Analyzing Your Traffic

Traffic analysis for your web site is important in order to mainly determine what kind of user base you have. For instance, where the majority of users are located, the browser they use, the time they spend on your site, and other aspects. Once you are aware of those aspects you can better direct your content, or change it in relation to the statistics that you have gathered.

There are some available tools in order to monitor your traffic, some of which are free and naturally offer less.

There are various things you can monitor, depending on service. Each offers a specific use in determining how to change, or better your business site. For instance:

Volume of traffic per day – This will give you an idea of your web site’s day to day activity. You can add new content on specific days, for instance, when you will know that traffic is at the highest. This entirely depends on what kind of site you have, i.e. a work-related site which attracts most vistors during week-days.

Repeated visitors stats – This helps you to determine whether your users actually like your site, and therefore how you can improve content.

Type of Browser/Platform – By knowing this information, you optimize your site for the most used browsers which visit. Although your site should be cross-compatible anyway, it might be an idea to add browser specific content or information pertaining to these statistics.

Most used search engine – Some services tell you when users have gained access to your site through a search engine. This means that your site will be keyword-optimized for that particular search engine, hence better targetting your marketing strategy.

Here are some free web traffic tools, which offer most of the monitoring aspects discussed above. They are easy to integrate within your site, although some may require advertisments to be displayed, as part of the code.

Google Analytics – A free service offered by Google which gathers detailed statistics about your site. It can track visitors from referrers, search engines included, the length of visits, geographical locations and many more. Although primarly aimed at marketers rather than webmasters, it can be used nonetheless.

StatCounter – A useful and feature rich web analysis tool, which can be upgraded should you wish to do so. Features include, a hit counter for displaying how many hits a site has received (not unique visitors), a world map to find what geographical area attracts the most visitors and a recent-pageload activity counter.

Bravenet – A popular choice when looking for free analysis tools. Bravenet includes the usual tools (hit counter, location etc..) and they also offer a Traffic Exchange feature. You can increase your traffic by displaying a window behind the page the user requested. Although it is described as ‘unobtrusive’, it may be discarded by some webmasters in favour of better solutions.