How often should I update it? Who is visiting the site and why? What are their favorite pages? How did they find the site? How often do they come back? Did they try to hack my site?
As you consider your next round of improvements to the site, you should take a close look at what is happening. You?ll gain a fighting chance to make the Web site make you money, grow your company or help you better compete.
Under the covers
Whenever a visitor views a page on your site, a log entry is made on the computer (known as the server) that is presenting the site. This log entry contains a set of information about the visitor, recording such things as the time of day, the page visited, the network address of the visitor, and the kind of computer used to access your Web site. Also available are interesting bits of information such as the referring site, or the site that the visitor was on when he or she clicked a link to land on your site.
Because the log contains the computer address of the viewer (known as an IP address), you can cross reference this information to other data to learn even more about that visiting address.
Each IP address, including yours, is tied to a set of databases that contain a great deal of information about that address ? things like the mailing address and phone number of the company or person that uses that IP address or the physical location of the machinery that routes that address to your site.
The server that holds your Web site logs all of these things all the time. Depending on the services offered by your particular vendor, access to this information may be quite easy. Check with your provider to learn how they handle the Web server logs and how you can get your hands on yours.
What to do with it?
The raw information in this log looks good only to a nerd. If you want to keep your sanity, and you aren?t in the nerd category, don?t look at it. You?ll need a log analyzer. Many Web site hosting vendors offer this as a part of their service. If they do not, you can still obtain the raw logs, and use an off-the-shelf analyzer program to make them meaningful to you. Also, most IT consulting firms offer log-analysis as a standard part of their package of services.
After the analysis program is finished grinding the data, you can examine many attributes of your visitors to make decisions about how to budget time and money on your site to better meet your goals. Things like these:
1. How many of my visitors are existing customers?If most of your viewers are existing customers there is a very clear answer to the question, ?What should I do with my Web site?? The answer is, ?Communicate clearly and regularly with your customers.?
You can determine which pages they visit most often. Is it the ?Contact Us? page? Then make it easier for them to quickly find a way to get a hold of you. They might be looking to buy something!
Is it your product catalog page? What more could you want? How about sending them regular e-mails every time you add or change your catalog? Get them to visit that wonderful place-to-buy-things even more often.
2. How many of my visitors are competitors?Yup, competitors ? visiting that product catalog page and grabbing those really nice images of your latest widget so they can spiff up their own Web site and undercut your price. If you see that your competitors represent a significant portion of the visits, you may want to reconsider the kinds of things that you leave lying about on that site. You don?t want to shortchange the customers and prospects, but you also don?t want to give your competitor a free leg-up.
3. What is the most common referrer for my Web site?
The referrer is the site that the visitor was on when he or she clicked a link to head over to your site. For people who are regular viewers, there may be no referring site ? they have you listed in their Favorites (and that?s a gooood thing) or they enter the Web address directly.
But many visitors found you on a search site, through an online ad, or from another referring site such as an association listing site. You want to do two things: Determine the most common referrer and come up with ways to make sure people can always find you there, and learn why the other referring sites don?t send people your way often enough ? and fix it.4. How often do visitors return to the site?
Although this can sometimes be difficult to determine, it is one of the most valuable pieces of information you can get. If many of your visitors are returning again and again, they have found something of significant value on your site.
Consider adding a user registration feature to your site. Allow the frequent viewers to register their contact information, then deliver them a little extra (special newsletter, tips, special online-only sales). They visit often ? you want them to visit even more, and more, and more.
This is a short list of some of the things you can get from a detailed look at your Web site log. If you are unfamiliar with these technologies (or, more likely, too busy to take the time to figure it out) contact either your hosting vendor or a reputable IT consulting firm. Get this log analysis done and continue to do it on a regular basis, the sooner the better. What opportunities are waiting just around that analysis bend?
But now I?m worried!
Near the beginning of this article you will recall that I wrote, ?Each IP address, including yours, is tied to a set of databases that contain a great deal of information about that address.? Maybe that is starting to bother you, especially as you?ve learned what the owners of Web sites can learn about their visitors.
As soon as you either post your own Web site or visit another, you need to worry about information security. But that is another story. Stay tuned for the June issue of Upsize, where I?ll discuss what to do in Web Sites II.
contact Kirk Hoaglund is CEO and managing partner of Clientek, an information technology consulting firm in Minneapolis: 612.379.1440, ext. 101; kirk.hoaglund@clientek.com; www.clientek.com
