Analyzing Website Traffic

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they will find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your company name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

Google Adsense SERVER DOWN

For the first time in 10 months, Since when I started using Google Adsense. I found that Google Adsense website was temporarily unavailable. I thought at first my browser was hijacked but when I used 3 different browsers I was sure this wasn't my computer's fault. This was the undesired message which I got they redirected me to a new Google page. I guess Google is making some amendments for Adsense advertiser. This was many different languages. lol

Google.com shows less backlinks than country specific domain

In a recent effort to find the total number on back links to my weblog on Google. I stumbled across an interesting fact. Google.com shows less links for my weblog than google.co.uk or for that matter any other country specific domain.

Here are the screenshots taken for the number of back links to my blog.

Protecting Your Search Engine Rankings

Your website's ranking on search engines is a vital element of your overall marketing campaign, and there are ways to improve your link popularity through legitimate methods.Unfortunately, the Internet is populated by bands of dishonest webmasters seeking to improve their link popularity by faking out search engines.

The good news is that search engines have figured this out, and are now on guard for "spam" pages and sites that have increased their rankings by artificial methods. When a search engines tracks down such a site, that site is demoted in ranking or completely removed from the search engine's index.

The bad news is that some high quality, completely above-board sites are being mistaken for these web page criminals. Your page may be in danger of being caught up in the "spam" net and tossed from a search engine's index, even though you have done nothing to deserve such harsh treatment. But there are things you can do - and things you should be sure NOT to do - which will prevent this kind of misperception.

Link popularity is mostly based on the quality of sites you are linked to. Google pioneered this criteria for assigning website ranking, and virtually all search engines on the Internet now use it. There are legitimate ways to go about increasing your link popularity, but at the same time, you
must be scrupulously careful about which sites you choose to link to. Google frequently imposes penalties on sites that have linked to other sites solely for the purpose of artificially boosting their link popularity. They have actually labeled these links "bad neighborhoods."

You can raise a toast to the fact that you cannot be penalized when a bad neighborhood links to your site; penalty happens only when you are the one sending out the link to a bad neighborhood. But you must check, and double-check, all the links that are active on your links
page to make sure you haven't linked to a bad neighborhood.

The first thing to check out is whether or not the pages you have linked to have been penalized. The most direct way to do this is to download the Google toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com. You will then see that most pages are given a "Pagerank" which is represented by a
sliding green scale on the Google toolbar.

Do not link to any site that shows no green at all on the scale. This is especially important when the scale is completely gray. It is more than likely that these pages have been penalized. If you are linked to these pages, you may catch their penalty, and like the flu, it may be difficult to recover from the infection.

There is no need to be afraid of linking to sites whose scale shows only a tiny sliver of green on their scale. These sites have not been penalized, and their links may grow in value and popularity. However, do make sure that you closely monitor these kind of links to ascertain that
at some point they do not sustain a penalty once you have linked up to them from your links page.

Search Engine Bascis

When you type in any query in a search engine, the engine does a search in the database for best possible result for your query and it ranks the different possible answers according to its algorithm so you can get the best possible result. How those web pages get into the database, and consequently, how you can get yours in there too, is a three-step process:

1. A search engine visits a site with an automated program called a spider (sometimes called a robot). A spider is just a program similar to a web browser that downloads a site's pages. It doesn't actually display the page anywhere; it just downloads the page data.

2. After the spider has acquired the page, the search engine passes the page to a program called an indexer, which is another robotic program that extracts most of the visible portions of the page. The indexer also analyzes the page for keywords, the title, links, and other important information contained in the code.

3. The search engine adds your site to its database and makes it available to searchers. The greatest difference between search engines is in this final step where ranking or result position under a particular keyword is determined.

Google's Page Rank explained!

A high PR by google is one of the dreams that a webmaster wants for his website. Although, Google Page Rank has nothing to do with the traffic that a website receives but it can be used to find the importance of the website in Google's eyes.

As of today, I wanted to post an article as to how Google actually calculates the PR.

Many of the people out there might have thought that Google' PR consists of many of the complex mathematical operations that would take the genius of a scientist to understand their page rank formula. To their dismay the page rank formula is an easy equation.

Page Rank (X) = (1-Y) + Y { PageRank(W1) + ... + PageRank(Wn) }

(where X is the page rank) ------------          --------------

                            Z(T1)                    Z(Tn)

• PR(X) is the PageRank of a page X.

• PR(W1) is the PageRank of a page W1.

• Z(T1) is the number of outgoing links from the page W1.

• Z(Tn) is the number of outgoing links from the page Wn.
  

