You can’t improve what you can't measure

I first read that phrase in Michael Dell’s book “Direct from Dell.” And Dell computer is a master at implementing the philosophy behind it.

For Dell to be the PC leader they must drive down costs. They do that by squeezing out every bit of manufacturing inefficiency they can. And they find inefficiency through measurement of every activity on the manufacturing floor.

How does this relate to you, your business and your website? You don’t know how your website is doing for you unless you start to measure its performance. And you do that by using a web analytics program that reads you web sites logs.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to run out and buy a $1,000 piece of software. There are many free programs you can get on the net, or you can use Google’s very good free program Google Analytics (though as of today you need to get on a waiting list to get an account).

Some of the most important data points you should look at first are:

• Top refer sites to your site (where are people coming from when they come to your site)
• Top keywords people are using to find your site in the search engines
• Top exit page for your site (what is the last page people are looking at before they leave your site)

This is a good start at getting a picture of the activity on your site. Armed with this data you can start to make changes to your site that will get more people coming to your site, and staying longer once they do arrive. I’ll blog more on how to do that in the coming weeks.

Bob Erwin
NewInk Marketing
Search Engine Marketing