What is Web analytics?

http://www.gotobig.com/thinking-Big/big-talk/web/web-analytics-explained.aspx

Web analytics is just what the name implies–a series of reports that analyze the way users interact with your Web site. Search engines like Google and Yahoo collect, track and measure information, such as how many visitors come to your site each month, where they come from and how long they stay on which pages. Google reports are free, whereas Yahoo charges a monthly fee.

Here’s a sample Google Analytics page. This report, called a “Dashboard,” gives a brief overview of your Web traffic over a period of time. From here, you can connect to multiple pages for even greater detail.

Say you want to know how many users came to your site on a certain day and which pages they visited. Or what your “bounce rate”–the number of people who came to your site and immediately left–was for the month. Or whether visitors found you through a search engine or a referring site. It’s all here in Web analytics.

How can Web analytics improve my marketing strategy?

So you know that 92 people visited your Web site on March 12 and stayed an average of 2 minutes. Now what?

By itself, that information may not tell you much. But imagine that your normal Web traffic ranges from 30-50 visits a day. And now you’ve got double or triple the traffic. What changed?

Maybe on March 9, you sent out a direct-mail piece announcing an upcoming sale. Or purchased a pay-per-click ad. Or a consumer publication featured your new product. The spike in Web traffic on March 12 is more than likely tied to these marketing efforts.

In other words, Web analytics tells you what works, not just on your Web site, but with your entire branding strategy. “Think of Web analytics as a powerful ROI report,” says John Crilly, marketing director. “Never before have we had access to this kind of in-depth analysis at our fingertips, helping us track which advertising dollars are effective. With Web analytics, we can.”

One final thought. While you could choose to scour through the Web analytics reports on your own, we strongly recommend you pull Big into the picture. Not only do we offer an e-media team with a high-level expertise in analytics, but we can also coordinate your Web marketing with your entire branding strategy.