It used to be a standard practice to see a website counter along the bottom of a website. While it would show you how many website visits your site had received, it wasn’t able to tell you what pages were visited, how long visitors stayed, what they clicked on, what pages they left the site on, etc.
If you are still relying on information that a website counter provides, you are missing out on much more important information that a free website analytic program will provide.
Website Analytics is the collection and analysis of website information. Information, such as the most visited pages on your website, is collected by an analytics program that is connected to your website and the information it provides can help you improve your website overtime.
If you have a content management system through a web designer, you may also have the ability to check and monitor your website statistics. If you are not sure if you have a way of tracking statistics, ask your website designer.
If you don’t have currently have an analytics program or the program you are running is not giving you as much information as you would like, Google Analytics is one of the top programs available – and it is free!
So, why should you monitor website analytics? Analytics can show you:
- What pages on your website are the most often visited – meaning these pages being found in searches the most.
- How visitors are finding you – did they type in your website domain, have they bookmarked the site, did they come across your website through another website (i.e. novascotia.com) or did they find you in a search on a search engine. It will even tell you the search engine country (i.e. www.google.uk).
- What page do your website visitors most often leave your website on – an indication that there is work needed on that page (or pages)!
For more information on how analytics can help you focus your website efforts, please contact me at (902) 496-7481 / 1-800-948-4267 or email michelle_sears@tians.org.
