#4: Get out your measuring tape
It always amazes me how many people don’t measure their website statistics. Even those that do have statistics programs in place never look at them. As they say, you can’t improve it if you can’t measure it. I’m never sure exactly who ‘they’ are…but they seem smart…
So measure it!
Why
Measurement allows you to work out where you can start improving. Right now, you probably don’t know how many visitors you have a day or how many of them are buying from you because of your website.
Doesn’t that sound like important information to have? “YES” I hear you cry! Good kids!
Seriously, measuring your website is easy as pie. It’s a lot easier than half the things you should be measuring in your business. Maybe even than 77.3% of the things you should be measuring.
It’s also interesting because most people in small business forums are asking how they get more website traffic. Well, if you’re not measuring all the different aspects of your website, how do you know where the problem lies? Sometimes it’s not in the traffic, it’s in the message your website delivers.
So no more excuses, let’s get measuring…
How
My favourite way to measure things is the free one. Thanks to some great free tools out there you can now measure your website’s results without it costing you an arm and a leg. Which is usually a good thing as you’ll need those arms and legs to create your products or provide your service.
If I was you, I’d pop over to Google Analytics and install that. It gives you a wide range of measurements for your website that may open your eyes to some major problems. Some clients I’ve worked with have had hundreds of visitors a day that they didn’t even know about. So you can guess what happened when we changed a few things around…sales increased instantly.
Sales mean money, and money means more holidays in Spain, which is always a good thing.
You could also find out if your web developers already installed a statistics program that you can use. But I’d still install Google Analytics as well for the detail it gives you.
Homework
Nothing tricky, go and install Google Analytics. Wait a few hours and start exploring your website statistics. Then make a point of doing it on a regular basis to check the improvements you’re making.
