Your site analytics just may be the key to your success on-line. You can measure the fruits of your efforts in real time.

There are numerous analytics tools out there. Some free, some with a monthly subscription. I always loved hitslink and found their traffic-based subscription rates fair for the amount of information you can have. I would have sat there all day and watched my hits link account all day if I could have. The graphic presentation of your traffic sources, visitor demographics and paths is amazing.

But then Google came out with it’s FREE analytics package. At first it was a tough transition for me. It didn’t seem intuitive and had almost too much power. Then they re-released it and ah….. All of my clients have Google Analytics as part of their setup.

There are many cool features:

1. The ability to set site goals and track them. You can assign goals to your site and assign them monitary value and track how many visitors “convert” to customers, leads, subscribers, etc.

2. Site overlay - when you click on the site overlay, you see your own site overlaid with little green bars that show you where people are clicking through.

These days, you have to be able to show date-range specific info on:

• referring sites - this is great for quantifying your listing purchases, link strategy effectiveness
• bounce rates - how many people hit your site and just leave without looking into anything? This information in combination with the exit page statistics will help you figure out what pages need improvement.
• how long people stay on the site - obviously, you want them to stay and play, so you’ve got to offer lots of great content, widgets, news, images, video, audio files. You’ve got to entertain, inform and even care about your visitors.
• search engine statistics and keywords used - it’s fun to watch this change as you tweak your content, blog posts, headers, etc. You can find out what’s working real-time!
• geographical information - if you have particular national campaigns, this tool is without peer.
• content pathway statistics - figure out which entry pages are most popular, and which exit pages as well.
• visitor loyalty - how many are returning, bookmarking your site?
• track your pay-per-click campaigns - actually only works with Google AdWords.

If you have a website and aren’t using analytics of any kind, have your web developer put Google Analytics tracking code on all of your pages, or if you have a WordPress site, upload the plug-in and enter your account number. There are also plugins available so you can view your stats right there in your administrative panel instead of going to Google for it… very slick!