Q. How can I tell how much traffic my site is getting?

A. Most web hosting services provide site logs or stats with their service. If your hosting service does not provide logs there are third party tracking services available. Some are free others charge anywhere from a nominal fee to a hefty fee.

At a minimum you should know :

• # of visitors to a page

• # of sales

• Conversion rate (# of sales/ # of visitors)

• Value/visitor (profit of slaes/# of visitors)

Additional information you should track on a regular basis:

• Visitors/day

• Visitors/month

• Top pages

• Enter/Exit pages

• Browsers

• OS

• Referrals/Search Engines

• Search Phrases

Some tracking services allow you to export the data to Word or Excel. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track the desired information for the year. Here is a sample of the format I use:

I set up a separate worksheet for each topic above and track each for the year. This way I can compare how the site is performing. If I notice that traffic is decreasing, I can try to find out what might be the cause.

If a newsletter or special was offered I can find out how much traffic was received or how successful the special offer was.

By tracking site information I can know what pages visitors are viewing. If I am advertising on another web site I can find out if I am receiving traffic from that site and I can make a more informed decision as to whether the advertising is worth the cost.

Your stats will tell you which sites and search engines are referring traffic. You can find out what search terms people are using to find your site. This is valuable information if you are doing a search engine campaign. You can find out if your search engine traffic is increasing or decreasing. You can also tell at a glance if the terms used to find your site are targeted or not. You may find that you need to make some changes in your web site content in order to achieve your desired results.

Your site stats provide you with valuable information. If you don't know how to access your site stats, contact your hosting service. If site stats are not available with your hosting service or if your stats do not provide the above information I suggest TheCounter.com.