In the world of internet marketing, there is a strong relationship between website effectiveness and web site traffic. Achieving an effective website requires an investment in time and capital. Creating an effective site starts with the design of the structure and content making it attractive and appealing. Additional outlays in advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) are needed to attract attention. The process does not stop there. It is imperative to actually track the website traffic to know the traffic source and to know the pages that are getting the most attention. This information provides insights on changes needed in order to improve website effectiveness. The remainder of this article will identify tools available to track your website traffic in order that you can make the proper changes to get the desired results.
Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that can be installed on your website and can effectively track your website traffic. It is a comprehensive tool that provides information about the popularity of the indivdual pages of your website and about the ads that have been clicked to arrive at your website. It also provides information about the search engines that are most used to arrive at your website and information about the geographic locations from which the inquiries came. Thus, investing in only productive search engines, using effective keywords while opting for SEO, and implementing the proper advertising strategy is made possible with the use of tracking. It also gives information about the potential advertisers who may want to advertise on your website.
Google Analytics can be installed very easily through a Gmail account by going to http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html and signing up for Google Analytics. After filling out the form, a program code is assigned. This code is to be copied and pasted below the content (code) of each page on your website that needs to be tracked. The status of tracking can be checked and the status report can be made available to as many users as you want. Also the extent of the reports made available to each user can be modified to suit the requirement. For this to happen, "Access Manager" in "Analytics Settings" must be set up. There is an option "Filter Manager" available that can be used to include or exclude visits from the reports.
Alexa is another tool that has many similar features. This is also free and does not even need to be installed. One has to enter the URL of your website on http://alexa.com in the "Search" section. It provides data regarding the traffic on the website, distribution of visitors, location-related information and other aspects that help in making decisions. It also gives comparative data as against the websites competitors. In the "Developer's Corner", by clicking on "Link Report" and entering an email address, the reports are delivered directly to this address. There is a facility that enables pasting of a thumbnail on your website. This gives dynamically restructured information pertaining to your website and its ranking.
A new generation tool designed to improve response to your marketing message is an internet broadcast. This tool also includes a tracking feature to enhance your marketing results. This marketing tool is designed to Increase Web Site Traffic. To see an example of an internet broadcast, visit: http://www.oakridgemn.com .
To learn more about how Increased On-Line Traffic works hand-in-hand with target marketing, click Increased On-Line Traffic. .
In summary, there are a number of tools you can use to track your website traffic. This tracking data will provide insights that will enable you to optimize your marketing strategy to improve your marketing results.
Neena Dayal is a marketing professional and
writer for M. A. Richards & Company. She has
experience as a journalist, feature writer,
copywriter, and editor for print publications.
Neena also worked as a script writer for
documentary films and as a researcher and content
developer for websites. She has an MBA in
marketing. Her MBA research project was titled "
Effectiveness of Internet Advertising".
