TRACKING YOUR ADVERTISING

The MOST ASKED website question by the BC, Canada tourism industry is:

"How do I know which tourism websites I advertise on is directing people to my website?

The answer is in the hosting of your website. The answer seems simple, yet the answer is not well understood or followed. Why is this? It is because the perception in the market place is that website hosting is basically just putting a website up on the Internet. An assumption that costs thousands of dollars a year for many businesses in BC, Canada. Unfortunately, all the effort is in the building of a website and not in the productivity of a website. Picking a website hosting provider seems so trivial to so many people. That is the problem.

It is important to set your business up with a good website hosting company from the get go. Reputable hosting companies provide detailed reports and statistics outlining all aspects of your website. The information provided is invaluable. The reports generated by hosting companies will vary greatly so shop around. Be very aware that most hosting companies do not provide any reports at all. Often these companies lack in other areas as well like spam protection, security, speed and more.

One report to pay particular interest to is the "Website Referral Reports". This report records every website you advertise on and which ones direct people to your website therefore generating bookings. The "Website Referral Reports" highlight the good producing websites and the poor producing websites. When it is time to renew your advertising - the report shows clearly, in black and white, which website is worth renewing. It makes no sense to advertise on websites that do not direct traffic to your best Internet marketing tool - your business website. 

Sometimes saving money in one area (website hosting) costs much more money in another area (advertising). This is one of those cases. Saving money on hosting fees costs hundreds if not thousands in unproductive advertising expenses. In almost every case when a website owner begins to track his/her business website using "Website Referral Statistics" they are surprised at which websites are actually producing.

If you are not currently receiving these traffic statistics listing all the websites you are currently advertising on and which ones actually work in directing people to your website then you should call up your current Website Hosting company and ask if they provide these reports. If they do not, then it is time to change hosting companies.

Sample flow chart below: 
The chart outlines how "Online Travel Planners" move around on the Internet, then locate tourism websites. And how a successful business tracks traffic using "Website Referral Reports".  

http://www.leaphere.com/newsletter/track_advert.htm  (MUST be connected to Internet to view).

FROG Internet Website Hosting Package