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Make Web PagesTracking Profit Links |
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Track incoming traffic Once you increase search engine traffic, wouldn't it be nice to know where it's coming from? Tracking your incoming traffic may depend on your Internet Service Provider. Each one has different policies about showing you logs of your web site activity. They are not always willing to get these to you. If you run a web site for profit, insist on them. These logs can be invaluable. Log files from different servers can be quite different. There are some things that are very important. I have included these features in the example below.  Visitors Location The address of each visitor is logged. The address is an exact machine, but not likely an exact person. Often, it might even just give you an IP address. If it always gives you an IP address, ask your ISP to set "DNS Lookup" to ON. The real value of knowing your visitor can vary. The first page they visit tells you how they arrived. Contrary to popular belief, visitors can find your site through any page on your site. When you list your web page on the search engine, they list all of your pages, not just the first. You can track the route a visitor takes through your site by following the name through the logs. This can let you know what pages are percieved as valuable. You may want to make more like them, or tune up the ones that aren't interesting enough. If you started an ad campaign in a local newspaper, you can get an idea of whether the ad is working. Maybe you're passing out cards at various networking functions or just changed your yellow page ads. These logs are full of clues to help you tune your marketing machine. Quite often, you can pick out visitors from other countries. If they all quit at the same page, you might check to see if something is confusing or maybe even offensive. Different words can have totally different meanings in other parts of the world. Date and Time Date and time seems pretty self-explanatory. You can still see some trends that you might not have thought of. If people spend 5 minutes per page, they are most likely reading it. If they only spend 5 seconds, they are not. Current Resource The current resource is the item your visitor is requesting, either directly or by your page referencing to it. It may show every graphic, cgi, txt or other files your visitor may be requesting. The HTML (or htm) files are probably the most useful items for tracking our traffic. Usually, the first page will be called simply (/), also known as the root directory. In this web site, the first page would actually be http://www.makemyownwebpage.com/index.htm. The "index.htm" page name is generally assumed. Refering site address The refering site address is a very useful marketing tool. It answers the important question, "where do my customers come from?" This tells us what domain is refering our visitors. In the case of Search Engines, it can even tell us what keywords they searched for when they found us! This can help enormously to increase search engine traffic. We can also purchase web site traffic by the click through. Since we are paying for each visitor, it would be foolish not to track this traffic. |
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Track outgoing traffic Sometimes people leave your site. If they are following a link to buy something, and you get a commission, that's good. If they are leaving because they're bored, that's bad. The log only shows activity getting a resource from your site. It does not show activity on a destination site. How can we know where they are going? One very simple way to track outgoing traffic is for the outgoing link to pass through a page on your site. Each outgoing link should have its' own OUTLINK page. Normally, the second page would require your visitor to click on another link to keep going. Keep it simple for your visitor. One little HTML goody that we can use is in the META tag section of your web page.
The HTTP-EQUIV tag allows you to refresh to another page. Note the CONTENT is set to 0. This is the number of seconds to wait before going to the next destination. The next destination is defined by the URL modifier. This usually points to a specific web page. If you have a favorite hit counter, include it also. Make sure it uses an appropriate name you can associate with the outgoing link. This way you can see how many people you entice into seeing your vendor. If you use the hit counter, I would suggest adding another page for your site, where you show the hit results without incrementing to see who's getting the clicks and who isn't. Once your visitor gets to the vendor site, your vendor is either going to sell them or not. These are different numbers and can help you adjust your strategies. Your vendor keeps these numbers. You can usually pull a report from them. |
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Please don't go!! How do we send people out to buy stuff and give us a commission, but bring them back for more? There are two different answers to that question. Bookmark or Favorite One method requires them to bookmark the page (Netscape) or add the page to their favorites (Internet Explorer). How can we ensure that they do? No guarantees, but if you just ask them, they might. Of course, the content of your page helps them make that decision. Start a new blank page Another HTML goody is the target modifier to the <a href> tag. Start a new blank page when you go to the link. This works great with the OUTLINK approach, as it eliminates a step for the visitor.
Using this method, the user goes to the vendor page and makes their purchase. At this point they can exit or wander around and eventually exit. Your page is patiently waiting behind the one they have been looking at. |
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Phone: (208)467-6236 FAX: (208)463-9363 |
 mtg@makemyownwebpage.com |
MTG EnterPrizes 511-9th Ave. N. Nampa, Id 83687-3347 |
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