BandB.com traffic stats

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

45 clicks to your website in September 2008
51 clicks to your website in October 2008
484 clicks to your website to date in 2008

Anyone else care to share their stats.
The funny thing is this -
2241 visitors to date in 2008 to our city page (I am the only one in this city)
1145 visitors to date in 2008 detailed listing to my listing - I wonder why over a thousand clicked on the page but never viewed my listing? How did they get there in the first place?

 

[swirt]

Quite likely, (and don't take this the wrong way) but it is possible that many of the visitors to the city page were looking for something that your place didn't match. Maybe a victorian or a cabin or something that just isn't what you are. The other thing may be more of a "hmmm only one B&B in this town...maybe we should stay in a different town" kind of response.

 

[swirt]

It would only be a "bounce" if the person arrived at the city page and then left the site completely. And I am sure there are some who did that, but I would bet many just went on to look for a different town nearby, which makes it not a bounce.

 

[Proud Texan]

Don't they call that a "bounce" in Google terminology? I think a lot of individuals in an attempt to up their search engine ranking stuff their KEYWORDS meta tags with stuff that doesn't relate in any way to their B&B. Then, when a visitor arrives on the web page and discovers that they were "tricked" into coming there, the leave immediately. Ergo a false reading of actual visitors.
Not that you did this JunieB, but if you overstuffed your KEYWORDS, which is the natural tendancy to drive web traffic, it might explain it.

 

[egoodell]

There are a lot of cases too where I already know that I'm going somewhere but I forgot to get something like the phone number. I'd go to the main page and get the info and leave. That would look like a "bounce" too, would it not?
Riki

 

[swirt]

Don't they call that a "bounce" in Google terminology? I think a lot of individuals in an attempt to up their search engine ranking stuff their KEYWORDS meta tags with stuff that doesn't relate in any way to their B&B. Then, when a visitor arrives on the web page and discovers that they were "tricked" into coming there, the leave immediately. Ergo a false reading of actual visitors.
Not that you did this JunieB, but if you overstuffed your KEYWORDS, which is the natural tendancy to drive web traffic, it might explain it..

Not that you did this JunieB, but if you overstuffed your KEYWORDS, which is the natural tendancy to drive web traffic, it might explain it.

JBJ was referencing numbers from bedandbreakfast.com not her own website. So she would have no control over the keywords used on the city page.

 

[swirt]

There are a lot of cases too where I already know that I'm going somewhere but I forgot to get something like the phone number. I'd go to the main page and get the info and leave. That would look like a "bounce" too, would it not?
Riki.

Yes, that would look like a bounce.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

I find it odd that THAT many people went to our town page on Band B.com in the first place. I mean, it is not like it is advertised anywhere and people go there and then see just widdle ol' me there.
Does anyone house have a similar correlation?

 

[JBanczak]

JBJ - do you have metrics for your own site so you can see what the exit/bounce rate is of the people once they get to your page from our site?
For the month of October, according to our Google Analytics:
45% of users from your city page went to your property page (your "detailed" listing on BB.com), or to your website.
40% clicked back to the VA state page.
15% "bounced" or left the page.
The rest went to various other links on the page.
Not sure that gives you too much insight, but this is a relatively low bounce rate, and the click-patterns are about what I would expect based on people searching around the area.

 

[swirt]

I find it odd that THAT many people went to our town page on Band B.com in the first place. I mean, it is not like it is advertised anywhere and people go there and then see just widdle ol' me there.
Does anyone house have a similar correlation?.

Well, if someone searches for [your town bed and breakfast] the city page comes up at #4 or if they search for [your town state bed and breakfast] it comes up #8
That would account for a considerable amount of traffic and that is not including the people that start on the state page and drill down to your town.
While looking at your example, the other reason for people not bothering to click through to your listing is that they already saw your B&B in the regular search engine results before they even got to bandb.com's site in the listing. IF they've seen you already and are looking for other places, they won't bother clicking on your bandb.com listing when they peek at that site.

