Every minute of every day, Web servers tirelessly write logs detailing all the requests that they have processed. These log files are so huge and user-unfriendly that special programs have been created to allow you to decipher and make sense of the recorded information. The generic name for such a program is a ”statistics package”. If you have a website and you are not using a stats package to examine this information, you may want to read on.
Measure the success of your site
Your website is a marketing tool and, just like any other marketing initiative, you will want to measure its success and maximise the return on your outlay. Let’s assume that right now you are measuring the success of your website by noting how many people subscribe to your mailing list or fill in a feedback form. If you have e-commerce capabilities, perhaps an order form or a shopping cart, you could even be tallying up your sales at the end of the month.
All of these measures are worthwhile and they will accurately report on the activity on your site. But what they won’t tell you are things like, how many people backed out of sending you a feedback form or completing an order. Or how long they stayed on your site and when they lost interest. Did they click on a link only to get an error page?
Use statistics packages for useability surveys
Statistics programs will give you this information and much more. In effect these programs are conducting continuous usability surveys with added features including visitor demographics and progress reports on marketing and search engine initiatives.
Because this information is so up to date and so easy to measure you can make small changes to your site and immediately see the effects. For example, earlier this year we noticed that there were lots of people looking at the prices on our website and making the first step in the purchasing process but then backing out. We looked carefully at our forms and those of our competitors. It didn”t take us long to decide to change the order of the forms and sales increased immediately.
Maintain your website to avoid dead links
Updating and maintaining your website regularly is important to keep your customers coming back. But unless you manage your updates carefully you could be creating dead links. These dead links will produce a 404 error – ”page not found”. They can create a negative impression of your organisation and should be eliminated where possible. Keeping an eye on your stats will help you to maintain your links.
Limitations to statistical packages
Like everything, stats packages have their limitations and there are a few things you need to watch out for. Firstly, because of the sheer volume of information being processed, you will probably only get information on the 10 or 20 most popular pages, or the 10 or 20 most popular referring websites. If the stats were to do otherwise they would be as useful as the raw log files! And although a stats program can tell you generally where your customers live, it cannot tell you their exact address, nor can it tell you their email addresses.
Market leaders in stats packages
Web Trends and Live Stats are the two market leaders in the field. Your Web hosting company will probably be able to offer you one of these packages. Ideally you will be able to have summaries of the stats emailed to you once a day, week or month. If not, ask to have your log files sent to you. You can then run your preferred stats package over the logs yourself.
Tailor your site to the needs of the target market
In the course of my work I see thousands of websites. I know that some are hugely successful and I see others flounder. The defining difference is the time spent on actively marketing and honing the site to the needs of the target market. A good way to do that is to watch over someone’s shoulder while they surf your site.
One more thing – contrary to popular belief, Internet success can take some time so don’t set unrealistic expectations. A little often, is better than a lot once.
