Keeping up with web traffic

If you own a website – as many businesses do – you're likely already aware of the benefits that being online can provide. You may also have realised just how important web traffic is, as this dictates the number of people on your website.

The more people that visit, the more potential customers you can make. As such, it always helps to keep up with web traffic. This includes knowing the numbers, benefiting from both real-time and real usage data, and ensuring that your web load speeds don't fail as a result of too much traffic.

Numbers 

The first and most obvious call of port should be to simply be aware of the numbers. When it comes to a website, the volume of hits can be seen as the earliest sign of success or not. A rise would indicate growing interest, for instance.

After a number of months you can then apply moving averages and trends to determine potential future growth. If you're expecting an increase in a certain amount, it's much easier to set such targets and plan to adapt ahead of time.

Real-Time Data 

Similarly, it's important to get real-time data. Knowing past figures, such as at monthly reports, can be useful but data that comes in as it happens allows for more accurate and dynamic responses.

For example, when is your website's traffic at its highest? If there is a noticeable trend, this might suggest a potential course of action. Again, such real-time information allows for a better response as you can recognise increasing volumes of traffic much sooner – this would help anticipate the growing numbers rather than simply waiting for it to happen which can overload your servers.

Real Usage 

Likewise, you should also aim for real usage data. There is a big difference between the number of hits a website gets and the number of individual users.

You should also be interested in this data because it shows returning interest. 10,000 hits is no good if no one comes back – in many ways, it’s actually better to have a lower hit count with a higher percentage of returning customers as this would show a dedicated and interested audience. In other words, if they come back, it's a good sign for the business, which is why you need the right data and monitoring to support and show this.

Services such as web load testing can provide an effective way to keep up with website traffic.