Finding the most accurate data is easy. The best stats come directly from web hosting companies. This source, however, often provides more information than many can digest right away. The most important numbers to consider at first are the traffic stats that show on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

The numbers that come from a web hosting company are generally the most accurate in regard to a site's activity levels. Take care not to read too much into these numbers, however. It is important to dig a little deeper. Although it might seem like the more visitors on a site, the better, this isn't always the case. It's important to peel back a layer or two to find out what visitors do once they get on a site. This is the true measure of a site's effectiveness.

A lot of people confuse the actual hits with the quality of traffic. In reality, hits just describe the number of requests for information a server gets. This can break down to nothing more than the number of images on a page. If, for example, you have 5 images on a page, a single visit can register as five hits. Considering this, hits alone aren't the only thing to pay attention to in analyzing traffic.

These numbers do tend to become a little more accurate with more traffic. The lower this traffic number is, the more likely the analysis will be skewed.

The real trick is to take the traffic stats and use them to figure out how effective is site is for visitors. One of the biggest numbers to pay attention to for this is the length of time visitors stay on your site. If their stays are short, you might have a big problem.

In some cases, the problem turns out to be nothing more earth shattering than bad keywords drawing in the wrong traffic. In other cases, it could be the visual design of the site turning off visitors. Should your site be difficult to navigate or hard on the eyes, people might turn away fast. If you make the decision to tweak things to fix these issues, study the numbers again to see if the tweaks worked.

Stats can also be helpful to see if sections of a site work like you want them to. Should visitors navigate too quickly away from a page you think is important, you might need to improve the page or its incoming links. This works in the opposite, too. If a page that isn't that important is getting more attention than it deserves, consider moving better content to it since visitors seem to visit there naturally.

Stats are important for all sites, but they can be especially useful tools for those who want to make their pages work more effectively for making more money from all of your pages. Using stats to find out what is wrong or right with a site can be incredibly helpful.

Another place these stats can be important is in regard to exit pages. While you might have designated exit pages, such as order forms, other pages might show up on stats as exit points. These are normal to an extent. If a page that isn't meant to be an exit point shows up too much as one, it might be time to tweak it. Look for weaknesses and try to improve them.

After you've looked at visitor stats, then consider the keywords. Look at the reports to see which keywords work and actually bring in traffic. If visitors are coming in on keywords important to your site, you're on the right track. If a particular keyword brings in those visitors who actually do what you want them to, that keyword is very important.

Should a lot of visitors arrive by way of weak keywords that are not part of the theme, it is time to get rid of these keywords on your site. Since these visitors are not likely to buy or act because the theme doesn't fit your need, focusing efforts on these keywords can be a waste of time.

Stats do help webmasters gauge their site's effectiveness. They can even be used to help one see what areas can be improved on. Read them with care to learn how to best optimize the entire website.