Re: Suspicious Traffic Numbers

From: Jim Novo <jimnovo_at_sprintmail.com>
Date: Wed 01 Aug 2001 09:49:27 -0500

GARY COOLEY <cooley_at_mtnhome.com> WROTE:

> Is it normal for traffic reports to show very small
> changes from month to month? It is normal for traffic
> to stay consistent within only one or two percentage
> points month after month, even if the totals rise and
> fall?

The web commerce model works most efficently with
tightly defined niche businesses, and yours fits this
definition. All niche businesses also have a "ceiling"
somewhere in terms of the number of people needing their
services during a month. You may have reached this
ceiling, and the total number of new people needing
you each month roughly equals the total number of
people leaving you. This is a very common trait of
niche businesses, most catalogs, for example. They
grow very rapidly in the beginning and then "settle
in" at a steady run rate. This is why customer
retention is so critical; at this level of maturity
(6 years is a long time on the web!), you have to
try harder to replace lost visitors.

> Traffic reports show that most
> of the visitors visit just once, and about 70 percent
> click out on the main page after 30 seconds.
> Since it works we don't try too hard to fix it. But
> since so many visit just once, it really makes us
> wonder.

This is where you have your work to do. You can change
your advertising / search ranking strategy to try and
get more visitors, but assuming you have maximized
this already, increased conversion is your answer.

> While it may be possible that the same people
> come back once a month and look at one site, we don't
> think that makes much sense.

Looking at the ozarkmtns.com site, I would have to
agree. You have a great asset - very targeted, deep
in coverage. You have to look deeper into your logs
for clues. I can't believe people arriving at this
kind of site are "lost" - they must have been searching
for something you have. Perhaps they can't find it?
There is a ton of information there.

Thirty percent of visitors take the time to find what
they want, and these people make your advertisers
happy. Concentrate of boosting this percentage. Look
for the patterns of behavior that lead most directly
to revenues, and do everything you can to facilitate
these behaviors. You customers, through their own
activity, will tell you what you should do.

For example, what are the 5 most popular areas of the
site? They must be popular for a reason. Make it
easier for people to find them. Place 5 links to
these areas near the top of *every* page, and watch
your conversion rate.

Changing navigation can increase conversion very
dramatically. Think like a user, fiddle with it and
track the results. If you want to take a look at the
kind of metrics and approach I use for addressing
conversion, with real data, see:

   http://www.jimnovo.com/WebTrends-Tracking.htm

---------------------------------------------------------
Jim Novo | Author:Turning Customer Data into Profits
Learn the techniques and models used in
profitable customer-focused marketing at:
http://www.jimnovo.com



Received on Wed Aug 01 2001 - 09:49:27 CDT