How to measure the success of a site: use the best web hosting tools available
To ensure you have the best web hosting experience, you must keep an eye on your site - who is visiting it, how long they're staying there, which pages are working and which are not. Consult web hosting reviews and you'll see the best web hosting services offer a number of features that can help you measure the success of your site.
Statistics
Many of the best web hosting services offer great tools to help you track and analyze your website traffic. Some of these will offer you real-time updates, others will update once a day. These statistics tools will generate usage reports to help you see where your visitors are heading, and for how long. Check web hosting reviews for more information on the exact tools being offered.
Within your "traffic reports," you want to look for a few key numbers:
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Length of stay. Are visitors actually sticking around to have a good look at your site? Or do they turn around quickly? If they're not staying, you need to fix up your front page to make it more attractive.
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Repeat visits. If people keep coming back to your site, it's a good sign they've found something they like. Which pages are they hitting? How much time do they spend there?
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Sales ratio. Of all the visitors that come check out your site, how many actually make a purchase? The best web hosting tools will help you do this. Obviously, getting people to your site is great - but it's so much better if they actually buy what you're selling!
Logs
Similar to statistics and analysis tools, logs will keep an ongoing record of your site traffic. To have the best web hosting experience, pay attention to these! Especially:
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Referrer logs: where is your traffic is coming from? What are your visitors interested in?
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Error logs: are your visitors getting error messages? Where? Is there a broken link that needs fixing?
Polls and surveys
These rely on your visitors and customers taking the time to fill out information, but the feedback may certainly help you determine what needs attention on your site. The best web hosting services will offer these features as part of your hosting package. The more information you can glean from those who surf on by, the better! Polls and surveys can be an important feature of any e-commerce site.
Newsletter sign-up
If you get a lot of people signing up for your newsletter or mailing list, that's a fabulous measure of success. It means they're interested in what you have to offer and want to stay in touch. Is no one signing on? Then you may have to improve your offerings. Read our article on e-newsletters for more.
Read web hosting reviews closely and you'll find all sorts of details about these and other tools you can use to measure your success. If you're involved in business hosting or e-commerce hosting, the best web hosting service for you will help you effectively track and analyze your traffic - and help you improve your site along the way.