Yes, that’s correct; I said Traffic Facts, not Traffic Blazer®. Oh, you should also use Traffic Blazer, but I think you all understand how and why to use that application. Most of us use Traffic Facts simply as a basic measurement tool – how much traffic am I getting and is it generated by my advertising. But, Traffic Facts can provide a treasure trove of important marketing data if you think about this information as a “to-do” list rather than just the end result of your marketing efforts. In other words: You can use the Traffic Facts information to continually review and improve the marketing strategies for your online business.
The following is an overview of the most useful Traffic Facts reports and how to take advantage of them.
Note: Many of the features of Traffic Facts are available through the Traffic Blazer Traffic Report, as well.
The Referrer Report tells you where visitors to your site are arriving from. That is, the report lists the URLs of the pages visitors were viewing immediately before coming to your site. Usually, these originating pages include links to your site, and the visitor clicked on the link. Sometimes, though, if a visitor already knows your Web site’s URL, he/she just enters your address in the browser and finds your site that way. Both types of visitors will generate a “referral” in your report.
The Referring Domains part of the Referrer Report groups your referrals by domain. I mainly use the Referring Domains report as a quick, broad overview of here my visitors are coming from. The real "meat" of the referral information is in the Referring URLs Report. This report tells you the exact URLs your visitors come from, right down to the specific pages on the referring Web sites. Why is this important? Because it can gauge the effectiveness of an ad or link on a particular page thus helping you zero on in the most and least effective locations for your ads and/or links.
For example: Let’s say you have a couple of back links within the same Web site, but located on different pages. The links use different copy, are in a different position on the page, or they display a different offer. By comparing the referrals from each page, you can tell which ad copy is more effective. You can then attempt to increase your click-through rate by adjusting the link/ad that generates the least traffic.
Another way to look at the Referring Domains report is to replicate the top-performing link(s) to other pages where you have links. This is especially useful if you control multiple interlinked Web sites, such as a blog, a personal site and your online storefront.
When you look at the referrals that stem from your blog, you can easily determine which of the blog articles generate the most clicks. You might then consider writing more of those types of articles. Or you can update the link(s) in the blog post(s) so that users are sent to a more targeted page on your online site. A more targeted (i.e., more contextually relevant) landing page can help increase your conversion rate.
If some of your articles or links fail to generate the site traffic you were expecting or hoping for, you might consider revisiting the article/link with an eye on improving the click-through rate.
As you peruse this report, be sure to click on any URLs you’ve never seen listed before. (Each listed URL is an active hyperlink.) When you go to one such “new” site, check it out for advertising opportunities. The site may have a free business listing section, a forum you can join, free article submission services or offer banner advertising. This is a great opportunity to research ways to reach a new audience. The bottom line is that you should make the most of such new traffic generators.
This report tells you the top search keywords and phrases visitors used to find your Web site, and the specific search engines the visitors were using. These keywords/phrases can help you find and research new or improved keywords to use in your PPC ad campaigns or your search engine optimization efforts. I’ll bet you’ll find keywords and phrases that you never thought to investigate. Do a search on those keywords – what do you see? Your competitors? Complimentary sites where you could find advertising opportunities? Community sites you can participate in? You won’t know unless you follow through and do the research.
Another Traffic Facts report to take beyond the “oh, isn’t that interesting” and actually act upon is the Page Requests Report. This report tells you how many of your visitors looked at each page and how long they stayed on the page. Pages that get very low amounts of visitors (and pages whose visitors don’t stay as long as you would like them to) need to be either removed or updated. There’s no point in maintaining a page that no one spends any time on. Therefore, you need to figure out how to make the content more enticing to visitors so that they perform the actions you expect them to. Alternatively, you should lose the page entirely.
Note: Keep in mind that the ideal amount of time spent on any given page on your site will vary, depending on the content and purpose of that particular page.
Your top-performing pages – the ones that attract the most visitors and whose visitors stay the longest – also need to be analyzed: Do you have an offer on these pages, or is the visitor only reading content? What offer is on the page?
Use these pages to test different offers, phrasings, etc. Be sure to measure your page views, conversions, and time spent on the page, as you do your testing so you know if the changes you are making are hurting or helping your page.
The suggestions above only scratch the surface of what Traffic Facts has to offer in the way of marketing advice. I just wanted to point out that this application is so much more than a measuring tool for your current marketing efforts. There are a ton of ideas that can be gleaned from the data if you take the time to research where your visitors are coming from, what keywords they used to find you, and what they do when they get there.
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