Clarihon blog

• Welcome to Clarihon Web Service’s blog

You might think that starting a new business in the current climate is a bit risky. Not so one of our latest clients.

Cathy Doidge, the owner of Jennycob, has spotted a gap in the market for jewellery for horses. No, not rings and bracelets but brass rosettes for bridles and stockpins.

An ideal gift for horse owners and those showing horses or competing, they are inexpensive and unique. They really are unique as no two designs are the same.

Cathy is seeking to reach customers both within the UK and abroad. To do this she needed an e-commerce web site. After searching on Google, finding us and a few chats later, a custom web site based on an established e-commerce package with an html ‘front-end’ was developed.

Within 2 weeks it was ranking on Google for 3 of the 4 selected search terms.

See the Jennycob web site for yourself.

As I write this latest ‘thoughts from a darkened room’ missive yet another heavy shower has drifted over.

As the host of a BBQ just over a week ago when it rained for most of the day you could be forgiven for thinking that I’d be fed up with our summer – and even with life in the South West perhaps.

Not a bit of it!

This is still one of the prettiest parts of the country with some of the nicest and most relaxed people (some might even say comatose!) around.

Business down in the best part of the UK still seems to be going well – including at Chateau Clarihon.

Yes, some people are seeing reduced levels of business but just as many are seeing the same levels or better than last year. Maybe its because Cornwall and Devon don’t see the heights of London and the SE, business-wise, that they don’t see the troughs either.

Meanwhile, amongst the showers and occasional sunshine, I’m taking my happy, smiling face out more frequently to network and meet new clients. Hopefully my business colleagues and clients see this as a good thing……

One of the things I’ve done is to present on web statistics. I’ve already spoken at the Saltash Club (Business League) and will be doing it again at the Plymouth Central Club (Business League) this Thursday (3rd September).

‘Til two month’s time.

Nigel

Before you start yawning, web statistics can tell you a great deal about how your web site is performing. It’s worth getting access to them, understanding what they mean and checking them regularly.

First though, an introduction to what web statistics are and how to get them.

Web site statistics are the figures that can tell you how many people visit your web site – and, more importantly whether that figure is going up or down. They can also tell you which pages are the most popular, how many people arrive at your site – and then immediately leave, and even what people are typing into Gooogle to arrive at your site. There’s much more they can do but that’s for another article.

For now, we’ll cover what they are and how you can get access to them.

Web site statistics can be collected in two ways. The first uses the software on the web server ‘hosting’ your web site. It collects data about EVERY page of your web site and EVERY request made for code, images and the rest. This data is stored in the form of ‘records’ in logs. If your web site hosting agreement allows it, you can access these logs and do anything you like with the raw data.

The most important parts of these records are the origin of the web site visit (usually the network or ‘IP’ address but sometimes more), the date and time, what was requested, whether that request was successful and how much data was transferred as a result. That might not seem much but an awful lot can be interpreted from this – especially by good software.

You may also have access to a web statistics package as part of your hosting package – commonly Webalizer or AWstats. These packages will show you graphically much of the information that can be extracted from these logs – including the items described at the top of this article.

The other way web site statistics can be collected is by small bits of code inserted into the pages of your web site. These bits of code are executed when your web page is loaded by a visitors’ browser (Internet Explorer etc) and data sent to the company managing this software for storage under your name and account. The most common example of this is Google and Google Analytics.

Google Analytics code can easily be added to web site pages. If you can’t do this yourself you can ask your web site Designer/Manager to do this for you.

Clients taking out web site hosting packages can have Google Analytics added to their web site pages and access to the AWstats package for £50/year.

More detail will follow in a later article but if you can’t wait or want help with this, please call us or drop us a line.