Sometimes we get so caught up in the process of making a good website, the SEO features and pretty aesthetics, that we start to forget how important it is to not only regularly update our website but also to check its performance.
If you can’t answer simple questions like, “How are people interacting with my social media outlets?” or “What features of my website do people most enjoy?” then how can you possibly make changes that are tailored to address the weak points of your web presence. Utilizing these tools will help increase your conversion rate optimization efforts.
Google Analytics
Mary Tairua, an Internet Marketing Strategist with Rocketfuel, knows a thing or two about how to accurately test the performance of your website. The first of many pieces of great advice is to check your website’s statistics with a tool like Google Analytics. The tool measures visits, visitors, page views and a number of other statistics.
It is, by far, one of the most extensive tools for measuring your website’s most basic statistics. Google monopolizes eighty percent of the search market, so you can trust them to have all the latest information on who is visiting your website.
Crazy Egg
Not only is it important to know the overall performance of your website but you should also understand what part(s), or pages, of your website are attracting the most visitors. Crazy Egg has got you covered. The tool offers website heatmapping tools that show you where visitors look and click on your website. Once you understand the typical user experience, what grabs their attention and for how long, you have the opportunity to adjust your website to maximize their attention.
Facebook Insights
Tairua also recommends using Facebook Insights, to understand how many likes and interactions your page has on both a monthly and lifetime basis. This tool will not provide you information on your total social media success. In other words, it can’t look to services like Twitter and Google Plus, but it will give you great information on the most popular social networking outlet.
SEOmoz
SEOmoz gives you the ability to research, choose and track keywords for your website, according to Tairua. With the tool, you can create weekly, monthly or quarterly reports that show your website’s ranking based on chosen keywords. Checking your keyword rankings regularly will help you understand your SEO success and give you a good idea of how much traffic you will generate from search engines.
SEO Moz Open Site Explorer
Finally, be sure to use this tool to see how many websites are linking to yours. The Site Explorer will also give you information like page and domain authority with statistics on links. The more links you have, according to Tairua, the healthier your website and content.
All these are only a number of suggestions for keeping track of your website’s success. The best piece of advice is to always remain as current as possible when it comes to evaluating the success or failure of your website and its content. If you know, in real time, how much attention your website is receiving, then you are best equipped to make the necessary corrections.