Monitor your site…

So you’re set up online and you think that’s all you need to do to guarantee a bit of business success?  Well I’m afraid there’s more to it than that!  You have to stay on top of your site - obviously you have to make sure you update your site to keep it fresh and modern and inviting, but you should also be monitoring your site.

By monitoring your website you will be able to see what is going on behind the curtains - every business needs to know how well it’s doing and by monitoring your site you will be able to understand your place on the world wide web…

If you want to stay on top of your website then monitor the following factors to find out exactly what is going on;

•    Traffic - It is vital to understand how many people are visiting your site.  If no one is visiting then you need to know so you can do something else.  If there are tons of people visiting then you know you’re doing something right.
•    Referrers - It is important to know where your visitors are coming from.  If no one is finding your site through a search engine then you need to investigate how you can promote your site within the search results.
•    Pages Viewed Per Visit - If your visitors are only viewing one page of your site then you need to do something to attract them to the rest of the site.

You will also need to keep on top of your website’s performance - bad performance on your website can push away thousands of customers if you aren’t careful.

•    Forms - There is precious little worse than a badly laid out form.  You have done the hard work of getting people to subscribe to your service but once they start the process they get annoyed with the length, quality, etc. of the form.  Keep a check on this and change the form if necessary.
•    Download Speed - If your site is packed with large images or video clips then your visitor will be waiting an age just for the page to load.  Keep a check and test the site.  If you’ve done the hard work of attracting visitors don’t give them an excuse to press back to get them out of there.
•    Shopping Carts - The backbone to online retail is the quality of the shopping solution.  If I want to buy something online I want the process to be as fast, simple and painless as possible.  However sometimes I can spend 30 minutes buying something.  That’s a big no-no and a good excuse for people to simply go to the next site.

Monitoring Your Site?

Are you monitoring your website?  Do you think it’s worth staying on top of your web page or do you think that it’s just a waste of time and money?  Let us know…

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