What is Web Analytics

Web analytics is the study of the behaviour of Web site visitors. In a commercial context, web analytics especially refers to the use of data collected from a Web site to determine which aspects of the Web site work towards the business objectives; for example, which landing pages encourage people to make a purchase.

If you have an e-commerce website and you wish to make money then you will need to analyze the traffic that comes to your website.

It is unlikely that you will succeed the first time you do anything with your website. You need to analyze response and make improvements. Web analytics is the tool that you need.

Web stats are a goldmine of information.

What Is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics provides information about visitors to your web site.

The information includes details of the number of visitors on a daily basis over a period of time that you define.

The analysis includes:

• The number of visitors on a daily basis over a period of time that you define.
• The number of page views.
• The average number of pages viewed per visit.
• The Bounce Rate (The number of visitors who look at one page and do not delve further into the Web site.
• The average time per visit.
• The countries that visitors come from.
• The towns that visitors come from.
• The number of new and repeat visitors.
• The search engines used by visitors to find your site.
• The keywords used by visitors to find your site.
• the Web browsers your visitors use and
• the entry pages visitors see
• the most frequently visited pages
• the least popular pages.

In late 2005, Google purchased leading web analytics firm “Urchirt” and began offering the service free of charge to certain well-placed technology publications' Web sites. Not long after that, Google launched the Google Analytics service based on the Urchin software, offering it to the general public as a completely free service. The response was amazing and a quarter of a million new accounts were created overnight, with an estimated half to three-quarters of a million Web sites tracked.

All of this caught Google unprepared, and people had to be turned away because there weren't enough resources to support everyone who wanted an account. Google began taking e-mail addresses for interested webmasters who couldn't be accommodated at launch.

How did this happen? How did Google so grossly underestimate the demand for Google Analytics? After all, at $200/month, Urchin did only well - it had good software and a relatively low price point for the industry but it wasn’t exactly inundated with clamouring customers.

Apparently assessments based on Urchin's sales weren't exactly accurate. The demand for real analytics is huge, and the price tag of ‘free' is exactly the price tag that draws in the masses.  

But what are analytics? Most webmasters know enough to realize that they need analytics. But do they know how to read them? How to use them? Are analytics just “site stats on steroids” or can they be used by the average web master, who is a layman and not a professional, to improve the performance of a Web site?  

The answer is that with Google Analytics, the average webmaster can use analytics to improve the performance of a site. And well over a half-million users have figured this out. So many users have turned to Google Analytics and begun to make suggestions about the program that the design team at Google decided it was time to implement some new features and make the application easier to use. And that's how the Google Analytics 2.0 application was born.

In most respects, once a surfer has clicked on a link on a search engine results page, the search engine is blind as to where the surfer goes next. Google seems to have found a way round this by offering the free Google analytics program. Webmasters, using this program, place a code on each of the pages that they wish to analyse. From the webmaster point of view, Google is providing a phenomenally useful research tool. Of course, there must be a benefit from Google's point of view. With the code on your pages, Google can track where surfers go once they have left the search engine results page. How Google Analytics benefits Google must be a matter of conjecture. Remember, that they are trying to provide the best search option for surfers. It could be that if Google Analytics demonstrates that surfers referred to you are staying on your page or Web site, then this will positively effect your ranking. If, on the other hand, you are providing links to other sites and visitors leave your site and go to these, then Google would assume that your site is not in itself providing the required information and this could have a negative effect on your ranking.

What statistics can I find for my Web site?

Most Web hosts provide information about the :-

  

With this information, you will be able to determine the areas of your site that need priority upgrading. In turn this may help you to increase the site ratings on the search engines and therefore the number of visitors and hits that your site receives.

 

If your Web hosts do not provide statistics information relating to our site data then there are a number of Web sites that will provide this facility for you:-

 

• http://www.moorglade.com/
http://www.stats4you.com/
• http://www.sitetracker.com/
• http://awstats.sourceforge.net/

First Website Design .com aims to help you build an affordable high quality website that will receive large volumes of targeted traffic . It will provide you with advice on the best Internet marketing strategies that will assist you to sell products and ways to make money online.

For information on search engine optimisation, please visit our specialist site - Keyword SEO Pro .com

David Viniker MD, the author and webmaster of FirstWebsitedesign.com, believes that quality of content is a prerequisite to success. . He has research and teaching interests. His website www.2womenshealth.com receives 1.5 million visitors annually and is the most popular personal women's health website on the Internet. He has applied his clinical skills to researching SEO techniques.

We are based in Loughton, Essex and close to North and East London and Hertfordshire.

We:

• Are website design, marketing and promotion consultants.
• Frequently attend business to business meetings where we learn about opportunities as well as the problems facing small and medium sized businesses.
• Do not offer one size fits all packages because we understand the needs and goals of each business differ and because no two web sites are alike.
• Will work with you to define your web aspirations and to utilise your specialist expertise in the ongoing development of your website.
• We will happily explain any recommendations we make including the required budget and the potential benefits. We will not make unrealistic promises.
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