May/090
SEO 10 Step Run-Down - Step 8 - Stats
After the initial grind work of researching keywords, tested them with PPC for conversions, analyzing your competitors, optimizing your site, building your links and using social media to promote your cool tools, it’s time to reflect.
Hopefully at this point, you’ve watched your website crawl up the rankings and finally hit the sweet spot - you’re on the first page of Google or better yet - you’re above the fold on Google! Time to kick back and watch the money pour in from whatever goods or services you’re providing.
Unfortunately, that’s not true… Now’s when the work REALLY begins. Now don’t get me wrong, you’ve gone through a lot to get here and you’ve definitely put in your hours - you do deserve to take a bit of time off from dealing with your site before you head into the final three stages . This couple weeks will give you time to collect some baseline data for what we’re going to discuss here …
Improving Site Efficiency and Overall Health
At this point, your website is probably performing for you, generating sales leads, perhaps even help increase revenue. This is where so many businesses drop the ball… They get comfortable.
Now is the perfect time to analyze visitor data, and see exactly what’s happening with your visitors. Where are they coming from? How long are they staying, and which pages are they visiting. These answers will help you further improve your website, thus making it even more profitable.
We suggest Google Analytics. It provides in-depth information and statistics regarding your website’s visitor activity.
The stats are collected and seen by Google and provided to you in a fairly simple-to-read format complete with the ability to customize a lot of the data and set targets so you can track specifically who is landing on specific pages (such as you’re “thank you” page). The data in which Google Analytics is extremely favorable.
For example: If the average visitor to your site only stays for 30 seconds and visits 1.5 pages… what do you think that means?
I would take that to mean that your website isn’t providing the visitor with the most relevant information at their fingertips. Adjusting content to make it more favorable to the visitor will not only help you keep them on your website longer, they will browse more pages… Ultimately this leads to more sales.
I could go on all day about website stats and what they should mean to you, but who’s got that kind of time.
If you’re one of those types who’s never looked at their stats, or perhaps doesn’t have access to them… It’s time to start. Seriously.