Website traffic analysis will help you determine whether your website is doing well or your search engine optimization techniques are working properly. For starters, website traffic analysis is literally studying or understanding the flow of people in or out of the websites. It includes a determination of the total number of visitors, the average time someone spends on the website, the average number of pages a visitor views, the most requested pages, the most popular page (aside from the home page), the path chosen by the visitor and a hundred of different categories. If you think of it, they are just a bunch of numbers but these numbers will suggest whether everything is doing well in your website or whether you need some improvements. When one sets up his website, the first results of the analytical tools will tell him whether he chose the right free Flash templates or there are some barriers causing a low viewership. Long-time website owners use the analytical to find out whether they are still ahead of the competition or whether his goods/services are still responding properly with the market demand. More often than not, website developers also use them to predict any changes in the search engine guidelines or as an indication there is something new in the ecommerce market.
1) Google Analytics
In understanding the performance of your flash website, you should never ignore Google. Obviously, this mega-company will continue to dominate ecommerce in the years to come or unless a new blockbuster competitor will show up in the market. Google provides free statistical report for websites. Here the company provides the reports in graphs and tables for better understanding. A layman like you and me can understand the report. The statistical formulas and the detailed tabulations are left for the machine to work. All we have to do is analyze the number and graphs shown on the result page. However, there are some limitations imposed on the service by the ad-blocking features of the major browsers like Firefox. If this happens, the downloading time might be extended unusually.
2) WebStat and Other Free Web Analytical Services
Of course, one must never depend on a single opinion. We do not in a monopolistic society. We have choices and we should maximize them. Webstat.com is a good website analytical tool which comes in two versions, paid and free. The differences between the two are quite obvious. The paid version has more complete features than the free ones. Like many other internet service company, the free version has slower downloading time.
3) Paid Versions or the “Logarithm” Versions”
As the name implies, these web analytical sites include extremely detailed analysis in the form of graphs, tables, statistical reports, and the like. In some websites, the service also provides customer service representatives who are willing to answer queries. Others even introduced geographical statistics to demonstrate the flow of people viewing the website based on a mixed statistical and geographic data. Because Google Analytics is a tough one to beat, other websites added consulting services where retained professionals answer queries or give suggestions about the statistical results and give extremely valuable business advices.
4) Online Community Web Analytics
The online community web analytics are somewhat special. Unlike the common ones we know, the community web analytics provide statistical reports on the flow of people from your website coming from a single or more communities online. When we say “community”, we are referring to the blog sites, social networking sites, photo sharing sites, and the like. Because of their private nature, the statistical data could not be accessed by ordinary web analytical tools. In other words, they are exclusive. Why are they important anyway? Communities are powerful because of “bloc buying” and “bandwagon appeal”. If a service or product gets mentioned in online blogosphere and everyone started blogging about it, there is a multiplier effect wherein the popularity of products spreads rapidly among users. To better understand this, just think of the numerous political endorsements and opinions spread through Twitter and Facebook. Many opinions were intended to be private or within the maker’s friends, but the same spread rapidly within the social-networking community.
