Just had an interesting conversation at lunch about web site statistics for small local businesses. I thought you might find the key takeaways from that conversation interesting when you consider your own local business or small business web site traffic statistics:
1. Google Analytics and other widely used script-based analytics services typically do not capture true page load and unique visitor numbers. Why? Because if someone views your site via a smartphone or in a browser with cookies and scripts cut off, then that view won’t register.
2. The true number (for unique visitors and for page loads) is the one that your server can provide you. This is a great reason to host with a local but robust web hosting provider with whom you can have a personal relationship to give you and explain to you the true server traffic numbers for your small business. I happen to know someone who can help you with that sort of thing (link to a company we own).
3. If Google Analytics and other analytics packages aren’t capturing all the traffic numbers, what good are they? They are extremely valuable to you as a business because they give you customer and potential customer intelligence. Here are some areas of intelligence that might interest you:
a. See what content, products, etc. are creating a lot of interest among visitors overall or within a specific geographical area.
b. Test headlines and navigation titles to see which get clicked more often.
c. Measure the success and behaviors of customers during campaigns like e-mail, social media, online and off-line advertising campaigns.
d. Learn geographical data about your web customers.
e. Measure conversion rates from visitor to customer ratios.
f. Learn how long visitors stay on your site.
g. Learn what search terms are bringing folks to your site – and if they’re not relevant, change your content. If they are relevant, produce more content along those same keywords.
There is a LOT more to discuss in this conversation, but the bottom line is that for those of you who are selling advertising or competing in some way on traffic – the true server numbers are where you want to be looking. But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water – those Analytics numbers tell you things about your customers that you never would have known otherwise. Get to know that information, track it, make changes, measure some more and take action to improve your small business based on this free intelligence. Your success depends on it.
Have you taken action in your business based on information you learned from web site analytics? Why or why not?
Photo Credit: edkohler
