by Lisa Augustyn,
Ladies Who Launch Marketing & Advertising Coordinator

Launching a new Web site is very exciting and entails bringing together a lot of different elements—functionality, design, content. What we can’t forget during this process is to set ourselves up with a traffic-reporting service, which provides the Web site owner with data on how many unique visitors the site has, how many page views it’s getting, and so much more. Google offers a free reporting program, called Google Analytics, that you can sign up for online and that also happens to be really easy to use.

You can create your free account at www.google.com/analytics/index.html . Once you log in, the first thing you will see is your site’s “Dashboard.” This is a quick-glance summary that includes your total visits, page views, pages viewed per visit, bounce rate, average time spent on site, and percentage of new visits. From the Dashboard, there are many different pages you can click through to: “Visitors,” “Content,” “Goals,” “Traffic Sources,” and more. “Visitors” gives you detailed information about the number of people visiting your site, whether first-timers or repeat customers. “Content” is where you can find the number of views each page on your site is getting. “Goals” allows you to set your own Web site goals and then track those goals.

“Traffic Sources,” meanwhile, allows you to see how people are being directed to your Web site. It will show you the breakdown from Referring Sites (if your link is on another site and the viewer is clicking through to your site), Direct Traffic (this refers to visitors who type your URL into a Web browser and go straight to your site), and Search Engines (visitors who may search your company/related topic at Google.com or another search engine and then click through to your site). Traffic Sources is a great tool, especially if you are in a partnership with another site—you can see how much traffic is being generated through your link on their site. Another reason the Traffic Sources report is helpful is because if you notice that your search engine percentage is low, you may want to look into how you can optimize your site for search (SEO).

Google Analytics allows you to select a date range for which you would like to view stats. When you log in you will see on the top right-hand side of the screen that you can select a drop-down arrow near the current listed dates. This is where you can select the date range. This is particularly helpful if, for example, you just launched a new item or feature on your site and you want to compare the “launch” week to the week prior. You can compare and see if this has increased the traffic to your site or increased the amount of time your visitors stay on your site.

If you’re interested in placing advertising on your site or joining an ad or media network, Analytics will be very helpful. When it comes time to host advertising or join a network, you will be required to have your traffic tracked and will need to provide your unique visitor and page view stats.

Just one word of warning: Traffic-reporting programs can be addictive! If you find yourself checking your traffic 20 times a day (”Cool! Fifty more unique visitors in the past 45 minutes!”) and neglecting your to-do list, you may need to set some limits for yourself. Believe us, you wouldn’t be the first one who needed it.

Now that you can track the numbers, boost them. Check out “Search Engine Optimization Made Easy” in the Tools, Documents & Templates section of our site.