• Y is a damping factor in the range 0 <>

The PageRank of a web page is therefore calculated as a sum of the PageRanks of all pages linking to it (its incoming links), divided by the number of links on each of those pages (its outgoing links).

Monitoring Search Engine Positions -II

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated.

Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

Monitoring Search Engine Positions - I

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally.

Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two,the monitoring and protecting stage.

Increasing Link Popularity

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.

You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about a link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

• The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.
  

• You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a national category.

• The next step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality sites that will increase your linkpopularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool siteexample. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both of your site's business prospects - and both of your sites' link popularity.
  

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your own site.Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page.Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a linkon your own links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site.Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it's time to remove their link from your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

Internal Linking for Blogs

Going for SEO (Search Engine Optimization),so that your blogs or websites rank higher.Most of you must have heard or known that getting backlinks from similar content websites does help to rank higher.

But do you take care of the internal linking also?What is Internal linking?

Internal Linking helps all your pages to get indexed in the search engines.When a website or a blog has hundreds or even thousands of pages,its not easy for the search bots to find and index all of your pages in the search engines.

To help out spiders index your pages easily you need to do internal linking such that all your pages are linked to the main page and the sitemap,if you have one.With the same keyword as your title.

I will take an example to make it easy,for that I will take my blog.I would place my blog's name in the link section with the anchor text "Learning Thinking Earning-Adsense advertising & SEO".

In case of blogger you easily make it by adding it through my link.But for blogs on other platform or even websites I would use Learning Thinking Earning-Adsense advertising & SEO.

This would links all posts on different pages with my blog,so when spiders come to my blog they easily spider and index my different blog's pages which without internal might have been difficult or might have taken more time.

Better Your revenue Google Heatmaps

Google Heatmap for bloggers and webmasters to better your revenue with Adsense.

If you are a blogger then this Google Heatmap for bloggers helps bloggers by showing possible place for placing the Ads,so as to maximize the revenue for Adsense Publishers.


Google Heatmap for webmasters:

Rare Adword's ad format

As I was searching through Google this morning,a rare adsense ads came up at the side bar which had the facility to call the advertiser directly from it without the need to log in anywhere.After more investigation into the new feature,it came to my attention that this was the new feature tested by Google called "Google Click-to-Call".

Google:"

Google is testing a new feature that lets you speak directly over the phone, for free, to businesses you find on Google search results pages. When this feature is available for a business, you'll see a green phone icon in their advertisement or a call link next to their contact information. Here's how it works: Click the phone icon or call link ........for more continue"

Bidvertiser PPC -Adsense alternative

Bidvertiser can be as easy as using Adsense on your site just place the javascript on your website and even bloggers are accepted and you will receive text ads on your site and get paid for every click.

You get paid for every visitor that clicks on an ad. You get paid by monthly checks, with a minimum of only US $25.

One of prominent advantages that Bidvertiser has as compared to Google Adsense is that your are able to see a list of advertisers according to the amount of cash they are willing to pay for their ads,so you can select the advertisers who are willing to pay the maximum.BidVertiser will always display the highest bidders on your site, assuring the maximum revenue possible at any given time.

BidVertiser gives you a simple point-and-click tool to help you customize the layout of the ads to fit your site’s look and feel, in order to retain the high quality of your website.You can block any unwanted ad.

BidVertiser enables you to filter-out any unwanted ads. Prior to your own filtering, each ad has to be pre-approved by an editorial team. This mechanism gives you a piece of mind with regards to the ads displayed on your website.

You can get detailed information about the page impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and the total amount you have earned.

For your website or blog to get accepted by Bidvertiser it should follow these guidelines:

• Should not have adult content,sexual content,hate,abuse or any kind of violence.
• Should not promote illegal practices.
• Your website should be fully functional and it should be complete in all respects.
• It should not have excessive amount of advertising.

For more informations you can read Bidvertiser's (TOS) before applying.

Few Blog Commandments

Few rules to kept in mind if you wish your blog to be successful :

• Blogs should be updated on regular basis.Posts should be kept as fresh and new possible.Stale information should not be kept on the blog.
• Do not show your fancy language to the readers,they will not be impressed much.The blogger should cater to the needs of people from every country.Clarity and simplicity is of prime importance.
• Develop a writing style that is unique and can be distinguished from the rest of the crowd.
  
• Try to write correctly without spelling mistakes and errors.Use spell checking to make sure your spelling are correct
  
• Check your keyword density always to make your posts search engines friendly.
• Always ping websites to tell them that you have updated your blog.(Few websites which I use to ping regularly are www.pingoat.com & www.pingomatic.com.)
  
• Add RSS to your weblogs.