Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 5: Analyzing and Monitoring Your Customers

In This Chapter

• Monitoring your Web site traffic
• Interpreting the records left on your Web server
• Using software to assemble reports on Web site usage
• Implementing techniques to gain more information from your visitors
• Asking your customers the right questions
• Updating your Web site to correct or improve performance

After you build your Web site, your next step is to ask, “How can I make W “ my site better?” Your initial version is rarely your current version. You create your site, watch how users interact with you, make changes, watch how users react to those changes, make more changes, watch some more, and then repeat the process. This process is ongoing as you evolve your site to meet the changing needs of your customers.

Analyzing your Web site can tell you a lot about your business that other metrics (measurements) — such as sales volume, average order amount, and repeat customers — cannot tell you. You can figure out exactly which Web pages on your site are the most and least popular. You can see how many people start with your home page, and then calculate the average number of pages a user sees before leaving. You can even find out where users come from when they arrive at your Web site and determine the last thing they see before they leave.

In this chapter, we look at the field of Web site analysis, from traffic monitoring to gathering customer feedback. We help you break down the massive amount of raw data you have ...