Track Visitors, Track Conversions, Track Adsense, Track It Or Lose It

Cannot emphasize this enough , tracking is the be all and end all of taking your affiliate marketing business forwards.

Tracking Source Of Traffic

Based on the results of tracking your traffic generation methods you'll find two thing

• Traffic generation methods that are providing you with Traffic

This can be divided into

Traffic that converts - These are the methods you want to replicate, invest more time in and increase

Traffic that does not convert - You need to look at where this traffic is coming from and decide why they are not converting

Is it a problem with your website's design

Is it the wrong keywords bringing this traffic i.e window shopper keywords rather than ready to buy keywords

Are you getting traffic from the wrong source i.e freebie seekers

Whatever the problem is with the traffic generation methods that you identify as bringing traffic that does not convert, you need to fix it or shelve it if unfixable

• Traffic Generation methods that are not bringing you traffic

These are to be abandoned as soon as you identify them. Especiallly if you have other methods that are working for your site

Tracking Keywords

Keywords are the search terms that bring search engine traffic to your web pages

• Keywords that generate traffic

Again divide this into two groups

Keywords that convert -These are the keywords you want to further optimize your site for. So if your site is getting some traffic from a keyword that you rank in position 6 for in google, and the traffic converts either with adsense clicks or affiliate sales, then you need to optimize for this keyword so you are in the number one position in Google for it.

Keywords that do not convert - Do a quick review to see if they are keywords that are not designed for conversions eg free. Those words I would advice you to stop optimizing for.

If the keywords are buying keywords that are just not converting on your webpage, then you need to look at the structure of the page and tweak things. It may just be a clear call to action that makes all the difference

• Keywords that do not generate traffic

Two things you need to consider are

Are you underoptimized for these keywords?

Is there a low demand for these keywords?

Other Quick Tracking Tips

What is the most frequently used entry point to your site?

This is where you need to grab their attention. There really is no point in having a vague ramble on your sites front door [which may not necessarily be your home page].

Do some traffic analysis.
Identfy where your visitors first come in contact with your site.
Make sure that you have clear and persuasive content on that page. Perhaps include an opt in form on that page.
The portal of entry is your most valuable piece of virtual real estate.

 

Where is the highest exit point from your website?

If you notice that one of your webpages has an inordinately high proportion of exits, You need to focus on that page.

The worst possible scenario is the content on that page is so dull or off topic or irrelevant or poorly laid out that it is sending visitors away

There are more innocent explanations of course. Like excellently positioned adsense ads with high CTR taking visitors away from your site. Or a really good affiliate link that visitors are clicking on.

The main point is to identify why they are leaving from that page and if it's a problem with the webpage, fix it

Now how do you track your website visitors.

Free options:

Google analytics. This is a very good website tracking software. It requires you to place a piece of html code on every page of your website and then it collects the data using this code.  Analytics is very easy to use, the results are quit comprehensive and the interphase is easy to use.

Go to http://www.google.com/analytics/ and sign up for a free account

Free Stats: If your website is a blog, then the more appropriate free tool is addfreestats. This can also be used on a regular website. Again, you need to put a snippet of code on your webpage. Addfreestats gives you a hour by hour breakdown of your traffic

Go to http://addfreestats.com/ and sign up for a free account

Commercial:

Most Recommended:

Adsense tracker: A must have for any serious internet marketer. Adsense tracker tracks

• Adsense views and clicks
• Yahoo publisher
• Shopping ads
  

It tells you

Keywords used to reach your webpage

Domain referring the visitor to your website.

Webpages visited

Which webpage generated an adsense click or other conversion

The ip of the visitor

Hourly record of your website's traffic

Learn More about tracking your website's traffic and conversions here