 

[Proud Texan]

Don't they call that a "bounce" in Google terminology? I think a lot of individuals in an attempt to up their search engine ranking stuff their KEYWORDS meta tags with stuff that doesn't relate in any way to their B&B. Then, when a visitor arrives on the web page and discovers that they were "tricked" into coming there, the leave immediately. Ergo a false reading of actual visitors.
Not that you did this JunieB, but if you overstuffed your KEYWORDS, which is the natural tendancy to drive web traffic, it might explain it..

Not that you did this JunieB, but if you overstuffed your KEYWORDS, which is the natural tendancy to drive web traffic, it might explain it.

JBJ was referencing numbers from bedandbreakfast.com not her own website. So she would have no control over the keywords used on the city page.
.

Not that you did this JunieB, but if you overstuffed your KEYWORDS, which is the natural tendancy to drive web traffic, it might explain it.

JBJ was referencing numbers from bedandbreakfast.com not her own website. So she would have no control over the keywords used on the city page.

I'll just shut up now.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Thanks for the info.
I know there are plenty of variables. I always take BandB.com seriousely as it does not rank high for me on my own stats prgm. So I try to delve in a little deeper and appreciate these stats being emailed out. I would go research my pgrm for a while and see what I find.
I was curious if it was someone working the "region" on the state page as I often do that when looking at nearby states, not sure where I am going yet but checking it out.

 

[swirt]

Thanks for the info.
I know there are plenty of variables. I always take BandB.com seriousely as it does not rank high for me on my own stats prgm. So I try to delve in a little deeper and appreciate these stats being emailed out. I would go research my pgrm for a while and see what I find.
I was curious if it was someone working the "region" on the state page as I often do that when looking at nearby states, not sure where I am going yet but checking it out..

I think that is pretty likely, I know I do that too when looking for a place to stay.

 

[gillumhouse]

The other thing may be more of a "hmmm only one B&B in this town...maybe we should stay in a different town" kind of response.
That is exactly why I have been trying soooo darn hard to get another B & B in my town. We DO have a lot to see and do in the area! We COULD have enough traffic to keep both of us busy. And I have already "plowed the field, planted the seed, cultivated the crop, and now am inviting someone else to come reap the harvest."

 

[JBanczak]

Good point on the region - I went back in and looked at that page. There isn't a lot of back and forth to/from the region page and your city.
Region pages are tough to evaluate - because often consumers don't talk about the region like we do who may know more about it. It seems, at least from what we see in traffic, that state and city pages are the ones that get the volume - and indeed we see a lot of back and forth from your city back to state page. I'm guessing that consumers may be more aware of that they can search by city/state and less that they can search by region, or less know exactly what the region would be called or encompass.
I'm guessing some regions might be more prominent - maybe "Cape Cod" for instance that seems to be thought of as one location but it actually a region to us.

 

[swirt]

Good point on the region - I went back in and looked at that page. There isn't a lot of back and forth to/from the region page and your city.
Region pages are tough to evaluate - because often consumers don't talk about the region like we do who may know more about it. It seems, at least from what we see in traffic, that state and city pages are the ones that get the volume - and indeed we see a lot of back and forth from your city back to state page. I'm guessing that consumers may be more aware of that they can search by city/state and less that they can search by region, or less know exactly what the region would be called or encompass.
I'm guessing some regions might be more prominent - maybe "Cape Cod" for instance that seems to be thought of as one location but it actually a region to us..

Thanks John, that's helpful insight.

 

[Penelope]

Good point on the region - I went back in and looked at that page. There isn't a lot of back and forth to/from the region page and your city.
Region pages are tough to evaluate - because often consumers don't talk about the region like we do who may know more about it. It seems, at least from what we see in traffic, that state and city pages are the ones that get the volume - and indeed we see a lot of back and forth from your city back to state page. I'm guessing that consumers may be more aware of that they can search by city/state and less that they can search by region, or less know exactly what the region would be called or encompass.
I'm guessing some regions might be more prominent - maybe "Cape Cod" for instance that seems to be thought of as one location but it actually a region to us..

