Website analytics are important. Very important. They can provide an entire story line of how people use your website which in turn can help you determine what's working, what's not, with your website.

There are many different website stats and analytical tools available. Some are free, some cost tens-of-thousands of dollars. So before you decide which tools you're going to spend the time and money on, it's important for you to figure out which tools will provide the information you're looking for. For instance, does the tool track conversions, page views, downloads. Does it track each visitor's full behavior or does it simply group the data? How long will the data be saved for, and can other referrals be tracked that may come from phone calls?

There are some great free web analytical tools available. Some will even be part of your website hosting provider's solution. This is often a default setup, so make sure that your stats are password protected. For those free solutions, it's also important to note for how long this data is available and who owns it. If the solution is provided by your hosting provider, it is often stored on your web hosting plan as part of your data storage. If you are using another free service, like Google Analytics, the data is being saved on Google's servers and can be shared with Google to improve its products. If your current Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing company has provided you with the stats, ensure you have administrative access to the appropriate systems.

As a Toronto SEO company, we often implement and setup different web analytical tools. However, what we find is that most companies don't spend the time to analyze the data. Setting up regular meetings with your solution provider or consultant to go over these stats and decide on any required alterations is paramount. Scheduled reports can be emailed to you and for the data hungry user, you can even put a widget on your desktop to keep you updated in real-time.

Remember your website is a business tool and it's only as successful as you make it.

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