Tools:
Below you will find a compilation of free web services that will help you to better control your homepage. Most of the services are provided by Google and are absolutly free.
Google Trends is a fine tool to check the popularity of certain keywords. It shows how often particular search-terms are entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world. The horizontal axis represents the time whereas the vertical axis shows how often a term is searched relative to the total amount of searches. Recently Google Trends also started to compare the traffic development of websites.
Google Webmaster Tools is also a free service of Google. It allows webmasters to check the visibility and furthermore the indexing status of their websites. So, it helps to check the ranking, links, sitemap, robot.txt... etc..
With about 57 percent of the 10.000 most popular websites Google Analytics is the most widely used website statistic service. Its main purpose is to generate detailed statistics about visitors of a certain website. Google Analytics can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines, display advertising, ... etc.. Integrated with AdWords, users also are able to review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions. Its approach is to show very accurate data for the casual internet user.
Alexa is a subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and website. Once you installed the toolbar, it collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the website where it is stored and analyzed. Furthermore it is the basis for general web traffic reporting.