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Home > Resources > Internet Marketing 101
 Internet Marketing - Measuring Results with Web Metrics
How Does Your Internet Marketing Measure Up?
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... about social bookmarking ]
 Do you REALLY know how your Web site is performing? Do you really know where your Web site visitors are coming from? What search engines are people using? What keywords are they using to find you? What is your "Return on Investment" on your pay-per-click campaigns
It's a lot easier to measure your Web site's success if you know the score. The good news is that there are tools that can help you identify what is working and what isn't with your site.
How and what do you need to measure?
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 What to measure or track? |
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QUANTITY
Track the quantity of visitors to your site. I pay attention to the following qualitative results.
Unique visits: A single user that has not visited your website before, based on hostname or numerical IP address.
Average time of site: How long do visitors spend on your site?
Average page views per visitor: How many pages did your visitors view per visit?
Pages with Most Visitors: What pages are getting traffic and what pages aren't?
Geographic Origin: What continent, country or state are visitors coming
from?
Overview
Research indicates that most visitors typically won't get any further than your front page. You typically have 5 to 10 seconds to convince your visitors to continue viewing your Web site. The longer people stay on your site and the more pages they view, the better chance you have to achieve your objectives... whether that's delivering good and relevant information, building a relationship with e-mail subscription or other tactic, or selling them something directly on-line or over the phone.
Tracking software allows you to measure whether your Web site updates and marketing efforts are increasing visits and average time visitors spend at your site.
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REFERRALS
What search engines, pay-per-click / ad campaigns or Web sites are driving traffic to your Web site?Search engines & Directories: Google, MSN and Yahoo are the world's most popular search engines. Are they driving traffic to your Web site?
Pay-per-Click Campaigns: We use various tools to track "return on investment" for paid marketing initiatives.
E-mail, Banners, Ad Campaigns: What marketing initiatives are working and what aren't?
Overview
Each referrer can have unique visitor behaviour. For example, the keywords, length of time visited, page views per visit, pages visited, etc can be quite different for visitors referred from Google vs. Yahoo. Building, maintaining and marketing your Web site with this information in mind is a powerful tool to increasing effectiveness.
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VISITOR BEHAVIOUR
What traffic patterns do visitors use to wind their way through your Web site? Are there patterns that you can identify in regards to the path visitors use to navigate your site?Entry and Exit pages: What pages do visitors enter and exit your Web site.
Next page: Where do visitors go next?
Traffic Paths: What routes are visitors using to get to your e-commerce section, newsletter subscribe page, or reservations section?
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SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS
Where do you rank for specific keywords or key phrases with various search engines or directories?
Robot Traffic: Search engines use "robots" (software that collects data on your Web site) to determine how and where your Web site gets ranked. Knowing if and when search engines are indexing your Web site can be extremely helpful.
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| Having the ability to track traffic effectively allows you to measure success or lack of it - whether you use this information to build, market or maintain your Internet presence. |
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 What to do with these results? |
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Ahhh... here's the art and science of Web marketing. Good search engine marketers can take this information and tweak your Web site and plan / implement a marketing program using good data. The short answer to this question is:
- Know the fundamentals of search engine marketing.
- Build and maintain your site using best practices. Reading other articles in this series is a good review.
- Monitor the results using tactics noted above.
- Maintain or tweak your site, and continue to monitor the results again.
- Keep abreast of events and changes in the world of search engine marketing.
- Go with what works and stay away from what doesn't.
- Consult a proven Web marketing firm - like Custom Fit Online Solutions - for best results!
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Feel free to contact us to arrange a FREE no-hassle consultation or more information about these tactics. We'll help you plan a custom-built Web marketing program that builds Web site credibility, relationships and revenues!
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WHITE PAPER - How to Choose the Right Search Marketing Consultant
3 Ways to Supercharge Your Website Results
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Web Metrics
How do you track your Web site's results?