Congratulations! Your digital masterpiece has just been completed — a brand new “killer” Website and it is beautiful! You carefully thought it through and hired the right people to make sure your site sees major traffic. You can almost taste the flood of new leads, sounds good doesn't it?

If you think your work is done after this “killer” site is launched, think again. Websites are not “launch and forget” cruise missiles that automatically seek out their target. They need constant fine tuning and course corrections to make sure they effectively achieve their goal — generating substantial new online business.

And here is how that is done…

Achieving consistent new traffic to your site is not rocket science. Using proven strategies like “Pay-Per-Click” search engine advertising can turn on the visitor faucet almost immediately. It’s what the visitors do once they are at your site that is important. If the majority of your site visitors are doing nothing, then that should be a clue that something needs to be fixed. To assess this accurately, visitor behavior on your site needs to be thoroughly analyzed then corrective measures should be put into action.

The first step in this process is to look at your Website statistics, or “stats”. Any time someone visits your site the hosting server generates a veritable flood of highly-detailed statistical information about that visitor and what they did while perusing your site. Here is just a small sample of the information the hosting server collects:

• Visitor Information – the time they first landed on your site, their IP address, the type and version of operating system running on their computer, the type and version of Web browser software they used to view your site and their computer screen resolution, etc.
  
• Visitor Behavior – where they came from (i.e. referring links), what search engine phrase they used to find you (if any), which pages on your site they viewed and when, what links they clicked and when and what time they left your site, etc.

These statistics are typically stored on your Website’s server as a “log” file. For the most part are completely unintelligible to the average mortal who tries to read them. Fortunately, there is a whole industry that provides software to convert raw Website visitor data into meaningful, pretty charts and graphs that provide a better understanding of what happens when visitors stop by your site.

The resulting interpretation of your site statistics can provide some very useful information such as: the (probable) geographical location of each visitor, whether they are a new or returning visitor, how long they stayed on your site, where they went when they left it, which pages they lingered on the longest (i.e. they found most interesting), which pages they didn’t visit or clicked right through (i.e. showed the least interest), which forms they completed (or didn’t complete), and which links they clicked on, etc.

In fact, some Web analytics services can provide you with over 500 different types of statistical information about your site visitors and their behavior while on your site.

Currently the “gold standard” for Web analytics services is Google Analytics. This extremely powerful Web-based statistics package used to cost $400/month before Google bought it and now makes it available to anyone for free — that’s right, no cost whatsoever. Just go to http://www.google.com/analytics and sign up for your free account. Once signed up, your Webmaster will need to install a small snippet of code on every page of your site that you want to track. After that, you will be able to log into your Google Analytics account from any Web browser and see up-to-the-minute real time statistics on everything you could ever want to know about your site visitors and their behavior.

Talk about charts and graphs, there’s enough eye-candy there to give you a bad case of digital diabetes.
Website statistics are highly useful if you have the ability to a) understand what they are saying about your site’s ability or lack of ability to convert visitors to clients, and b) they can be used to help create a strategic corrective plan of action.

To accomplish both of these objectives requires someone with a special combination of skills. They must be highly analytical and able to think strategically. Here is an example of what I mean.

Sharon Hodnett, recently named “Super Agent” by Texas Monthly, has her main Website at http://www.teamhodnett.com. After installing Google Analytics her strategic Web marketing team noticed that a large percentage of her site visitors were spending time in the “Just For Kids” section of her site. That means her visitors were finding real value there, but there was just one little problem, a deeper study of the statistics were showing that many of these visitors were leaving her site after visiting this section. Upon review, it was clear that there was nothing in this section that was “engaging” the visitors to generate an inquiry — the first step in the online conversion process. As a result, her strategic Web marketing team is now installing an “Irresistible Offer” that will cause people to request more information, while revealing more about themselves.

There are a lot of companies that will sell (or in the case of Google, give) you comprehensive Website statistics packages. There are not many however, that will provide ongoing affordable and professional interpretation of those statistics and create a corrective plan of action. You can find some companies (that specifically use the Google Analytics package) that offer strategic Website statistics interpretation by going to http://www.google.com/analytics/support_partner_analysis.html

Unfortunately, many of these firms are geared to helping Fortune 1000 type firms, not individual REALTORS.  Since this leaves a “vacuum” for the individual professional, I helped create a service called WebAssess that is geared specifically to help the individual real estate professional maximize their Website visitor-to-client conversion rates. It starts out with a comprehensive 50+ point assessment of your site’s current strengths and weaknesses and includes recommendations to correct those inadequacies. Then, Google Analytics is installed on every page of your site so that a professional strategic Web marketing team can suggest corrective action to your Web designer on a quarterly basis. This way your site is constantly being monitored and always moving toward maximizing its ability to convert visitors into closed transactions.
Your Website is not a static piece of marketing like an ad or brochure. It is by far the richest, most interactive, and superior form of marketing ever invented. The dynamic, ever improving, evolving technologies, characterize it as a fluid “living” thing that needs monitoring and fine-tuning. Putting your site out there to the world and then forgetting about it is not the way to online riches.

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to Web marketing, it’s just expensive.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. NOTE: Author does have a financial interest in WebAssess.  Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He's dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. You'll see his column on REALTOR® Magazine Online every month and in the magazine quarterly. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrInternet.com or you can visit his Website at www.russer.com.

This article is reprinted in its entirety from the December 2006 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2006. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark and Ask Mr. Internet!™ is a trademark of RUSSER Communications.