Who's Out There?

Pay attention to what your users are doing. How many people are visiting your site and where are they going? There are ways of tracking which parts of your site are being frequented. Your site should come with statistics programs which give you information as to who is on your website, where they are coming from, which files they are accessing, and a lot more. If you know what files are accessed the most, you can have an idea of what your visitors are most interested in.

Web Statistics Chart

The chart above shows general statistics. When interpreting this page, you are primarily interested in Sessions - the amount of people who logged on, and page views - the total number of pages viewed. Do not count "hits" as some people do. A hit occurs everytime something from a page is loaded—pictures, graphics, links, etc. Counting hits is basically meaningless. Also included is how people found your site—where they came from, what key words they used, etc.

Provide a way for users to give you feedback. The most common method is via email. Use that information to identify and resolve technical problems in a timely manner. Use qualitative comments about the site along with usage tracking data, to guide your decisions about what content to keep, replace, or improve.