Web Analytics

Web analytics is the analysis of the behaviour of internet users. It serves the following key objectives:

• Monitor the health of a website — Track and measure web traffic to assess performance vis-à-vis benchmarks and metrics.
• Improve effectiveness of the website in terms of conversion rates and other performance parameters by means of controlled website tests.
• Improve effectiveness of elements of the marketing mix. For example testing/evaluating digital marketing campaigns.

Web analytics tools use information from logs, cookies and/or page tagging processes to segment site visitors and track their progress down the prospecting funnel, from leads to enquiries, enquiries to prospects, and prospects to customers. They track conversion rates at each stage of the prospecting funnel.

Widely used web analytics platforms include:

• Google Analytics
• StatCounter
• Kissmetrics
• IBM Digital Analytics

Though platforms like Google Analytics are very versatile and highly sophisticated, they are syndicated services with limited scope for customization.

Custom designed platforms such as the one depicted in Exhibit 20.1 are better suited for specialized applications. However, they do incur high development costs and are therefore advisable only for big platforms that can afford to develop and maintain them.

Web analytics is an ongoing process of improvement that comprise these cyclical steps:

• Data Collection — Server (Web) Logs, Page Tagging.
• Data Processing — Metrics.
• Reporting — Analysis and Visualization.
• Industry Benchmarks and Competitive Intelligence.
• Optimizing.

This chapter dwells on each step to explain the web analytics process in detail.