is the person(s) who makes the purchase. Target audience is larger than the target market.

Segmenting the business market is just as complex as segmenting the consumer market. Business markets are identified by using many of the same variables used to identify consumer markets. Additional variables used are business purchasing procedures, SIC Code, or by market concentration.

The product/service market consists of all types of consumers; however, groups of consumers have similar needs and wants. Begin with market research; identify your groups with shared characteristics; combine these groups into larger markets; and select your target audience which includes your target market. Before you create an effective advertising message, it is important to know who you are talking to. Do you know who your target audience is?

About the Author

Rita J. Cartwright is a Virtual Assistant and owner of RJ’s Word Processing Services. She received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Marketing from Arizona State University. More information about Rita and her company can be found at http://www.rjswordprocessing.com