Web Site Analytics

 

Ricardo Harvin
E-mail Questions for Tech Tools to techtools@uschamber.com.

 

Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, no matter what media you use, is an important yet elusive endeavor. Data are often unreliable, and changes in how they are broken down and interpreted are constantly occurring.

 

On the Web, however, there are analytical tools that track customer activity on your Web site. Web analytical tools go beyond the seemingly arbitrary and sometimes controversial statistical sampling methods used by traditional media (how many Nielsen families have you ever met?). They use a combination of data drawn from Web server log files, browser cookies, and JavaScript to compile a set of behavioral data for each visit to your site.

 

This level of behavior tracking surpasses diary or survey methods because it doesn't rely on inaccurate or incomplete recollections of past actions by participants, cuts down on bad data from the "TV is on, nobody watching" effect, and delivers a detailed step-by-step view of every action a user takes through your site.

 

While no method is perfect or immune from inaccuracies or tampering, Web analytics can give you an invaluable look into how people are using your site, what they find interesting and useful, and where they come across barriers that cause them to leave your site.

 

This type of analysis is useful for every type of site. You don't have to be an online seller to find real value in knowing how your marketing information-which is what your Web site delivers-is working. If your Web site delivers the kind of information consumers search for online, the more likely they are to purchase from your brick-and-mortar store.

 

The cost of setting up analytics for your site ranges from free to hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars per month. The sweet spot for most small business sites is to pay a Webmaster to set up the free analytics service offered by Google.

 

Once you're up and running, you can gauge customer responses to different messages, page layouts, and methods of communication. For example, you can track the click-through rate of links to your site sent to your customers via e-mail versus those generated by online ads.

 

Don't hesitate to offer different versions of the same message or product page to different groups of people at the same time. These types of side-by-side comparisons (usually referred to as A/B testing) provide insight into what works best and are an example of the real-time data that Web analytics can deliver that other marketing measurements can't.

 

Hard data showing you where to make changes to improve your Web site let you maximize value to your customers and to your business.