My site traffic is down… you suck!

Title grab you did it?  That’s a common thing I am hearing from my customers coming off the holiday shopping season.  Well maybe not in those exact words, but here is what I am hearing starting off this new year…

“My traffic is way down on my site, what is going on?”  or “You are not doing what you said you’d do in marketing my web site.”

First of all… acknowledging that site traffic is down in December is only part of the picture.  The common misconception in using Google Analytics that I encounter with my clients is that they look at small snapshots of data without any reference to past trends and make major assumptions about their website’s overall performance.  In some circumstances that may be correct, however people tend to panic when perhaps they see a drop in traffic without looking at the big picture.

To many, this topic is seemingly adolescent – this being basic knowledge of using Analytics – but I write this for the small business guy who gets worried at the slightest change in traffic who maybe has a bit of tunnel vision.

So when you say to me – you suck – I say to you – chill out and consider this.

Yes – for sure your traffic was down in December of 2009 from November of 2009 – BUT your traffic is up 30% in December 2009 compared to your traffic in December of 2008.  Additionally, your site may have less traffic than last month, but of that less traffic, you converted more of it than you did last year.  Are you following me?   Here are a few graphs to demonstrate:

Comparing Traffic Trends Year Over Year

The green line above is showing site visits in 2008, and the blue shows site traffic in 2009.  This specific business typically has cycles of higher traffic and the traffic trends for the two years compared are almost identical, the only difference:  the average increase for each month compared to the previous year is up an average of 30%.  So while the traffic was down in December of 2009, it was still up from this time last year.

Next – take a look at your goal conversions:

Goal Conversion Comparison Year Over Year

Again – green is 2008 – so for this period of time, there was clearly an increase in site traffic conversions (completed goals) over the previous year.  This is a great measure of success for a site if the goals are meaningful and can be associated with revenue.

You can check the year over year comparisons (or even month over month) on a variety of data points using Google Analytics like Bounce Rate, Exit Rate, Page Views and more.  Simply select the “Compare to Past” option (shown here) when selecting your date range.  By default it will prefill the past date range to the previous period of time just before the current date range selected (so if I’ve selected a 30 day period it will default to the previous 30 days).

Usually by this time, the customer has calmed down and understands that their site has common trends when you compare specific time ranges over previous years.  Furthermore, when they see the increase in conversions they feel better.  One would think they’d be more aware of the conversions and revenue generated by their website – but in reality – many small business are a ‘one man shop’ and their method of tracking revenue is generally somewhat antiquated.

So I encourage you – the small business owner to have all the information before making any assumptions, and if you have a dedicated Internet Marketing Strategist – be sure to ask the right questions.

BTW if you are not yet using Google Analytics on your website – you should be.  There is so much to learn if you only listen to what your web site has to say.

Tagged as: google analytics, internet marketing, internet marketing tools, online conversions, small business websites, web site growth, web site traffic, web traffic, web traffic trends