:: Volume 6, Issue 2 - March 17, 2006 ::

Thank You for Your Interest in Empowering Your Business on the Web
And thank you for your interest in receiving this newsletter.

It's St. Patrick's Day today, and for those folks with Irish heritage, it's a day of Pride and Celebration (which in Gaelic is apparently spelled "p-a-r-t-y"), because Blessed St. Patrick chased the snakes from the Emerald Isle over 1500 years ago, or at least so the tale goes.

And so, once a year, the lone Irish member of the Globi Team celebrates his national pride with his head held high --- at least he did, until I was doing a bit of quick research this morning for this article and found (on the internet of all places) that St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, was in fact born in Scotland. Go figure. Will our team member drink any less green-coloured draught beer tonight? Not a dram less, because sometimes the facts aren't as important as the spirit behind the story.

Sadly, this is NOT the case with website statistics, however (and you were wondering how this ramble was going to morph into a newsletter!)

Lying Stats

When is an Irish saint not Irish? When is a website visit not a visit?

So, you looked at your online website statistics recently, and saw some amazingly high numbers. You laughed, you danced, you started shopping for a new BMW, because a ton of traffic is every website business owner's dream.

But, is what you're seeing real? Are the numbers telling the truth?

If you think they are, then you may need to re-evaluate your conversion rates. If your stats are showing a thousand visitors per day but you're only making one sale, then there's something seriously wrong --- one-per-thousand won't buy a BMW, or even a 1976 rusted-out Ford Pinto.

There are facts and there are Facts. Fact: something is causing your visitor count to register a thousand visits per day. Fact: a visit is not always a visit. It's more likely that you're not getting a thousand unique HUMAN visitors per day, you're just getting hit by thousands of THINGS --- specifically 'bots' or 'spiders'. If your website is clear, clean & even just somewhat professional, yet you're getting a thousand visitors per day and almost zero sales, it's likely that your stats software cannot tell the difference between a human and a bot or spider (or other piece of net-searching software).

Search engines, spam harvesters, and other automated crawlers are likely making up half to two-thirds of your traffic. This can inflate your numbers dramatically, making it next to impossible to realistically make sense of your traffic patterns.

There are some great statistical tools available that will show you actual conversion rates and these tools are certainly much more valuable in running your business than false web statistics and incorrect assumptions used to interpret the data.

And just so you know, all Globi Hosting Packages contain Detailed Statistics Reports.

Did you know...

Globi can also create Custom Statistics Tracking for your specific business needs, to analyze customer interaction with your particular online model? To learn more about Globi's approach to Web Statistics, visit: http://www.globi.ca/.
To get Custom Stats Tracking for your business, contact us at 403-229-3800.

Do you know your website's Conversion Rate? Why not?!

Hey - share the Wealth!

People you care about could be benefiting from the wealth of information on new and solutions on the Web. So help them by forwarding this issue of Globi Web Solutions Newsletter!

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Until next month, we remain your humble messenger to the internet.

Globi Web Solutions
1023 - 12th Ave SW
Calgary, Alberta, T2R 0J5
Phone: (403) 229-3800
E-mail: admin@globi.ca
Web Site: http://www.globi.ca

Copyright © 2010 Globi Web Solutions. All Rights Reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part without the inclusion of Globi Web Solutions' Reprint Permission below.

Reprint Permission

Although this material is subject to copyright, please feel free to reprint this publication, in whole or in part, in your company publication, in training, presentations, or wherever you feel this would be of benefit. This also holds true for members of the media. All we ask (actually, we insist) is that you use the following credit line:

Reprinted with permission from Globi Web Solutions, a leading Website Design and Development Company based in Calgary. For further resources and information, go to globi.ca. Copyright © 2010 Globi Web Solutions.