“Do you check your web site statistics?”

I ask this question of every web site redesign client I have. And 19 times out of 20, the answer is no. There are lots of reasons, including

1. I don’t think my web site has that.
2. I know I have web stats, but I don’t know how to access them.
3. I’ve tried to look at my stats, but I don’t understand them.
4. I don’t have time to look at them.

If you have a web site, and you don’t look at your stats, you’re missing a huge opportunity. Your stats will tell you:

1. How many unique visitors you have.
   This means: people who visit your web site from a unique computer address. It’s not 100% accurate — public computers, for example your local library computer, will only count as one unique visitor, even though it could be several different users — but it’s a good gauge of how many different people are coming to your site.
2. How many visits you get.
   This means: How many times those unique computer addresses come to your web site. This is a good way to track repeat traffic. Google cares a lot of about #1 and #2 when it comes to assigning you your search engine result rankings.
3. Which pages are being visited.
   A great example of why this should matter to you is happening on a site that I’m working with right now for my local Chamber of Commerce. We thought that the most visited pages of the site were related to our membership activities, but after looking at our stats, I realized that the most visited pages are actually about the towns we serve. What does this mean to us? Two things. One, we need to beef up our Membership pages in order to get more traffic there. Two, we need to add more content to the towns pages. Since people are looking for that information on our site, we need to either provide it, or take those pages down. Having weak pages that don’t include what a visitor is looking for is not the way to make an excellent site.
4. Referring sites
   This means: The sites that have a link to you. Visitors are coming to your site through those links. Google cares A LOT about this.
5. Search words and phrases
   This means: The words and phrases that are being typed into a search engine. You’ve come up as a result, and were clicked on. You should be ranking highly for your company name — that’s kind of a no-brainer. But if you sell t-shirts and your search phrases don’t even include that, or it’s at the bottom of the list, you need to do some web site revamping.
6. Your visits by day
   Why should you care about this? Have you run an ad recently? Done some networking? Gotten some press? Find out if it’s resulting in more web traffic.

Your stats options

Most web hosts offer a web stats program of some kind. I recommend BlueHost — they offer two different stats options: AWStats (which is my favorite — click here for a sample) and Webalizer, along with an exceptional package and great support. I’ve been very happy with them.

Google Analytics is a free program from the masters of all things web related. It’s more complicated to set up — you have to add a script to all of the pages on your site that you want to track. How hard that is depends on how you have your site set up. However, it works in conjunction with the Google Ad Words program if you want it to, which can be very helpful if you’re going that route.

There are other options as well, but these are the ones I recommend most highly.

Check your stats! You’ll be amazed,

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So, you know those great ideas that strike at 3a.m.? I had one, and I’m running with it. Check out my new store at cafepress.com. Tees, mugs and stickers with graphic design jokes that I, for one, find very funny (note: I wrote them).

It’s the first time I’ve tried Cafe Press, and I have to say, I’m very impressed. “CafePress.com is an online marketplace that offers sellers complete e-commerce services to independently create and sell a wide variety of products, and offers buyers unique merchandise across virtually every topic.” Which sounds like a lot of blah, blah but what a cool and easy to use interface, and a really great idea. From the time I came up with my shirt ideas (there are 6 witty versions to choose from) to the time that my online store was completely up, running, and stocked with shirts, stickers and mugs with my own designs on them was 3 hours. No kidding.

OK, I’m probably not the average web user (or at least I hope not. I’m supposed to know something, here!), but I do think that anyone could get their own store started relatively quickly. There are tons of customizable products to choose from, they take care of order fulfillment, billing and shipping, and it can be totally free to set up your store. I’m springing for the upgrade, which is less than $5 a month. You can also decide how much of a markup you want your products to have (the markup is the money you keep) and if you want your stuff sold in their general marketplace.

So, I’m gushing. But how often do you try something on the web and have it go perfectly? And be much, much better than you thought it would be?  And now I have a new hobby to occupy me.

I have another idea, too… This is so much fun!

So, this post may not be the most timely, but I meant to blog about Fashion Rocks this summer, and then was recently reminded about it when I came across the 2007 Fashion Rocks issue again in a waiting room.

Since 2004, Condé Nast has included Fashion Rocks magazine as an annual supplement to 17 of their titles (including the varied and disparate Vogue, Teen Vogue, Jane, Architectural Digest, and The New Yorker). It’s produced in tandem with the Fashion Rocks live concert during Fashion Week in New York.

Condé Nast, what gives? This is a terribly designed magazine. I mean, really, really, bad.

You may not get the full flavor, but here’s a sample:

What’s wrong with it? Let me count the ways…

1. What’s with the typefaces? I’m having a flashback to 1994. That slab serif set in all caps for the headlines (Look Who’s Back; Rock Star to Reality) and that skinny skinny serif (Photographed by Norman Jean Roy; Leather and Lace) put me in mind of Rockwell and Onyx, staples in my font arsenal in the mid 90’s. Not fabulous then. Certainly not fabulous now. They carry these font choices throughout the entire magazine.

2. That scrapbook look has got to go. I know the idea is that it looks casual and like something your 16 year old might put together, but why are they striving for that? I hate the way that looks. Even when I was 16, I hated the way that looked, and it hasn’t grown on me. Ugly. Dated. Feh.

3. See that little subhead on the cover? “Models on Nearly Every Page”? Why does that put me in mind of “Live Girls! Nude!”? They’re not nude in Fashion Rocks, but if you need a headline like that to get someone to open your (free) magazine, I think you’re in trouble.

4. Everything is too tight — the margin width, the leading, the space between the text and the images. I feel claustrophobic.

5. Those squat little initial caps on all of the stories are very annoying. Am I splitting hairs? Yes. But do they look good? No.

With all of the talent and resources available at the various Condé Nast publications, it’s hard to believe that this is the best they can do.

The absolute best place to buy Halloween cards is Red Stamp (what? You don’t routinely send out Halloween cards? Maybe you just didn’t have the right cards). The card above is by Hello Lucky, but there are 28 fab choices on the site with designs for all tastes.

Trick or treat!