How Can You Start Tracking Website Visits?

If you’re not already tracking website visits, you should start as soon as possible. Given that most businesses put a lot of time and effort into building an online presence, having a website without doing analysis is a huge mistake.
Website visitor tracking enables you to see valuable information about the people that come to your site and about the way they interact with it. This data is extremely important for both marketing and sales teams as they can use it to refine the site and give people a bigger incentive to convert.
Dedicate the time to closely monitor website traffic and the behavior and demographics of your visitors. You will be able to improve your conversion rates, optimize your digital ad spend, and consistently grow your revenue.
Because of that, in this short article, we will present to you different ways of tracking website visits and the benefits you might get from doing so.

Why is Tracking Website Visits so Important?

Going in-depth and analyzing your website visitors is a great way to gain insight into your potential customers and how they respond to your site. You can retain a ton of information about visitors, even their company names and contact information, in some cases, which directly sets up warm leads for your sales team.

When it comes to marketing, analyzing website visitors lets you know if your content is working and to what extent. For example, you can have data on who’s clicking on what content and stores can identify exactly when customers abandon their carts or have checkout issues.

A ton of website tracking tools have the so-called “user flows,” which shows how visitors interact with the website and follow them as they go through the different pages. The data is very important for the success rate of a site, and it can show you which areas have to get better.
Regardless of what kind of business you have, you can benefit from tracking your visitor data. Some of the most common goals that can benefit from this activity include:

• Gathering contact information from prospects as a way to get better leads
• Improving engagement and ad clicks
• Increasing your conversion rate
• Offering an overall better website experience
  

Along with that, thanks to this data, your marketing team can optimize ad spend and just work off of what they know is working. There are benefits for the sales team as well, as they can get better leads.

What Visitor Activities Should You Be Tracking?

You can obtain a ton of different kinds of data when tracking website visitors. This may include identifying information, performance analytics, or user behavior. Depending on your company’s goals, you can consider gathering the following data:

• Your visitor’s location, demographics, and potentially the companies they represent, as well as contact information
• Click rates and user flow
• Overall traffic by page
• Bounce rate
• Where the website traffic comes from

By having information and understanding each of these categories, you can develop more effective marketing and sales strategies. Both teams can use the data to improve their approach and their results as well.

How to Track Website Visits

Tracking website visits can happen through the use of specific website visitor tracking software. Typically, these tools focus on three types of data: website analytics, user behavior, and visitor identity. Together, they help you reach your business goals.

Some tools are more focused on providing traffic overview, while others are capable of giving you in-depth user insight. Additionally, more advanced programs can also integrate with CRM platforms to deliver an even better experience.

How Does Website Tracking Software Work?

Most platforms use either a reverse domain name system (rDNS) or a website script to gather data from your page. Here’s how both of these technologies work.

Reverse Domain Name System

Every device that’s connected to the internet has its own internet protocol (IP) address and most reverse DNS records. Website visitor tracking tools use that rDNS to analyze a user’s IP address and collect information. This information can be used by any teams that find it relevant.

Script

Some website visitor tracking software installs a script directly onto the website and collects data automatically. The software then takes the data and analyzes it, and prepares reports based on it. This information can be used to determine which companies are visiting the website and then turn them into warm leads. Publicly provided information typically includes a company’s

• Address
• Website
• Social media accounts
• Contact information, including phone numbers and email addresses

Keep in mind that in the European Union, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) forbids website tracking without the consent of the visitor. So if your business receives any traffic from the EU, you have to be mindful and follow GDPR guidelines. Otherwise, you risk getting some hefty fines. Some website visitor tools offer tips on how you can be certain that you comply with the GDPR guidelines. That typically includes things like having terms of use, privacy, and cookies policies clearly visible for users and including information on how users’ data will be collected and for what purpose.

On the other hand, in the United States, there’s no federal law that outlines consumer tracking. That being said, the Federal Trade Commission recommends that companies provide website visitors with information about the data collection that’s occurring, especially if it’s being used for marketing purposes. Furthermore, customers have the option to use a “do not track” option on their web browsers, but there’s no law that ensures companies adhere to these requests.

In Conclusion

Tracking website visits is an extremely helpful practice that will help take your business to the next level. Not only will the information help your marketing team improve, but it can also be extremely beneficial when it comes to getting more sales and having returning customers.