Many types of web analytics software are available, some of them free. Those which are provided by hosting companies are usually quite basic, and it can be worth trying something like Google Analytics, which has more features, instead. The most popular software currently tends to work using JavaScript and such programs are extremely customisable. One drawback is that, as search crawlers do not read JavaScript, their activity on one’s website cannot be monitored. However, this is outweighed by the benefits of being able to tweak the analytics programs to suit one’s aims.

One extremely handy aspect of web analytics software is that one can usually create a number of dashboards displaying relevant results, and these can be customised so that any member of a company wishing to keep an eye on progress can have her own personalised set of information.

It is essential to establish a baseline for analytics before search engine optimization efforts begin. Otherwise, there is no way of knowing whether any subsequent changes are actually improvements. Once the baseline has been set for each factor being worked upon, monitoring can begin and strategies be altered accordingly.

Analytics results commonly include visitor numbers, the search phrases which brought them to the site, and the number of ‘conversions’. A conversion refers to a desired action being completed, such as buying a product or subscribing to a newsletter. Conversions can be linked to the search terms used by customers when they first arrived at the site, in order to find out what phrases were used by those visitors who actually bought products.

An analytics program can be set up to carry out what is known as ‘action tracking’, where events such as placing an item in a shopping cart will be recorded. As well as giving information about conversion rates, this can also be helpful in deciphering why visitors might not follow through with certain actions. Perhaps shopping carts are being abandoned at a specific point and something needs to be improved.

Combining web analytics and SEO involves a constant process of setting goals, analysing results and going back to make alterations to the initial strategy. However, it is vital that results are interpreted with care. Placing too much emphasis on figures obtained from a small sample size is usually unwise, and there is also the problem of bias if results are taken out of context.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we are experienced in the use of web analytics and can monitor the progress of your website.

One of the best tracking software out there is Google Analytics. There are numerous advantages to using Google Analytics over a custom tracking software installed on your webhost. Aside from being free, Google Analytics is powerful, flexible and very easy to install.

The argument for tracking software

Why exactly do you need tracking software? There are many search engine optimization companies that scoff at the value of the statistics tracking software provides, saying that such statistics do not give the whole picture and that their services are proven time and again.

You need tracking software to enable you to see what exactly what your website visitors are doing on your site. For example:

- Are they simply clicking around trying to explore your site or did they have a specific location they go to? If your visitors are likely to explore your site, you might need to place site breadcrumbs and other navigational aids to help your visitors around. On the other hand, your site might be too cluttered and the fact that your visitors need to click around means they’re lost.

- Are they using your newly installed and dynamic menubar to access pages deep in your site hierarchy or do they just use a search function? Your new menubar might be aesthetically pleasing and the cutting edge in technology but unless you have evidence that it is actually being used, it would be hard to make a business case of it (or pay your web developer for installing it). On the other hand, if visitors prefer using search over menu navigation, it may be a sign that you need better categorization of your site.

- Do they visit a particular section of your site more often than the others? In this case, you might like to take advantage of that natural funnel to drive home your message and perhaps persuade your visitors to become customers. On the other hand, this might also mean that the rest of your site is not achieving the exposure it needs to become cost-effective; either you need to link more to these sections or just strip them off entirely and merge their content to other sections.

However in terms of search engine optimisation, you need tracking software to find out where your website visitors are coming from. For example:

- Are they coming from a search engine? If so, which search engine? Finding out which search engines your visitors are coming from is extremely important especially when using keywords for search engine optimisation. You’d know which search engines your traffic is coming from and how long they are staying on your site, which pages they visit and the bounce rate (where they immediately leave your site without looking around).

- Are they coming from a site referral? Many blogs and news sites link to pages they think are useful or newsworthy. For example, review blogs will often link to product pages of the item they are reviewing. Knowing that your readership came from a blog is immensely helpful when designing your content.  You then already know that you have on your hands a visitor that is willing to buy a product and they just need a simple reason to buy from you. This knowledge can spell the difference between a sale and a bounce. Social media marketing could mean that your visitors could have heard about your site from a source like a networking site, a forum or blog.

- Are they coming directly from your site? This would mean that they have you bookmarked or had your site recommended by a friend over a non-web medium (like instant messenger, email, or even a newspaper print ad). You might want to ask these visitors to sign up for a newsletter or subscribe to your RSS feed.

You need tracking software to find out where your website visitors are exiting from. For example:

- Do they leave after reviewing a product page? If your visitors are leaving immediately after looking at your product page, it might mean that your product page doesn’t hold your potential customer’s interest long enough, does not provide relevant information to what he or she is looking for or simply that the page isn’t that appealing. You might want to redesign the pages to ensure that your potential customer at least reads through your content.

- Do they leave after simply seeing your front page? If this happens, the most likely reason is that your front page is too cluttered and has too many conflicting themes. Your visitor probably just clicked the back button and refined his or her search.  This is something you’d rather avoid since you already have gained your visitor’s attention (the hardest part in a sale). Try to capitalize on your front page by providing easily reachable product pages and streamlining navigation.

- Do they spend a lot of time browsing your products but never really purchasing anything? This might mean that you have an interested and probably committed customer on your hands except that they weren’t able to find what they needed. Take advantage of your visitor’s frame of mind by providing feedback links.  They are more likely to give you comments and suggestions on what they would like to see in your product catalogue and they would be likely to come back when these are available.

Information is power and with tracking software you get a lot of information regarding visitor activity on your website. As you can see, there are many benefits you can derive from such software. The features described above are just some of these benefits which can help guide your search engine optimisation campaign in the right direction.

As mentioned before, Google Analytics can do all these things and a lot more. Stay tuned, because next in this series we’ll be talking about Google Analytics itself and how you can use it to do all the features described above and much more information.