If you have a website that you're trying to build up into something bigger, then you probably use tools like Statcounter and Google Analytics to track who visits your site and what they're doing there. These tracking tools are great, but the problem with them is that they can be a little too complicated for those of us who aren't tech-savvy marketing insiders. It can be hard to know what exactly each statistic means, and many of them are all but indistinguishable from one another. But you don't have to suffer from information overload; just keep an eye on these statistics, and you'll get a pretty good idea of how your site is performing.

Unique visitors: This stat is exactly what it sounds like. How many total visitors have been to your site? This will be smaller than some of the other stats, but it's helpful to know because it shows that people are finding your site. If your rate of unique visitors goes down, then you might want to work on your search engine optimization.

Page views: The number of page views is naturally going to be larger than the number of unique visitors, as some people who find your site will click around. In general, the more page views you can get, the better. If you have a ratio of at least two pages per unique visitor, then you're doing a phenomenal job of funneling people through your website navigation. However, most sites don't get this ratio, and you'll probably see that the majority of your visitors surf in from a search engine and leave immediately. This is true of practically every site.

Referrers: For most sites, the top referrers are search engines. While we love the search engines, we want to make sure that we're getting some referrals from other sources, as this helps our ranking across the web and shows that we're getting the backlinks we need to generate sustained interest.

Search terms: Looking at the search terms shows you exactly how people are finding you in the search engines. This can be enlightening when it comes to picking your future search terms and optimizing for certain words and phrases that are clearly being underserved by other sites on the web.

Bounce rate: How many people visit your site and surf away almost instantly? If your visitors do so at a high rate, then you'll have a high bounce rate, which is clearly a bad thing. Most sites never achieve a bounce rate below 60%, but if your rate is consistently above 80%, then you might want to look into ways to keep people on your site longer.

Visits by country: Many people assume that most visitors come from one's own country, but you might be surprised by where people are coming from. If you're getting a lot of visitors from, say, Brazil, then you might want to think about ways to make your content more accessible to Brazilians so that even more will come.

Caterina Christakos is a published author and entrepreneur. Find out which top internet business earns her highest marks and learn about small business online marketing http://smallbusinesscoachesusa.com/.