Over the past month or so, I’ve posted several articles related to web statistics and what they mean. Let’s take a look at an important referrer-related bit of information: inbound search links. These identify the terms that visitors are putting into search engines and then finding your site. For example, if one searches for Portland wedding photography, gets a page of search results and then clicks on a link to Gabriel Boone Photography, the web statistics for the Gabriel Boone Photography site will note that someone arrived via a search for Portland wedding photography.
Pay attention to the search terms that people are using to find your site. Some of them might be expected, but odds are that you’ll find some search terms that might be outside of what you planned. That’s not a bad thing; it can actually be an eye-opener to some topics that you should address more frequently or in more detail.
In the opposite scenario, you might find a lack of referrers coming from search terms that you’re expecting. If you focus on senior pictures in Seattle, ideally your site will be listed when people search for senior pictures Seattle. If it’s not, that’s when you’ll want to look at doing a bit of search engine optimization (SEO). A good place to start might be my short article on SEO and keywords, or view all posts here tagged as SEO-related.
We’ve tied together web statistics and SEO. They are two separate areas that a web publisher should address. Web statistics give a view into your site’s current performance and popularity, while SEO can help you gain more traffic from people who are performing web searches.
Next week, we’ll look at a few more advanced SEO topics that go beyond simple keywords and links.
Photo by David Trowbridge, used under Creative Commons licensing
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