5 Web Analytics Intro

Vanessa Bright

Web AnalyticsA presentation inspired by cold weather…

Introduction

Vanessa Bright

So… What are HITS?

A hit is a request to a web server for a file (web page, image, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheet, etc.). When a web page is uploaded from a server the number of "hits" or "page hits" is equal to the number of files requested, therefore one page load does not always equal one hit because often pages are made up of other images and other files which stack up the number of hits counted. Because one page load does not equal one hit it is an inaccurate measure of a websites popularity or web traffic… Wikipedia

Vanessa Bright

What does web analytics measure?

Web Analytics measures success of marketing (and/or business) initiatives

Vanessa Bright

Vanessa Bright

Perfect metric for a Web site…

Perfect metric of a web site depends on the business objectives

What is the goal?- Sales- Lead Gen- Branding- Customer service- Content/selling ads

Vanessa Bright

Web Analytics tools

• History of tool development– IT needs– Marketing needs

• Industry consolidation/repositioning – Web analytics– Optimization

• Measuring Web 2.0– We need to understand Web 1.0 first…

Vanessa Bright

How accurate is analytics?

Web logs

over counts

JavaScript Tags

under counts

Data ownershipCaptures robot traffic

Easier initial implementationNo need for server accessAutomatic upgradesEasier campaign tracking

Geared toward ITNeed server accessNeed upgradesDifficult campaign tracking

No data ownershipDoes not capture robot traffic

Trends, not exact numbers

Credit - ROI Revolution

Vanessa Bright

Google Analytics (external sites)

• Each profile has over 200 reports… with infinite (for practical purposes) variations…

• Google Analytics underreports about 7% of traffic• The process:

– Understanding client’s goals– Adjusting setting– Training the client and providing analysis

Vanessa Bright

200 reports! My head spins…

“Web Analytics is hard.” – Eric Peterson

“10% of your budget should be spent on tools, while 90% spent on people (brains) who will be responsible for insights.”

– Avanash Kaushik

Vanessa Bright

Important basics

Vanessa Bright

• Visits - how many visits your site received (one person can visit site several times – it will count as several visits)

• Absolute Unique Visitors - how many people visited your site (one person can visit the site several times, but it will be just one visitor)

• Pageviews – how many pages were accessed by visitors (one visitor can view the same page 10 times; it will be 10 pageviews)

• Pages per Visit – on average, how many pages were viewed during each visit (a person visited the site twice; in the morning he viewed 2 pages, in the evening he viewed 4 pages – the average will be 3 pages per visit)

• Bounce Rate – % of visits that included only one page • Average time on site – average time each visit took• New Visitor – a visitor that have not visited the site before

the selected reporting period

Vanessa Bright

Asking analytics questions…

…is asking business (campaign) questions

Vanessa Bright

Tracking smart moves…

Font color was changed from grey to black

Vanessa Bright

Tracking campaigns

• Campaigns (electronic format) need to be “tagged” before they start• Campaigns (not electronic format, direct mail for example) need to have a

special “nice” URL; which itself need to be “tagged”

If campaign is not tagged before it is sent, it can not be tracked

Vanessa Bright

Questions