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Importance of Customer Tracking: The Fine
Art of Website Analytics
Web analytics defined
Online dictionary Webopedia.com defines web
analytics as “the study of the impact of a
Web site on its users.” For online store
owners, this definition should be broadened to
include a study of website’s impact on overall
return on investment (ROI). While the science of
measuring trends in web traffic has been around for
some time, the latest web analytic offerings have
really evolved. You can now track not only who is
coming to the site but also how they found you and
whether your efforts to attract customers are paying
off. In the fiercely competitive online marketplace,
web analytics can help better inform decisions to
improve customer service and attract new business.
Track traffic trends
Usage patterns that can be examined using Web analytic
software include statistics about new vs. repeat visitors,
how long visitors stayed on a given page or the entire site,
what links were clicked (i.e., the “click-stream” used),
exit pages (including shopping cart abandonment rates),
most frequently used keywords entered into the site’s
search engine, and much more. Typically, reports can be
customized to rank statistics on a quarterly, monthly, or
even daily basis. Many programs also let you mine technical
data to assist with site maintenance (e.g., broken links and
performance) or to gage which the web browsers and platforms
visitors are most frequently using to access your site.
Gage effectiveness of campaigns
Perhaps even more importantly, today’s web analytic solutions
can be used to gage the ROI of online advertising and promotion campaigns.
Reports can be obtained about:
- Ratio of visitor click-throughs from pay-per-click vs. natural search results.
- Success rates of pay-per-click based campaigns vs. organic search engine listings
- Keywords used in major search engines
- Conversion rates of customers
- Most frequently clicked banner ads
- Search engine robot / spider visits
Analyze – then optimize
Once pertinent data is collected and analyzed, it
is important to make adjustments as needed. For
example, webmasters can use data from traffic usage patterns to
determine which areas of the site are popular and then streamline
a site’s design to create a better user experience.
At minimum, site owners and administrators will want to review key
marketing metrics regularly to optimize the success of fee-based online
advertising campaigns. Monitoring pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns,
such as Google AdWords, will help you determine which keywords are (or are not)
driving traffic to your site so you can fine-tune as needed. Conversion ratios—or
the percentage of users who visit your website and complete your primary objective
(i.e. purchase a product)—should also be carefully tracked. Some online vendors
are even finding web analytics as valuable way to combat fraud. For example,
careful inspection of PPC reports could help you detect whether a competitor is
falsely inflating your click rate (and thus driving up your advertising costs)
for a particular service.
Tools of the trade
Many paid services, like Google AdWords and Yahoo Search (Overture), include basic
tools that show advertising performance data. There are also many free or open source
general-purpose solutions. Google Directory provides a list of such tools.
More advanced commercial Web analytics tools range widely in price and features. Programs
such as Sane’s NetTracker allow for deep mining of data on many levels.
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