Most people never bother to look at the statistics code
that comes with virtually every website because few realize
the gold mine of understanding it contains.

Your website statistics hold the key for information your
traffic, improving sales and increasing the overall
effectiveness of your online selling.

Whether you realize it or not, your web site has "critical
numbers" that enable you to measure the overall success of
your Internet presence.

Any serious website operator should understand the four
most important numbers: Hits; Unique, Targeted Visitors;
Leads; Sales.

Hits - Hits are typically page views, whether by the identical
or different visitors, and indicate overall activity on the
page .

A lot of hits shows activity (usually a efficient thing), but
doesnt necessarily mean youve had a high number of
visitors. Search engine "spiders" and surfers hitting their
back buttons also up the hit count.

Research has shown that, depending on the size of your
site, the ratio of hits to visitors will range anywhere
from 2 to 1 all the way up to 12 to 1.

Unique, Targeted Visitors - all the people surfing to your page who
have not been there before within a certain period of measure .

Depending on the statistics script you use, a unique
visitor could be someone who hasnt been to your web page in a
day or a week, while in other programs a visitor remains
unique until you reset the stats.

You must understand how your stats code classifies
unique visitors so you do not mistakenly believe your website
is acquiring 30 unique visitors a day only to find out it is
the identical 30 people coming back day after day!

A "defined" visitor means that the visitor has an interest
in what you are selling or promoting, this is usually
demonstrated by keyword searches at a search engine or by
clicking defined advertisements.

It does you no grand to attract general traffic to your site
- you want unique, distinctive visitors actively seeking your
merchandise or service.

Leads - a valid e-mail address usually makes the best "lead"
since everybody might and do give fake names and addresses
online.

If someone will not give you a valid e mail address, chances
are they wont give you their credit card to generate a
purchase either.

Email leads enable you to measure interest and to follow up
with potential buyers .

Once you understand the number of unique visitors to your page
you might calculate the percentage of leads you develop and
concentrate on ways to improve your conversion by testing
different offers and headlines.

Sales - the number of sales as compared to unique visitors
represents your most critical statistic because it tells
you whether or not youve made a profit.

For every hundred visitors to your web page , how many sales do
you make and how much money do you net?

Most failed dot-coms never bothered to answer this simple
question.

Selling on the web is a "numbers game" - learn how to generate
the numbers work for you!