Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 124!
When it comes to basic webmastering – one of the basics you learn about is watching your stats and learning how to read them to see if what you are doing is working. This is extremely helpful for web sites that have ever-changing dynamic content. The suggestions I am going to share with you though could even go for those people with static content as well.
Use Several Stats Packages!
Most web hosting accounts come with a few stats packages you can use to keep up with the incoming visitors, traffic and downloads. You might also want to use a few others. You don’t just want to hear one opinion on how your web site is doing. You want as many as you can get. Some other good (and free) solutions are:
Watch for Peaks!
You have to learn to read peaks in your traffic and figure out why and how you got them. Lets say on Thursday your traffic jumped by 200 visitors. First thing you need to figure out is where are they going to. Next would be where they are coming from? Hopefully if you can establish similar content while the peak is going on, you can make it last a little longer.
Don’t Live in the Past!
Don’t let yourself keep looking at your stats from three months ago when you had 500 new visitors come and go in a week. You will not be able to recapture every sudden surge, so you have to learn when to hold them and when to fold them. If you spend too much time trying to redo something you did in the past that got a lot of traffic your doomed to miss out on future chances for the same thing.
All in all statistical information is an important aspect of the webmaster’s daily life. They can bring you good news and bad news – so it is best to learn how you can make them work for you instead of the other way around.
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