Is user tracking sofware an integral part of SEO?

[MtraX]

We're setting up an SEO campaign for an extremely competitive phrase and I'd like to know how critical user tracking on the site would be. I can just imagine it very important as I'd like to know where users are leaving the site (allthough AWSTATS show exit pages), exact external links specifically. I'd also like to track conversion for which this would be perfect. I need something that will not slow down the site.

What good services are there for doing what we require and what are the costs involved?

Thanx
MtraX

[AndrewX]

It's not relevant to SEO, but if you really want to understand your visitors and how they use your site it is important.

[flood6]

I think user tracking is pretty important for SEO. You can often catch people coming to your site from SEs using keywords that you would not expect. Seeing something like this would prompt someone to build a page about that topic and might lead to more "hidden" topics that can bring the traffic.

As far as what are some good packages to use, I've always heard good things about Sawmill, but I've never used it.

[Ne0]

I'm kinda suprised MtraX....

WebCeo has an excellent web analytics tool "Hitlens"
it produces more than 80 diffrent reports for your site and is monitored in real time.

Originally Posted by webceo

* where the visitors enter your site, how the visitors navigate through it and where they leave;
* how much time visitors spend on your site and on separate pages;
* how many visits they mostly need to make before the first purchase; how much time passes between their first visit and first transaction;
* how many visits to your site are motivated;
* how frequently an average visitor will come back to your site;
* average number of visits per visitor, page views per visit and pages viewed per visitor.

These metrics help you better understand the correlation between the number of visitors and number of orders made, and, which is more important, probably point out how you can close the gaps in your technique to convert visitors into loyal customers.

Hope that helps
NeO1

[MtraX]

Ha-ha-ha NeO~1! I must be sleeping on the job! I totally forgot about that. Thanx for reminding me... Anyway, if anyone has additional tips about what to keep in mind when doing user and conversion tracking, I'd be grateful for any comments.

Regards
MtraX