Your new friend

Everybody needs a friend when growing an online business, eh? A friend will be honest, friends can tell you what's working and what's not, or suggest what needs to be tweaked a little. Well, believe it or not, you have a built in friend in the backend of your website - it's called your statistics page. If you are serious about growing your business, you'll want to get to know this page by spending time with it, just like you would any new friend.

Your statisics page will be honest with you. It tracks a bunch of numbers by month such as, site visitors - from whence they came, how they entered, how long they stayed, and which from which page they left. It will tell you what's working and what's not, for example, whether or not your site is being bookmarked and what keyword phrases are used as search terms. There are even stats on what browser the majority are using. This is not all of course, your stats page carries way more information than you probably care to know.

I believe some of the most important trackers are unique site visitors, search keywords, page entry and exit, and time spent. I have fleshed these out a bit more in the section on stats in my e-book, The Insider's Guide to Web Marketing, available August 1st. For a limited time, (like until August 1st), you may sign up as a preferred reader and receive a deep discount. Check it out.

Oh, and good luck with your new friend. Don't be discouraged if you don't hit it off right away, remember, friendships take time.