Web Analytics 101
July 10th 2009 7:00 AM
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Web analytics measures your website and online campaign performance. It optimizes your internet marketing efforts to achieve goals including generating lots of website traffic, high conversion rates, and a positive visitor experience.
The Web Analytics Association defines web analytics as the “measurement, collection, and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.”
Web analytics is a critical component of any successful website or online campaign. “If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.”
It tells you all about how people interact with your web page, and identifies the trends required that drive the growth and success of your online marketing efforts.
Value
The internet has evolved into an essential sales and marketing channel for individuals and businesses. Its demonstrated success in generating significant revenue and brand influence continues to grow.
Web Analytics aligns your online channel strategy with a measurable set of objectives and benchmarks. This promotes a cycle of ongoing optimization to meet and exceed your goals.
Drive Website and Campaign Success
The web analytics process measures the performance of your online success, producing recommendations to meet your primary goals and objectives.
Your online objectives are measured by relevant website metrics called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Generate a real-time dashboard measuring the performance of your online efforts, and produce actionable insight to improve your web performance.
Web analytics will optimize website conversion rates, online traffic, lead generation, visitor loyalty, and any other goal you wish to achieve on the internet.
Measure, Segment, Improve Your Online Traffic
View and evaluate your most successful sources of online traffic. Measure and optimize any internet traffic generation effort including Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
Identify and convert your most important and valuable website visitors. This is important to the success of a website or campaign as the majority of value is generated by a small segment of visitors.
Analyze your visitor traffic based on the characteristics important to you including:
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Geographical Region / Demographic - Continent, Country, City, Language
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Sources of Traffic - Search Engine Keywords, Ad Campaigns, Direct Referrals
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Visitor Behavior - Bounce Rates, Time Spent on Specific Pages, Pages Viewed
Web Analytics Optimization Process
There are an established set of industry best practices to implement web analytics as a successful part of your personal or business online strategy.
1) Identify Key Stakeholders
The first step is to identify all individuals who have a vested interest in the success of the website or online marketing initiative. If there are more than two key stakeholders, appoint one of them to be the the key person in charge.
2) Define Primary Objectives for Your Website / Online Strategy
It is essential to establish a clear set of measurable online goals and objectives to gauge the success of your online efforts. Not establishing a clear set of agreed upon goals resembles speeding down the wrong side of a busy one way street.
The objectives of each website and campaign is diverse and will vary depending on its nature. Some popular objectives for websites and campaigns today include: Branding, Lead Generation, Customer Loyalty, Revenue Growth, and lower Cost Per Acquisition.
3) Align Website Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) With Objectives
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that define and measure website and online campaign success. They guide progress towards achieving the online objectives that are important to you.
The appropriate KPIs to select depend on the nature and objectives of your website / campaign. They should be measurable, and connected to the online goals agreed upon by all stakeholders.
The following examples illustrate relevant key performance indicators for several popular categories of websites:
E-Commerce
The objective of online commerce websites is to ‘convert’ visitors into buyers of products or services. An example of a relevant KPI for an e-commerce site is the Conversion Rate. This measure’s your online success in having visitors perform a desired action such as: an online purchase, web form application, or registering for an e-newsletter.
Lead Generation
Lead Generation sites aim to ‘convert’ visitors by having them provide their contact information in exchange for a product or service.
An important performance indicator for lead generation include Cost Per Lead which measures the bang-for-the-buck and efficiency of lead generation. Driving this metric down reflects a higher return on marketing investment and efforts.
Content / Media
Content and Media sites generate revenue from an online advertising model. The key measures of success are driving high traffic and many return visitors who spend a long time on the site. Relevant KPIs include the Depth of Visit which measures the level of interest and addictiveness of your website’s content. Another KPI called Returning Visitors reflects your ability to attract repeat visitors, reflecting visitor loyalty to your online brand and content.
There are hundreds of possible KPI’s to choose from, and a web analyst can help you choose the appropriate ones to your business. It is important to only select highly relevant KPIs that you can align with your web strategy, and not select too many otherwise you may experience analysis-paralysis.
4) Choosing The Right Tools
For most individuals and organizations starting out with website analytics, Google Analytics provides a free and easy to use platform with a competitive set of functionality and features.
For organizations with a mature web analytics culture, commercially available tools may provide the additional functionality you may require such as real-time data reporting, and advanced segmentation capabilities. Some of the most well known vendors in this field include Omniture, WebTrends, and TeaLeaf.
5) Measurement and Actionable Insights / Optimization
Only measure and track data that is important to your objectives, and produces actionable recommendations to achieve your goals. The purpose of a web analyst is to interpet the website analytics data and suggest relevant ideas and improvements that get you closer to your goals. Web analytics will measure the effectiveness of each recommended change or optimization.
6) Establish a Process of Ongoing Optimization
For your web analytics process to succeed, it is important to establish a culture of continuous measurement and optimization to achieve your established goals and objectives. Web analytics data is your fuel, but it must be properly interpreted and put into action to drive improvements in online efforts.
Which web analytics tools do you use?
