To follow-up on my Startup Tips post (which is a smashing hit, according to our Google Analytics data) I will post some of our "inside secrets" about website traffic trends.
The tools
It is always important to measure how your website is doing. For example, we can find out that we got a bunch of hits to both our blog and the EagleEnvision.NeT site with the search engine key words "michelle barrett", "matt price", and "tim haak" around the May primary election. Why? Because it was a hot topic and we happened to have a link (and an individual blog post for each) on our site and blog. This proves that websites should link to relevant material. This practice leads to more web traffic.
So, your next question, I'm sure, is "well, how did you know that?". Simple answer: GOOGLE ANALYTICS. I'm no fan of Google at this point. They basically track you on the web with your searches and target ads toward you. I know... it's genius. But I would rather stay as anonymous as possible when searching for things on the web. That's why I switched search engines (Windows Live) as a little test for the month of August. Despite that, Google has made a great effort in building up their tools for webmasters. One of these tools is Google Analytics. What it basically does is tracks 5 things once you ping up a page on our blog or EagleEnvision.NeT site.
- Your IP address
- Your physical location (determined from your IP address)
- How you got to our site (search engine, direct, or referral)
- Whether or not your have been to our site before
- Your system info and what browser you are using
This data is extremely valuable when determining how your site is doing. From Google Analytics we can determine the following:
1) My last blog post ("Startup Tips") is second to the home page of our blog
2) Most of our traffic comes from the United Stats... but we also get traffic from places like Russia, India, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico and China.
3) Our most popular browser is IE, second is Firefox, then Opera, fourth is Safari and so on
We can also gather other information, but I think by using Google Analytics yourself, you will see the power and information that it can provide.
The right tools and knowing who, exactly, is looking at your site is key. A popular keyword might also trigger traffic. For example, if I were to write a blog post about Fake Steve Jobs being "unmasked", I'm sure there would be a flux in our page views because it is a "hot topic".
What NOT to do
I recommend NOT putting a hit counter on your pages. Why? Because it is irrelevant! Visitors don't care how many hits you have on your site. A website that I occasionally visit has a hit counter. Of course it is a choice to have a hit counter or not, but this particular hit counter displays more hits than it should. In fact, it displays almost 1 million hits. How do I know this is incorrect? Because the site has been up for less then a year!
1 hour a day keeps the traffic
I recommend spending at least 1 hour a day to doing something related to your website. That could be updating text, writing a blog post, checking Google Analytics, or answering email about your website. The fact of the matter is, why should I read a website if it is not current. Keeping your content current is a simple task, yet it is what keeps your website at the top of the "Search Engine charts" (so-to-speak). Not updating content is a pit fall that can be avoided by spending a hour on your site. You could spend less, but do SOMETHING everyday. It helps, really!
The right knowledge leads to Internet (yes, Internet is CAPITALIZED!) success. Knowing the secrets any "search engine marketing" company might give you is actually good advice... but you shouldn't have to pay extra for it.
Stay tuned... I will do a follow-up on how to target customers and really push your website.