Who, what, why important to know about Web visitors

Perhaps you have tried sharpening your thinking about your site by collecting data about visitors. The usual approach is to collect a lot of site data, letting it pile up, with the idea that someday you will dig through it to find the nuggets of business insight buried inside.

The problem with this approach is that without an advance plan to direct the analysis, the nuggets of insight are not usually worth the time and effort spent in the digging. The reason is that the data from Web site log files is diffuse.

The valuable stuff is distributed more like dust than in nuggets, and it is difficult to find much of interest without refining the data and assembling it into a bigger picture. Setting up the “refinery” requires having a good idea of what you want to come out of the back end of the process.

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Because of the problems inherent in extracting value from Web site data, it is not surprising that the most successful Web businesses typically begin by identifying the key questions that they want to answer. In working with scores of companies we have found that there are four basic questions that every company should be able to answer about its site. They make a good starting point for building a picture of your Web business.

How much traffic is coming to your site is probably the most basic question of all. If nobody is looking at your site, what is the point? Yet many businesses have only a vague and often incorrect idea of how many visitors their site gets. Just as bad, they have no idea if the traffic ebbs and flows in response to company mailings, advertising and announcements.

It does not follow that there is any single right answer about the amount of traffic that a site should have. In particular it is not always true that more is better. It all depends on what you want to do with the site. Our Fastwater site, for example, exists primarily to serve clients. We are happy to have visitors, but mostly we want to see that our clients are using the site. On the other hand, if we were running an online catalog, we would be looking for as much traffic as possible.

What pages are people looking at on your site? How often do they dig down past the home page? What is it that is most useful and interesting? What parts never get looked at? We know of one company that hoped to sell software on the Web and included some free software utilities as a way to draw people to the site. Log file analysis showed that the people coming for the free stuff never looked at the product that was for sale. The analysis made a strong case for a site reorganization with a much clearer connection between the free samples and the actual product.

Where do visitors come from? This question grows from another one, which is how are you promoting your site? The Web site log file can show you when your site is getting visitors from other sites. If the other site is a search engine, the log data can even show you which search terms were being used.

We find that most companies do not receive a lot of traffic through search engines. Most new visitors come either from links on sister sites or as a result of off-Web advertising. Web site logs can show you which links are producing the most visitors.

By using special URLs in advertising and by looking at the timing of ads and the traffic each generates, you also can make judgments about the effectiveness of off-Web promotions.

Is the site functioning as expected? This is the most important question and the hardest one, since it requires that you are able to state your expectations clearly. Are you trying to generate new sales leads? Do a better job of serving existing customers? Build an audience to attract advertisers? It is important to pick one or two primary objectives and then make sure that you are reaching them.

We find that most companies have at least some difficulty in settling on primary objectives in a way that consolidates the viewpoints of different stakeholders in the business. Despite the difficulty, agreeing on objectives is very important. One obvious benefit is that the company will perform better if everybody is sharing the same goals and vision. Another benefit is that clearly formulated expectations allow you to use log file analysis as a set of indicator lights that the business is actually working as you expect it to. When routine log file analysis sets off a warning, it is time to dig more deeply to try to understand what is really happening.

Having a good idea of how well your Web site is working for you is usually not hard, but does require some planning. Making sure that you can answer these four questions is a good start toward understanding more about your Web business.

Bill Zoellick is a partner at Fastwater LLP and the author of “Web Engagement: Connecting to Customers in e-Business,” a new book that tells how to use Web site data to better understand your Web business and to connect one-to-one with customers. Fastwater is a Boulder-based consulting firm that helps companies identify and address Web business opportunities. Fastwater’s clients include companies building Web catalogs and marketplaces and software vendors that sell to such companies.