Good point on the region - I went back in and looked at that page. There isn't a lot of back and forth to/from the region page and your city.
Region pages are tough to evaluate - because often consumers don't talk about the region like we do who may know more about it. It seems, at least from what we see in traffic, that state and city pages are the ones that get the volume - and indeed we see a lot of back and forth from your city back to state page. I'm guessing that consumers may be more aware of that they can search by city/state and less that they can search by region, or less know exactly what the region would be called or encompass.
I'm guessing some regions might be more prominent - maybe "Cape Cod" for instance that seems to be thought of as one location but it actually a region to us.

I agree John. When I was searching for a place to stay during our trip in Maine, I didn't know exactly which town I wanted to look in.I was looking for a region. What I found after that decision was that I didn't know how Maine broke up it's state in terms of regions. The towns I was looking at were, to me, in the Mid-Coast region of Maine. I had a tough time finding what I was looking for becuase THEY classified it as SOUTHERN Mid-Coast Maine.
On the other hand, where I work is not 'officially" in Amish country. We are close, but not in the county itself. But due to business, we classify ourselves as in " Amish country" which can encompass more than just the immediate four or five towns.
I would think that someone who is not familiar with a certain region would be confused when it came to searching for a region, but would be fine when it came to searching for a town/city.
I hope I said all that correctly. I was getting it confused in my own head..;

 

[JBanczak]

I think you are correct - it is confusing, but that explains it.
As a sidenote, when I lived in San Francisco, I lived in Haight-Ashbury. There was no doubt about it - I was one block west, and one block north of the corner of Haight and Ashbury. For those of you who know San Francisco - the Haight used to be an acquired taste - the epicenter of the 60's. But it was hidden gem in terms of living.
Of course real estate agents didn't see it that way! So they extended Cole Valley - the very desireable area several blocks SOUTH of Haight Street to inlcude our location as well! I got a good kick out of this.

 

[JBanczak]

Thanks for the info.
I know there are plenty of variables. I always take BandB.com seriousely as it does not rank high for me on my own stats prgm. So I try to delve in a little deeper and appreciate these stats being emailed out. I would go research my pgrm for a while and see what I find.
I was curious if it was someone working the "region" on the state page as I often do that when looking at nearby states, not sure where I am going yet but checking it out..

I have to apologize - I got some of the data wrong. I was looking at the region page statistics to see what kind of back and forth it gets, and saw some strange numbers - it was showing a lot more traffic than I thought. So I went back to your city page again, and re-checked the numbers. This time I looked at entrance/exit paths - and it showed a lot of people coming and going from the region page.
So I scratched my head... then I ran the site overlay report again to make sure I wasn't dreaming the first time I wrote these and I realized my mistake. The site overlay doesn't overlay statistics very clearly - and I mistakedly attributed numbers to the state page that were from the region page.
Apologize for the confusion - but the back and forth is indeed from the region. People are coming in from the map to the region page mainly, then they tend to browse the cities.
Again - apologize for the confusion on this. Hopefully this more accurate information helps.
JB

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

JB, like what you mentioned, it makes sense to me. We know our regional boundaries but others would not, so we would be clicking away to see how it all lays out. Since all cities are not on the map, you have to click on them to see where they are.
In fact you will see my county is in the jutted out section of Blue Ridge Highlands. Just a year or so ago we were CENTRAL VA which is also RICHMOND - and we are nothing near Richmond! Yet Roanoke is 15 miles from us and is Shenandoah Valley. But this is a mountain town, we are at 1400 feet at this B&B, and I market the Blue Ridge Parkway primarily - altho also nearby Smith Mountain Lake - which is again, Central region.
So after saying all that, it is hard to determine if you are not living here and in tourism where the heck many towns fall.
Not to compare with another directory, but this indiv map of each section works for me when looking at booking a B&B as it keeps them all (regions) on the page at the same time. Perhaps it is easier because there are fewer inns listed there.