Web analytics is the study of user activities on a website. Its purpose is to:
– Assure the site’s performance
– Gain insights into the needs and wants of users’ of the site
– Identify areas that can be optimised.
Today, web analytics is often referred to as online marketing analytics, as the data collected and analysed is not limited to websites. It may also include email response rates, DM campaign data and other user performance data.
Posted on March 11th, 2008
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Cross channel marketing exists today, but in its crudest form. The rich integration of customer information and behavioural data with marketing strategy is imminent – it’s just a matter of getting the formula right.
The formula we’re talking about has web analytics as the key variable. Web analytics as a standalone solution has limited value, but team it with other customer information and you’ve got powerful information at your fingertips.
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Posted on March 21st, 2007
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Analytics is not reporting. It involves an element of reporting but there is more to it.
As the name implies, reporting provides the results of various metrics in pre-defined formats such as charts and tables. It usually deals with the ‘what and how much questions’.
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Posted on September 25th, 2006
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Our government clients often ask us for advice on how to improve the adoption of web analytics within a bureaucratic organisation.
The technology to capture web analytics data is available. In most instances, it is the structure or culture of the organisation that is holding them back.
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Posted on May 31st, 2006
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One of the challenges for Web Analytics solutions is how to define a session. Measuring a page view (or page impression) is easy and pretty accurate. However, in order to define a session, Web Analytics solutions need identifiers.
There are a number of user identification techniques available with varying degrees of accuracy. Obviously the most accurate measure is user authentication, by which users are asked to log in with a user name and password. However, this method of user identification is impractical and unnecessary for many websites.
Instead many websites use cookies (first or third party) for user identification purposes. Cookie-based sessionization could be considered as the next best option in terms of accuracy and reliability. Cookie deletion and blocking by the users, impeding the accuracy of this technique.
Web Analytics community has been debating the cookie issue for some time now and are in search of other means of accurate and reliability user identification on the web.
Posted on October 5th, 2005
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We all by now understand the importance of web analytics in the management of web properties. It not only helps us understand user interaction, but also provides valuable information to make website improvements. However this is all in theory. The hard part is becoming skilled enough to put web analytics into practice.
So what does it take to be a competent web analytics specialist – or, as I call it, a web analyst? read more
