Understanding Web Metrics

If you haven’t been paying attention to how your website is performing, you are losing valuable information. Paying attention to your web metrics can help you figure out exactly what is and isn’t working on your website. Who should be using web metrics (P.I. Reed School of Journalism: Lesson 1, 2012)?

·      Marketers who recognize the relevancy of electronic trading and the importance of applying Internet marketing tools but have no measuring instruments available to calculate their campaigns’ return on investment.

·      Marketers who are dissatisfied with their number of online user registrations and order placements.

·      Marketers who notice a satisfactory response to their ad campaigns but don't see a lot of follow-through on the part of the customers.

If you want web analytics to actually make a profitable impact on your business, you need to start from the beginning with business objectives. Business objectives are a way for a company to define its goals and direction. Good objectives will tell a company how to allocate its resources based on its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities at every level, including the website. A company can't really start using web analytics until they have determined business objectives. Otherwise, they are just shooting in the dark. 

This decision about business objectives for the website should come from the top. What is the business purpose of the website? It could be to generate leads or build awareness. How do you know which tool to use? Well, Google Analytics is a free analytics program provided by Google. All you have to do is add a small snippet of code to every page of the Website and in less than 24 hours you will be able to your Websites statistics.

Pulling the information from web analytics software is less than 10% of the work, with an overwhelming 90% of the time being dedicated to deriving insights that your organization to use to drive change (Przyklenk, 2012). Such change includes (Przyklenk, 2012): 

·      Comparing Trends

·      Analyzing the Significance of Data

·      Digging Deeper with Segmentation

·      Correlate Trends with Business Objectives/Impact

·      Make Insights Actionable

Web analytics can also assist in developing a highly effective marketing strategy based on the captured user data. Your marketing plan can precisely reflect what your customers want, targeting the exact keywords they use when looking for it, and build landing pages that convert visitors into customers, subscribers or repeat visitors.

Popular Tools that can be used for web/online (or social media) analytics include:

·      Google Analytics

·      Compete.com

·      Alexa.com

·      Webalizer

·      Facebook Insights 

References

P.I. Reed School of Journalism. Lesson 2: Basic Web Analytics. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from, https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webct/urw/tp0.lc5116001/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct.

Przyklenk, G. (2012). 5 Ways To Make Web Analytics Data More Insightful. Search Engine Watch. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from, http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2217270/5-Ways-to-Make-Web-Analytics-Data-More-Insightful