Giving your site visitors what they want means knowing what they like
Are you caught in the new website owner trap? You may be, whether you've had a site for five years or five minutes.
You've probably spent a lot of time customizing your Mortgage XSite. And the result is probably something you're happy and comfortable with.
But of every person on the planet, the one that least needs to like your XSite is you. You're going to visit it all the time no matter what! Right?
Sure, you know your potential clients, you know who you're marketing to, and when you build your XSite you're trying to meet their needs. But how do you know if you're successful?
Are you constantly making changes to your XSite, even dropping or modifying features you think are cool, based on what is most effective?
If not, you need to be introduced to your XSite's statistics area. This is where you see which pages on your site have been getting the most traffic and from where.
After logging into your XSite admin area, click XSite Statistics from the My Office screen. We’ve arranged this screen and the information so that you don’t have to be a Geeky McWebberson to make heads or tails of the information. And once you understand it, you can easily use it to make your site as effective as possible.
Note:
- Most of the sections show you a page name and then stats going back a varying number of days. You can sort columns in these lists by clicking the column header.
- You can pick your own date range for a category by picking your own start and end date and then clicking Submit.
Ok, here's what you'll see and how to use it.
First time and returning visitors - Whenever someone visits your website, their IP address and other information is logged on our servers. So, we know if they’ve been to your site before and give you statistics here.
What to do: Rarely if ever will someone make a decision to work with a mortgage originator after seeing their website once. A cardinal rule of marketing is that prospects have to see your message multiple times before they make a decision. The more repeat visitors you're getting, the more business you're likely to get from your site.
Page Views - This shows a list of your top pages and how many views they’re getting. Your home page is usually your top page.
What to do: The good, useful information here is what other pages are getting the most traffic. These are your subpages that visitors are finding and reading. This gives you a glimpse of what your visitors are looking for -- and finding -- on your site. If you find for example that local content pages are getting the most page views, you know it would be a good idea to deliver more local content.
Entry pages - An Entry Page is the first page somebody hit when they entered your site. For most, your home page will probably be the top entry page.
What to do: Other entry pages show which parts of your site are getting linked elsewhere, on other sites or in search engines. The content of these pages is the most effective, and you should figure out what it is about them that gets so much traffic. Use your conclusions to make content on other pages better.
Referring URLs - Another piece of information sent to a web server when a computer browses to a site is the last website you were viewing before reaching the server. If you see a lot of "hits" that have Google or Yahoo! in them or maybe a news site where you posted an article, you’ll know from where it is people are hearing about your site.
What to do: Knowing where visitors are coming from tells you where you want to be linked. Getting a lot of hits from google.com? Search engines are your friend, and you may even consider a . Getting a lot of click-throughs from link exchanges with local agents, appraisers and the like? Focus your marketing efforts on those sites.
Common Search Phrases - We analyze your referring URLs and pick out which ones are from search engines and also the text that led someone to find you there.
What to do: Learn what search phrases are bringing the most visitors to your site, and deploy those keywords liberally throughout your content. You may find that "Atlanta fixed rate mortgage" is a search phrase bringing a lot of visitors to your site, and not so much "Atlanta refinance" or "Atlanta mortgage broker." If so, get "Atlanta fixed rate mortgage" into your site -- on content pages, in your site title and keywords, as a footer -- more than it is.
If you’re serious about web "hits," consider tracking the information from your XSite stats in a spreadsheet so you can get additional running totals and truly measure the success of your marketing efforts. And most importantly: Don't be afraid to change things when you learn what visitors are after.
XSellerate campaign tracking: Did you know you can also keep track of how your marketing is being received and acted on through XSellerate?
- From XSellerate, click the Campaign Activity button in the Configure panel on the left to show the Current Campaign Activity screen. If you already see the Current Campaign Activity screen when you load XSellerate, skip to the next step.
- Click the This week, 0-30 days, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, or 90+ days tab to see the ads that have been delivered to your various contacts in the indicated time range. If you blended print mailings with your e-mail campaign, XSellerate also notifies you of the notifications you've received about delivering those postcards.
- Review the list of items that have been delivered. For each e-mail ad that was delivered, click the name of the ad to read the actual copy of the ad that was sent to your contact. To determine if the recipient read the message, refer to the Contact column.
Another way to track the effectiveness of your campaigns is to embed a link to a specific page on your XSite that's only available through your ad. You can even add a lead capture form to the page to encourage the recipients of your ad to contact you.
