Web analytics is the measurement of the behavior of visitors to a website. In a commercial context, it especially refers to the measurement of which aspects of the website work towards the business objectives.
An effective Web Analytics tool must tell you the following details:
- Unique visitor count
- Page views
- Navigational Analysis
- Referrer websites
- Referrer Keywords
- Conversion tracking
- Top entry and exit pages
- Browsers used
- Hosts list
- Visits duration and last visits
- HTTP Errors
- Search engine Robot Visits
- and Much more....
Some basic terms which may help you understanding your website logs:
Hit
A request for a file from the web server. Available only in log analysis.
Page View
A request for a file whose type is defined as a page in log analysis. An occurrence of the script being run in page tagging. In log analysis, a single page view may generate multiple hits as all the resources required to view the page (images, .js and .css files) are also requested from the web server.
Visit / Session
A series of requests from the same uniquely identified client with a set timeout. A visit is expected to contain multiple hits (in log analysis) and page views.
Visitor / Unique Visitor
The uniquely identified client generating requests on the web server (log analysis) or viewing pages (page tagging). A visitor can make multiple visits.
Repeat Visitor
A visitor that has made at least one previous visit.
New Visitor
A visitor that has not made any previous visits.
Web Analytics tools
Some main web analytics tools available in the market are as follows:
Google Analytics (Free tool by Google)
Web Trends
Clicktracks
SiteStats
Onestat
Websidestory
There are many more tools available. All you need to do is choose the level, on how deep you would want to go into the details.
Based on the stats, you may measure your online success rate and fix milestones for yourself!
By analysing the stats, you can see what is converting for you. Based on the figures, you can try to improve the website and your online marketing strategy.
Companies are re-examining their investment in web analytics and working to determine how to get more out of the money they've spent. Perhaps the most common use of web analytics data is fall-out reporting--looking at specific valuable paths on the site (for example, the checkout process) in an attempt to understand why visitors abandon the process prior to completion.
|
