Can I trust my web stats?

[kellymonaghan]

I decided to get serious about monitoring which search phrases bring people to my site. So I opened up Awstats and started examining the past four months. Now I'm getting suspicious.

[Just for background, my site has to do with the travel industry and it contains an extensive dictionary of travel terms.]

The number one search term -- by a wide margin -- every month is "rack rate". The term "freight on board" is number 2, 3 or 4 each month. The terms "turndown service" and "turn down service" are in the top 10 every month, as is "iata number.".

The following terms are in the top 10 in 3 out of the 4 months: internet, smerf.

Now I suppose it's possible this could all be accurate, but it seems to me that, naturally, there would be more variation month to month. Some terms might be "hot" one month. But 4 months in a row??

I'm wondering what the experience of other Warriors might be. Any SEO experts want to chime in?

[ehicks727]

Are you using Google Analytics also? If not, start. You can get detailed keyword search phrase data

[kellymonaghan]

ehicks727: Yeah, I just recently added GA, but I figure it will be several months before I have enough data to make a comparison.

[BrianMcLeod]

Do a search for each of those terms in quotes and see if you're not ranked 1 -3... My guess is that your definition page is #1 for the term.

Does that traffic bounce immediately or do they actually stick around and go through the rest of your site?

Best,

Brian

[ehicks727]

Originally Posted by kellymonaghan

ehicks727: Yeah, I just recently added GA, but I figure it will be several months before I have enough data to make a comparison.

The problem with looking at raw web data is that you're looking at all the bot traffic as well. Even with Google Analytics, you need to look carefully at your search terms coming in. Check the time (how long the visitor was on the page). If it's 00:00 it's most likely a bot, not a human.

If you aren't aware, there are bots running 24/7, scraping Google for every search term you can think up. These bots drill down through the search results until they end... meaning, if the result had 10000 pages, then the bot visits all 10000 pages of results, then visits each one of those sites.

So your Awstats results like "Internet" are probably a bot. I highly doubt that you rank in the top 1000 pages for the single work "Internet".

[kellymonaghan]

Yep, LoudMac, you're right. Number one for "rack rate" with and without quotes.

But this is interesting: After reading ehicks727"s post, I checked Google Analytics for the short time I've had it installed on the dictionary directory of the site and, while terms like turndown service, turn down service, smerf, and define internet are in the top 5, rack rate is #477!

Clearly something is screwy with Awstats. From now on, I'll rely on GA.