Hansel & Gretel Left a Breadcrumb Trail.....So do Your Website Guests!

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So, who's been visiting your website ...
do you mean you don't know? How can you ... working if you don't have some sort of tracking in place? ...
website ... known as "s So, who's been visiting your website lately?What do you mean you don't know? How can you tellwhat's working if you don't have some sort of tracking in place? Measuring website traffic,also known as "stats," is how you know who's visiting yoursite, where they're coming from, how long theystay, entry and exit pages and more.You need this information to make informed decisionsabout your site.
You can use it to understand yourguests' buying patterns and to measure the effectivenessof your marketing and promotional strategies. It canalso be used to show you whichareas of your site are the most popular and thepages no one seems to visit.
You can use this informationto redesign your site and play-up the popularpages while eliminating the ones no one views.So how do you get this valuable information?There are a number of ways to collect stats on yourwebsite. You can:1) Purchase Software2) Use a Free Online Service3) Use a Paid Online Service/ Third Party Auditors4) Use your own Web HostLet's take each option one by one.
First inthe group of choices is buying stats software. The problem with this option is the hefty price tag.
Most of the good ones don't come cheap.Webtrends.com - http://www.webtrends.comThe leader in stats software, they offera variety of solutions for everyone from the small business owner to large corporations. Prepare to shellout some big bucks depending on your needs.
Visit the site and download a trial copy.Websitereporter.com - http://www.websitereporter.comProfessional website stats software with many options. Website Reporter 3.0 offers a free demo and runs on Unix or NT and only costs between 50 to 75.00.
Tracks total hits,maximum hits and date, report traffic, top entry and exit pages and much more.Fast Stats - http://www.mach5.com/fast/ At only 99.00, this one is in everyone's price range. Tells you who's visiting your site and does itvery quickly.
Includes a hyperlinked tree viewreport that graphically shows how visitors aremoving through your site. Runs only on Win 95,98,or NT, but can analyze log files generated by Unix servers.Openwebscope.com - http://www.openwebscope.comFree to download and 69.00 to register.
Easy to read charts and graphs tell you in an instant what visitorsare doing on your site. View sample reports at the siteto get a feel for what the software can do.Now let's take a look at your options when it comes to free stats.
Many sites offer freestats in exchange for placing a small banner orbutton on your pages. Many of them are really good if you don'tmind the small graphic.
Freestats.com - http://www.freestats.comFree Stats is free and easy to use. The downfall is the codethey give you inserts a banner on the pages you wish to track.
They do offer a "gold" service that eliminates the bannersfor only 5.95 a month.Thecounter.com - http://www.thecounter.comThe Counter supplies in-depth traffic reports. Tracks the number of visitors, referrers, browsers, and more.Simple to use add a few lines of HTML to your pages and you're good to go.
Stattrack.com - http://www.stattrack.comStat Track is more then just a counter; you get detailedinformation about your web guests. To use it you willhave to tolerate a small 88X31 button on your trackedpages.
Sign up, paste the code and you're done.Now, let's move on to thirdparty or pay stats services. Third party means anotherserver collects and tabulates your website traffic, notthe server your site is hosted on.
Professional SuperStats- http://v2.superstats.com/service_options.htmlOffers advanced real time tracking and historicalreporting on site traffic. Not software, it's easy to set up.
The tracking code is invisible to yoursite visitors, no banners or buttons. You canalso export the data to MS Word, Excel or PDFformat for further analyzing.
Only 19.95 per monthor 200.00 US dollars for the year.Bondsmith.com - http://www.bondsmith.comProvides traffic measurements and third party auditingservices to website owners. Excellent for proving trafficpatterns to potential advertisers.
Sign up and get yourfirst month for free.Site Gauge - http://www.sitegauge.com/reports.htmOffering a free service, but you have to show bannerson your site. For only 19.95 a month for up to 20,000 page views I'd go with the Pro service.It's invisible on your site and the stats collectedare really in-depth.
You can also request that thestats be e-mailed to you daily.The last and final option is your web host. Someweb hosts will be able to supply you with statsbut not all of them.
You'll have to ask yours if theydo and if there is any charge involved. Usually theysupply you with this information for free as an add-on toyou hosting service, but I have seen some that chargea small fee for access.
Make a point to ask, as manyof them won't point it out to you otherwise.There you have it, stats in a nut shell. By analyzingyour website statistics you'll be able to make moreinformed decisions and know what's working and who's visiting your site.
The breadcrumbs are there....do you have a system in place to find them? Article Tags: Who's Visiting, Third Party, Stats Software Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .