Your website traffic statistics can be an invaluable aid to you for a number of different reasons. But before you can analyze and make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data these statistics provide.

Most web hosts will provide you with basic web traffic information. You then have to interpret and make pertinent use of these. However, the data you receive from your web host can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to make use of these data and apply it to your particular business and website. Start by examining the most basic data. These basics are the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

This data is the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic to your site that you see, the better. You can assume your website is doing well with increased numbers, but this may be an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website. This will give you a more accurate gauge of the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is really effective, or targeted quality traffic to your site. "Hits" simply means the number of requests received by the server for pages from our site. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page served up to a visitor, you will get an idea of how overblown this concept can be. For example, if your homepage has 10 graphics on it, your server records this as 10 hits. In reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your website. As you can see, hits are not useful at all for analyzing your website traffic.

The more unique visitors that come to your website, the more accurate the interpretation of the data will become. The greater the traffic to your website, the more precise the analysis will be of the overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more distorted the analysis.

The aim is to use your web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for you and your visitors. One way to determine how your website is performing is to find out how long, on average, your visitors spend on your site and each of the pages. If the time spent is relatively brief, this usually indicates an underlying problem! The challenge is to figure out what that problem is and correct it.

It could be that your keywords are directing less targeted visitors to your website, or maybe your graphics are confusing or intimidating, thus causing your visitor to exit rapidly. Use this knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems. After you fix those problems, continue to use the "time spent" by visitors as a gauge of how effective your fix has been. If need be, correct more problems and see if visitors remain longer.

Also, web traffic statistics can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a pertinent page that you believe is highly important to your website theme, but your visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs your attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable, keyword based, or enticing. You could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information provided on the page. Graphics and images that are pertinent to the subject and content of the page retain the visitor's attention longer and often make them focus on your content. Graphics should supplement, not detract from the content and theme of the page.

On the other hand, if you notice that visitors are spending more time on pages that you feel are less important, you might consider moving some of your monetizing efforts and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, website statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and your visitor's habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful internet website and your marketing campaigns.

You should plan your website to direct visitors through the site in the order you feel they should move. You undoubtedly will have exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you expect your visitors to exit rapidly. But, not every visitor is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for. Your website statistics may show you a number of different exit pages and this is considered normal unless you notice a exit trend focusing on a particular page that is not intended by you as an exit page. When you find that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you should closely examine that particular page to determine what the problem is. Once you pinpoint a potential weakness on that page, make minor modifications in the content or graphics that may have a significant impact on keeping visitors moving through your site, instead of exiting on the wrong page.

Once you have analyzed your visitor statistics and habits, it's time to turn to your keywords and keyword phrases. Take note if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your website. The more targeted your visitor, the more you can find a way to make them take action. This means that if they find what they are looking for on your site, the more chance that they will fill out your contact form or make a purchase. These are the valuable keywords. You might think about making a new page that is targeted specifically to that keyword or phrase.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are misdirected to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands drastic adjustment. Keywords are vital for bringing quality, targeted visitors to your site who are ready and eager to do business with you. Close scrutiny of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site should give you a vital understanding of your visitor's needs and motivations.

As a final thought, if you notice that visitors are finding your website by typing in your company name, shout a three cheers and break open the champagne! This means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition. This is a sure sign of internet success.