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Determining good traffic levels - measuring results

Derek Stockley explains the key elements in measuring website performance and success.

Website performance

Obtaining, installing and monitoring a website traffic analysis system is an important and key site management responsiblity of all webmasters (see: Website Statistics and Website Statistics Package).

Obtaining the results is a good thing. However, you need to be able to benchmark your results against others and the objectives/standards you set.

How do you know if the site visitor traffic you have generated is "excellent" or "poor"?

Is 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 20000 visitors a good result for your site?

Is this per day or per month?

For commercial sites, the successful "sales" figure is the true and final measure. Whether it is sales of 5000 "widgets" at $25 each, or three new clients at $20,000 each in professional fees - both are tangible results that can be compared against the cost in obtaining the business.

However, a secondary measure is "site traffic". If you do not achieve visitors, then you will not be able to convert them to sales.

Sales might not be a valid measure. For example, many sites are "information" sites. Many health, government and community web sites and pages exist primarily to provide information. In this case, visitors obtaining information relevant to their needs is the primary measure.

Actual site specific traffic statistics are not readily available. Commercial sites regard it as competive information which must not be shared. Other sites simply do not disclose it.

However, be on the look out for the information - some webmasters do disclose it when they explain their site's success.

Over time, you can develop a sense of your success.

Some good indicators are:

Your rising number/percentage of "returning" site visitors.

The percentage of visitors who "bookmark" your site.

The number/percentage of direct links to your site (related to previous point).

The number of referrals from other sites which are not search engines or directories.

If you do not have access to the above information, you should review your web statistics sources, see: Website Statistics and Website Statistics Package. You can sign up for a 30 day free trial or purchase at 30 Day free trial or sign up - Web-Stat Traffic Analysis.

After signing up, have a look at: Making the most of Web-Stat - how I use Web-Stat.

The broader topic of search engine optimization is discussed in detail at: Search Engine Optimization or view the SEO/SEM portal page at: Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing - covers key SEO/SEM information resources provided by this site. SEO training is explained at: Search Engine Optimization Training.

This page was last reviewed on 10 February 2007.