The Very First Thing Your Winery Web Site Needs ... Is Analytics

 

Yesterday, I asked you to guess what what the first thing I recommended that a winery change on their Web site.

A quick look at the site's HTML told me that this winery probably wasn't measuring traffic to their Web site.  I didn't see evidence that they had an analytics program of some sort installed (e.g. Google Analytics, free).  They might be analyzing their raw Web server log, but it seemed unlikely.

Without solid information about how visitors are using your site, you have absolutely no hope of improving your site's performance (however you choose to measure it).  In the Web world, improvement requires testing, and testing means measurement.

If you aren't measuring your Web site traffic, why not?  (I know,  "My site doesn't generate many sales, so it's not important to measure what it's doing."  Ack!)

Clueless about analytics?  Leave a question in the comments, and I'll be happy to answer it.

Comments

[Wayne Young]

This falls so much into the realm of "internet Black Magic" that I can't even begin to understand.

What I DO try to understand, thru the TYPEPAD dashboard, is where my hits are coming from. Which sites are referring to my blog...

I only just started using keywords for my blog. I'm not even sure how THAT works...

Are analytics necessary for a simple blog?

[Mike Duffy]

Wayne:
The short answer is "Yes."

There are several stats that even a simple blog is interested in, including the one you mentioned (Who is referring traffic to my site).

Additionally, you probably want to know whether traffic is increasing or decreasing.

Are the people who visit your blog more likely to be new visitors, or people who have visited before? Repeat visitors are a sign that your blog has a following.

Do people tend to visit one page and leave (this is a common blog pattern - people come to the main page, read whatever's new, and leave), or do they visit several pages?

Lastly, what is the most popular content on your site? It's always nice to know what attracts people, so you can do more of it.

I've never been altogether happy with TypePad's analytics, although the new TypePad does a *much* better job (plus, they added a link which allows you to trivially add the needed Google Analytics code to your page, which used to be a hassle).

I hope that helps answer your question.

[Wayne Young]

Thanks Mike. I have activated my Google Analytics and look forward to understanding more of that as the stats come in.

AS always, enlightening and practical advice. Keep up the good work!

[Dustin Wallace]

Another web analytics practitioner once said, "A website without measurement is just a hobby."