Web Analytics

As an entrepreneur developing your website you need to know Who is visiting which pages? How much traffic is your site getting, How does it measure up against traffic going to similar sites? and How has your traffic changed over time (e.g. as a result of some advertising campaign)?

Web analytics is dedicated to collecting, measuring, and reporting on web and Internet data. As an entrepreneur you are concerned on-site analytics, which is targeted at understanding the journey of each user through a website. Analytics are used to record information ranging from a which pages are being visited as well as which pages garner more purchases from visitors. Analytics is the process of gathering and using statistics to:

• Improve the design and content of your website
• Increase conversion (orders)
• Increase traffic to your site.

Web analytics is concerned with using statistics to improve the design and content of your website. Here are some things you should search inside your statistics for, when you want to decide what content to improve:

• Entry pages – what are the pages used to enter your site? Do visitors continue to surf the site from these pages? For example, a link to a good article might bring a lot of users but they leave immediately after reading it. You can add text to the article which will make visitors want to continue to search your site for more information.
• Exit pages – from which pages do visitors, leave your site? Check carefully to see if there is something on these pages that causes visitors to leave. Try to fix the problem and then see if there is an improvement.
• Online time – how long do visitors stay on your site and at each page?

If you are using statistics to optimize your order process, here are the points you should analyze:

• Conversion rate – the most important of all measurement. Do people buy (or sign up for trials or newsletters)?
  
  
  • To improve conversion you need to work step by step and check improvements.
  • Try also to segment the conversion by referring website, referring keywords and entry pages.
• Order process segmentation – how many people proceed from shopping cart to order form?

You can use analytics to increasing amount of good visitors to your website.  In order to do this you need to analyze the site statistics from the point of view of the site's target. A good visitor is someone interested in what you have to offer. Here are few steps you should take to increase the number of good visitors to your website:

1. Optimizing for search engines
2. Advertising campaigns in different sites
3. Advertising campaigns through email
4. Promoting the site in forums
5. Attaining links from relevant sites

You should check to see which means are best for increasing the number of good users. To find this out, you need the following statistical information:

• Where did the good visitors come from (a combination of referrers, online time and conversion rate)?
• Returning users – check to see which visitors return again and again.
  
  
  • How did they reach you the first time?
  • Is there a way to find more visitors like these?

The easiest way for an entrepreneur to get started with web analytics is to use Google Analytics .  Google analytics is a great FREE tool for capturing a wide variety of web site statistics. It provides colorful charts and graphs make traffic information accessible and easy to understand. A quick weekly (or daily) check of your web traffic statistics provides feedback for how your site is doing, and helps you better understand the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts

-----------------------------------------------
References

Enzo F. Cesario, Web Analytics and Your Website – What You Need to Know
http://ldfeeds.com/statistics/web-analytics-and-your-website-%e2%80%93-what-you-need-to-know/
Who visits your website? Use Google Analytics, http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/google_analytics.html
How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners, http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-use-google-analytics-for-beginners

Labels: analytics, website