Web Analytics – Refining and Redefining The Current Techniques !!

In the coming year we shall see tremendous refinements in the current web analytics tools to meet the new and very specific analytics needs of growing organizations. Here is our list of the top trends that we are likely to observe in 2011:

1. Tackling the challenge of analyzing multiple web access points:

The ways through which people can now access web has grown significantly and so analysts needs to stand up and face the challenge of understanding the behavior of the users of these multiple platforms to drive the whole advantage. In 2011 connected devices are set to make more use of your cars, work stations, TV, devices with larger screens and so on for keeping you fully connected. With multitude of handheld devices like smart phones and iPad that offer enhanced viewing and browsing experience – the number of mobile web users is increasing exponentially. Mobile analytics here would emerge as a distinct component of reporting user information for clients.

2. In-app analytics will come up significantly in 2011:

Today’s mobiles are flooded with options to run thousands of applications, which are slowly becoming significant for communication, interaction, navigation, search, entertainment, information, gaming, etc., for the users. The list is growing at an alarming pace and is capable of keeping the users addicted to their gadgets. iPhone applications alone run over 350,000, while Android has over 50,000 apps. The reason for this growing numbers is the usability and utility of these applications in smart phones. Web analysts will have to burn the midnight oil to extract valuable data from these applications’ usage.

3. Proactive companies will focus on analyzing the voice of the customer:

With millions of conversations happening online, companies have little control over what is being talked about their brands, but by being proactive in listening and following their brand name on all online channels, companies can influence and give a positive direction to those conversations. Social media analytics would be extremely useful. Another challenge here is to cut down huge amounts of unnecessary data, which may become a specialized task for analysts. Twitter is coming up with its own analytic tool which could give out some real valuable data, good for analysts to track and drive marketing objectives.

4. Better framework for social media analytics would be developed:

Currently, there are thousands of free and paid tools in the market. Each addressing a very specific analytics need and none of them are totally accurate. There’s a need for some level of tool consolidation and a social media analytics solution that answers critical questions holistically when it comes to tracking a brand online. Convergence of best web analytic practices may shape up new and standardized frameworks. Recently concluded global events and conferences like Blogwell, FutureGov Summit, among others, focused on the hot issue of developing a strategic social media framework for better and effective analysis.

5. Social media campaign analytics is coming into the picture:

With major companies targeting social media for online marketing; campaign analytics on social media is becoming a necessity. The metrics for measurement is totally different from the standard campaign analytics. Tracking Facebook fan pages, twitter hash tags, various brand specific applications and promotional campaigns on social media is becoming the need of the hour. So with increased use of online marketing, tracking social media campaigns will now grow at par with regular web analysis.

6. Privacy concerns might change the web analytics landscape totally:

With increased concern over privacy issues, tracking data that is private in nature might get banned altogether, and analysts might end up looking for new jobs. In 2011, we will see what Federal Trade Commission’s Do-Not-Track initiatives include and how it will impact web analytics. It may be something similar to the Do-Not-Call registry for phone users.

7. The need for web analysis will shoot up, so will the jobs

With online marketing, experiencing a near primary-marketing platform status, businesses are rapidly joining the web analysis bandwagon. Major web analysis vendors have seen a steep rise in the application of their solutions, which is indicative of this trend. And with more analysis needed we will surely see a surge in demand for quality web analysts too. As per Econsultancy report, companies are investing more in people as well as technology in order to get ‘actionable’ information from their web data. Forrester Research reported that web analytics spending will more than double to $1 billion by 2014. This implies a pressing need for analysis, and of course, more jobs for analysts.

Source: Web Analytics – Refining and Redefining The Current Techniques

Why Different Web Analytics Tools Report Different Numbers !!

The main reasons behind different data against different web analytic tools are:-


a). Raw logs are useless:-

Most servers store raw logs, which are lists of all the accesses and page requests on your website. It’s possible to interpret those raw logs with special programs, creating graphic reports which will contain the number of visitors, page views and so on.

Those numbers are grossly overestimated, though, because all kinds of search bots and automated queries are counted together.

b) Webalizer and AW Stats overestimate

Webalizer and AW Stats are very popular web analytics programs, and that is because they are usually installed by default on cPanel (the control panel software on most hosting companies). Both of them tend to overestimate the number of visitors and page views your website receives, however, and such data should always be used with a grain of salt.

c) Ad networks underestimate a bit, but there is nothing you can do about it

The number of impressions you’ll see on most ad networks control panel usually is an underestimation of your total traffic, and that is because they won’t track people who can’t see ads or who block them on purpose.

There is nothing you can do about it though, and if you want to make money using ad networks you need to play under their rules. The alternative is to have your own banners embed with HTML code, in which case they would be seen by 100% of your visitors.

d) Google Analytics underestimates a bit, but it’s the industry standard

The numbers reported by Google Analytics also underestimate your traffic slightly, and that is because the software has very strict rules regarding what should be considered a visitors and a page view.

GA’s tracking is very reliable, though, and that is why it’s used as the industry standard. If you want to sell a website, for example, most serious buyers will ask for Google Analytics data before they make an offer.

The Benefits Of Web Analytics !!

First of all, what are web analytics?

The Official WAA Definition of Web Analytics: Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage.



Analysis

Web analytics has been gaining steady popularity among the online community, and is showing no signs of slowing. It is a great device to look at your latest internet site trends and your visitors’ or users’ preferences in terms of site features. Here are some very general examples of the benefits of web analytics.

* It helps monitor your visitors and users

With web analytics, you know how long your visitor stayed on your site, who they are and what source they came from. It is possible for you to know their clickstream activity, the keywords they may have used to access your site, and how they came to enter your site in the first place. You can also see the number of times a visitor returned to your site and which pages took preference over the others. All in all, very useful information vital in order to make constructive website changes.

* It can help you optimize your website

Once you have carefully studied the actions of your visitors, you will be able to action some changes. This puts you in a great position to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites. You can improve, streamline or reshape site navigation to better assist your visitors, and improve their overall browsing experience.

* It can help you formulate a sales and e-marketing plan

Web analytics will be able to assist you in the preparation of an e-marketing plan. This will be more effective because your plan will be based on solid facts and not mere probabilities. You‘ll know what is popular on the site, and what your market likes and wants. By tracking highly-viewed items, you will learn which features receive the highest interest. You can even use analytics data to enhance other programs that you already have in place - like PPC for example. Then you can work on expanding your client base, as well as retaining your current customers.
Conclusion

An application like Google Analytics can help you achieve all of the above - but in order to turn your data into information - that is to make sense of it and fully understand what it means - it is helpful to use a business intelligence solution which can open your eyes to the real potential of your website in just a few clicks.

Can you think of any more? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Read more: The Benefits Of Web Analytics