The 800 lbs gorilla in the room, web traffic, key data points.

When looking at marketing strategies to help gain more clients there are 3 most likely outcomes to consider;

1. Gain a visit to your community
2. Generate a phone call
3. Drive more traffic to your website

In the first two outcomes there is a very likely chance that human interaction will occur. We all understand that not all are created equal in being a top performer in picking up phone calls or being present to greet a visitor. That being, we all understand the value of doing this well. As these interactions take place we gain knowledge and leverage that knowledge to be more effective at converting these opportunities into prospects and clients.

When it comes to internet traffic many simply have no idea about their anonymous web shoppers’ behavior.  Some do measure traffic and few actually look at what actions take place after the entry into the web site. Such information is very important to focus on. Your website is most likely one of your busiest sales space, knowing what your prospective clients do is very valuable, powerful information is available for you to optimize your websites. Here are some key data points to know:

• How did they find you? - Referring source including keywords
• What did they look at? -Number of pages viewed, what page, Click path
• Is it their first visit? – First time shopper or repeat visitor
• Where did they leave from? - Exit page, bounce rate
• When did they visit you? - Daily traffic distribution

As you spend more time and invest more marketing into driving traffic to your site make sure you have a robust analytics tool.  This will help you to take three steps towards optimizing your web shoppers’ experience. Document, understand and leverage.