A previous article suggested creating a target market snapshot and having it in front of you while doing strategic keyword research or creating the sales copy.

In addition to keeping the target market snapshot, you should also have quick access to how your sites are doing. This will help you to quickly identify problems with your sites and take actions to improve the performance.

So go ahead and create a website snapshot view of all your important websites!

You need to be using a good web analytics service or software for this. Make sure that you collect new data every month.

Here are some suggestions about what your website snapshot might contain...

• The list of top 10 entry pages as reported by your website analytics.
• The list of your top 10 exit pages as reported by your website analytics.
• The top 10 performing web pages on your site. We will call these your star pages.
• The overall bounce rate for your site.
• The individual bounce rates for each of your star pages.
• Visitors per day and per month to the website.
• The top keywords that brought traffic to your site and the top landing pages for those keywords.
• The list of long-tail keywords that brought traffic to star pages or that got you good results.
• Your sales / expenses / income / profit data.
• Any other parameter you think is relevant.

Open a folder and start filing this information every month. If possible, take hard-copy prints and file it physically. Use it to analyze how your sites are growing and to fix any negative trends.