If you are a website owner or write a blog, probably you are curious to know who has visited your site or blog, where are those visitors coming from, what keywords and search engines they used to reach your site, etc. If your website is business oriented you will need this statistical information to help you take the right decisions.



When your website receives new visits, do you know what are they doing? Are your potential customers abandoning your site just seconds after their arrival? If you are confused because you don't know what your visitors are doing, or why, then how could you create a good strategy to offer your visitors a better experience on your website?

The key is not getting lost in a mountain of numbers, but really focusing on the few statistics that are important to your business. The concept is simple: keeping users engaged will help to retain visitors, increase conversion rates, and consistently help deliver more revenue.

There are many companies that offer web site and blog statistics services on the Internet. Some of them are free, some of them are paid. Some of them are very simple and provide you with minimal information, some of them provide in depth information about your website or blog visitors.

What is important is to identify your real needs, and find a service that satisfy all of them, or at least the most important ones. Don't pay for services you don't need or services you can find elsewhere for free.

Some features you may need are:

· Unique visitors and pageloads: More pageloads/visitor probably means your visits are staying longer visiting numerous pages within your website, but also may mean they are not able to find what they are looking for, and they may end dissatisfied.

· Referring URL's: Know what other web sites are driving traffic to your website or blog.

· Search engine and keywords used.

· Popular pages: what are the most visited pages on your web site, and which ones nobody sees.

· Entry and exit pages.

· Visitor length.

· Most active countries.

· Visitor browser, screen resolution, operating system, etc.

Having all these web site statistics will let you know who is visiting your site or blog, what web pages are the most popular and also the ones that are very rarely used. You will learn which search engines are sending you traffic, and what keywords they are using to find your web site. They can even tell you what browser and screen resolution your visitors are using.

Your website statistics are a very useful asset in your business. Tracking and analyzing your site stats allows you to have a better idea of what kind of modifications your website needs. Observing your visitor's behavior will help you address the issues they are having with your website.

For example, if they don't know where to go, simplify their path through your web site. And, if they are too quick to abandon, give them a reason to stay online by offering a free product/download or competitive pricing on your latest product(s).