[journeyoftheanimals]

OK someone on here suggested Google analytics to me and so far I love it. But I have one quick question about it. The average time on my site is listed as 00:00:16. Does that mean that the average stay is only 16 seconds? Or is that 16 minutes? Man, if it is seconds that just sucks. I need to find out where to place the code in my forums, then the time should improve (even if my forum does not get much traffic yet.)

Adam Burgi
http://www.jourrneyoftheanimals.com

[richkid]

that is quite normal. you have to think there will be people who visit your site and leave in the first couple of seconds which skews the results a bit. Make sure you grab their attention right from the start and give them a reason to stay.

[journeyoftheanimals]

Yeah I do need to work on my index. Heck when I look at it I do not even want to stay. hehe

[richkid]

Originally Posted by journeyoftheanimals

Yeah I do need to work on my index. Heck when I look at it I do not even want to stay. hehe

haha...well that is a good place to start.. you can get custom designed templates from as little as $20 so that could be something to think about.

[allysa]

maybe I should add animated header so that it first catch their attention.

[vishenda]

yes right Allysa, your page should have something catchy that will make the visitor stay for longer time

[ADVERTISE HERE!]

I checked out your page. You have nothing that really grabs a visitor's attention. In general, we've found that pictures and color are good, lengthy text is bad. Hope this helps.

[chaunna]

yeah... the 16 is for seconds... everyones ideas are great, but you should look elsewhere in your analytics... see what pages people are going too.. or track the keywords that bring ppl to your page...

when you know what their looking for you can add that info to your page. (i'd suggest a feature house pet section...) then describe it, costs related to having that pet... pro'c cons, etc... you know like a BEST PET INTERVIEW....

also, offer something for free... maybe a caring for your pet ebook. This will give ppl a reason to give you their names and email (so you can promote other products and such later on)

if you're interested in a step-by-step pm me

[ADVERTISE HERE!]

Or the idea of an article at the outset that almost any user could relate to, that would grab their attention to read. For example, the heading: Potty Training in Just 4 Weeks! Anything quick and easy to grab their attention.

[journeyoftheanimals]

Thank you all for the information. I just got done last night adding the Google tracking code to most of my other pages on the site. I know that most of the traffic on my site goes directly to my animal care sheets. So I added the tracking code to those pages as well as some Google adsence. I have been coming up with some great ideas for my site recently and I am very happy with that since I have felt like I have been stuck in a rut. Since such a large amount of traffic comes from search engines right to certain care sheets I will be adding links to forums in my care sheets. Something like on the Hamster care sheet "If you need more help or want to learn more about Hamsters then stop by our forums. The small animal section can be found at journeyoftheanimals forums - Small animals"

Well something like that anyways.

Again everyone thank you for your information and advice.


PS
Still working on making the index page to be more attractive. Found a great video on youtube and had it on the index but then youtube took it down. Would it be a bad thing to download a video from youtube and then host it on my site so I do not have to worry about youtube taking it down?

[consumertreehouse]

Google Analytics is a great program, I love it and it works great for my site. Though people are staying on my site for a while, I am always looking for other avenues of attraction in order to make visitors stay longer.

Custom graphics, logo, and colors are everything that I am working on my site now. I also think that every site needs to always being adding, reworking, etc...something on their site in order to keep things looking fresh. Try some different things out, check it against your Analytics account, and see what works for you.

Good Luck with your site.