Download Website Traffic Monitoring Software in Excel (SPC Chart)

Privacy matters:
1.) This application needs your Google username and password in order to access your account.
2.) This tool does not store or collect personal identifiable information.
3.) There is no way for developers to know the users of this tool nor we monitor the users of this tool.
4.) After logging in, this application access your website traffic per profile.
5.) To protect your Google username and password, place this document inside an encrypted hard drive so that there is no way for third party software within your system to read these sensitive information. Suggested tools are TrueCrypt.
6.) You need to enable macro after you open this Excel worksheet, this will be needed to properly run the applications as designed.
7.) There is no virus or any malware attached to this application.
8.) The Google Analytics login are encrypted as it communicates with Google servers.

How to Use This Tool:

1.) First, go to graph sheet. Then enter your Google analytics email and password. The easiest way to input Google analytics email and password is using the Excel formula bar.
2.) You know you have successfully logged in if you see “authenticated” below the password field.
3.) You can then select what profile you need to analyze. Try selecting profile in the drop down.
4.) Currently the default date is set to January 1, 2011 to January 31, 2011.You should select a 30 to 31 days period (one-month recommended) for best analysis results.
Often the best time to do this is to audit your monthly traffic for any abnormalities.
5.) To fetch data, click “Fetch data” button.
6.) You should then see the raw data and chart being plotted on the graph Excel sheet.
7.) Finally to analyze for statistical process control. Click “Control Limits”.

8.) To examine the SPC chart, go to SPC Control Chart Excel sheet.

Tip: Anytime you change the date range, you need to click Fetch data and Control limits again to update your SPC Chart.

How can you objectively determine that there is a problem with your website traffic trend?

Determining out of control situations is very easy and straightforward. First, orient yourself with the SPC Control Chart results. The pink line is the upper control limit or UCL. The green line is the average line. The violet line is the LCL or the lower control limit. All of these control lines are computed based on a one-month data you specified.

Bear in mind that if ever out of control situation happens, it is worth investigating. You should then analyze the cause of these out of control situations. If the cause is negative and detrimental to the website business, a corrective action should be formulated and implemented. In big websites implementing quality management systems (QMS), you will see an OCAP table (out of control action plan) which basically logs the verified causes and then the corresponding corrective action implemented. It also includes the dates so that the webmaster know when it happen. Now to detect for out of control situations, refer to the following guide below:

1.) Any point about UCL. This could mean a traffic spike. Although this is usually a good news for example if your website gets front page listing on Digg or Stumble upon, sometimes this can be bad as it could mean a denial of service attacks.

2.) Any point below the LCL. This could mean a substantial drop in traffic. If this occurs only in one day, it could mean a hosting related issue such as downtime. Otherwise it could also mean that you are penalized in search engines and that causes a drop in traffic. As said before, any out of control situations needs investigation so that cause will be verified and the corrective actions will be implemented.

3.) More than eight consecutive points above the mean. This is usually a good news since it indicates that your website traffic substantially climbs above average.

4.) More than eight consecutive points below the mean.This is usually a bad news, since it means you are substantially losing visitors. If the cause is search engine traffic, it can mean that you are penalized and that Google stops sending you traffic to your website. It could also mean a serious website technical related issue, if something in your website is preventing visitors from properly accessing the webpage then it should be investigated and corrected.

5.) Six consecutive points with either an increasing or decreasing trend. – an increasing or decreasing traffic could mean something which can be important to you and your website operations. For example if the website traffic is consecutively dropping, it means you are slowly losing popularity in search engines.

6.) No variation – it is impossible to have no variation something is wrong maybe with how Google analytics fetches data or even your website. No variation means that supposing you have 10 visitors today, it will be 10 visitors until the end of the month, no more no less.

What to do if you see an out of control situation?

1.) You need to investigate the causes. It is important that the causes needs to be verified.
2.) Once the cause is verified and found out to be true, execute a corrective action.
3.) Log everything systematically in a checklist called out of control action plan.
4.) This is a wonderful tool that can help you to stabilize your website traffic in the long run.

How can I report if there is a problem with this tool.

Report the problem by commenting below, or contact me using the website contact form.