Tutorial or Instructional

[FrankV]

Is there a page or video that explains in detail what all the stats delivered by StatCounter mean and how to use them?

I ask this because while the stats are nice and all that, I have no idea of what many of them mean or how to use them. Most of what I do is look at the
Keyword Analysis, Recent Keyword Activity, Recent Came From, Search Engine Wars, Visit Length and Returning Visits.

I understand that there are the short "How can the <insert stat> help me" at the bottom of some of the stats, but this really doesn't teach me how to use the stats or what they mean in relation to a web page, SEO or whatever. Yes, it should be obvious, but often isn't. Particularly so to a "newbie". And I still think of myself as being in that situation a lot of times.

I guess what I'm mainly after is "How do I interpret the stats to make my site better?".

[DSL Guy]

Hi Frank

You have a point not on top of your head (just joking) remember Oblio?

Anyway, I often look at how the users find me and how long they stay. Keywords and phrases used tell me if my content needs adjustment.

How long they stay tells me if I might be saying too much or not enough. So now I adjust that.

Recently I did some reading that talked about how most site's content focuses on the "what" of the subject matter, but should consider refocusing on the "why" of the subject.

You know how kids do it... they ask an endless string of why questions. Has nothing to do with interpreting your stats... just thought to add it.

[Car Guy]

On the Statcounter Homepage

Some of the stats and features we offer

Every feature has a link to an explaination

[FrankV]

Originally Posted by Car Guy

On the Statcounter Homepage

Some of the stats and features we offer

Every feature has a link to an explaination

Never paid attention to those. Thought they were gimmicks to promote sales. Never thought that they were help oriented.

Guess I need to go to school to learn how to use that information to make my site better and get more visitors that stay longer and stuff. Some of the stats feels "disjointed". Like the enter and exit part. To me those should be together on the same page. Maybe with some sort of "Bounce Rate" or other correlation between them. How do they work together to give me help on my site?

Not to be rude, but statements like "If not, you need to do something." doesn't help much. I know I need to do something. What?? A "Bounce rate" that would give a percent of how many visitor leave on the same page they came in on would help. An " Average Time on Site" would be good. How long on average do visitors stay on my site? Yes, I know that I can get the stats and create a spreadsheet and all that, but why? Why not just offer it in the stats? Takes less of my time and makes StatCounter better in my opinion.

Like I said, I guess I just don't understand and need to go to school or something. <sigh>

Ok. I'll give my horse a rest for a few.

[webado]

Averages aren't always very meaningful.

Personally I mostly check Recent Pageloads and Keywords.

While it might feel warm and fuzzy to check visit lengths, I don't bother because I am more interested in how many pages a visitor loaded over how many sessions, rather than how long he was away from his computer going to the bathroom, coffee, shopping or watching American Idol.

[fuzzy]

I mainly look at Visitor Paths, that way I see how the visitor got to my site and what pages were visited. Nowadays, I mainly look at three of my projects, and only occasionally look at the rest. I also check some of the search engine searches to see where my site lands; it does fairly well, though I still have the problem of some pages that don't exist still doing well in one particular search engine...