Web Analytics
Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage.
The focus of web analytics
It is to understand the users of a site, their behavior, and activities. The study of online user behavior and activities generate valuable marketing intelligence and provides,
- Performance measures of the website against targets.
- Insight on user behaviors and needs, and how the site meets those needs.
- Optimization ability to make modifications to improve the website based on the results.
Web Analytics Tools
user sessions
In order to identify the users, web analytics tools need to report on user sessions . There are different techniques to identify users such as IP addresses, user agent and IP address combination, cookies, and authenticated user.
cookies
The most common user identification technique is via cookies which are small packets of data that are usually deposited on the user’s computer hard disk when the person visits a website.
How to Review Web Metrics
Think People and Process
No doubt, technology is important, but you need to go beyond it. Take time and care to thoroughly understand your stakeholders’ measurement needs.
Segmentation
Many organizations unfortunately still report on total page views and miss out on all the non-page view interactions such as video, downloads and rich media.
Think Visitors, Not Visits
Explore data such as where visitors came from, what course they took between pages while on your website, and where they spent the most (or least) time during their visit.