What is Web Analytics? Steps, Use for Business Growth

  • Post last modified:19 May 2023
  • Reading time:8 mins read
  • Post category:Business Analytics
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What is Web Analytics?

Web analytics refers to measuring, collecting, analysing and reporting of web data to understand and optimise the usage of Web. Web analytics is the process of calculating and analysing data in order to have a better knowledge of user activity on our websites.

Web analytics also help companies in measuring the outcomes of traditional print or broadcast advertising campaigns, in estimating how traffic to a website alters after launching of a new campaign of advertising, in providing accurate figures of visitors on a website and page views, and in gauging Web traffic and popularity patterns which are useful in market research.

Four basic steps of Web analytics are as follows:

  • Collection of information: This stage involves gathering of basic or elementary data. This data involves counting of things.

  • Processing of data into information: The purpose of this stage is to process the collected data and derive information from it.

  • Developing KPI: This stage focuses on using the derived information with business methodologies, referred to as KPIs.

  • Formulating online strategy: This stage emphasises on setting online goals, objectives and standards for the organisation or business. It also lays emphasis on making and saving money and increasing market share.

There are two categories of Web analytics:

  • Off-site Web analytics
  • On-site Web analytics.

Off-site Web analytics allows Web measurement and analysis irrespective of whether you own or maintain a website. It includes the measurement of a website’s potential audience, visibility and comments that are going on the Internet.

On the other hand, On-site Web analytics is used to measure the behaviour of a visitor who had once visited the website. The On-site Web analytics is used to measure the effectiveness and performance of your website in a commercial context.

This data generated is further compared against KPIs for performance and is used for improvement of a website. Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are popular on-site Web analytics services.

There are mainly two methods of gathering the data technically. The first method lays emphasis on server log file analysis in which the log files are read and used by the Web server for recording file requests sent by browsers. The second method, known as page tagging, uses JavaScript embedded in the Web page for tracking it.

Both the methods can gather data which can be processed for generating reports of Web traffic. The second method provides more accurate result as compared to the first method.

Web analytics is helpful to any business for deciding the division of market, determining target market, analysing market trends and deciding the conduct of site visitors. It is additionally helpful to comprehend visitor’s advantages and priorities.


Uses of Web Analytics for Business Growth

Some important uses of Web analytics for business growth are as follows:

Measure Web traffic

Web analytics can track the number of users visiting the site and identify the source from where they are coming. It also focuses on the keywords that the visitors utilise to query items on the website. It also demonstrates the quantity of visitors on the Web page by means of the diverse sources like Web search tools, through messages, online networking and promotions.

Estimate visitors count

Frequent or large number of visits from visitors shows the activity the site is getting. The Web analytics tool helps in deciding how frequently a visitor came back to a site and which pages of a site were given more preference by visitors. It additionally tells various traits about a visitor such as its nation, language, etc.

Web analytics also provide report about the time that was spent by a particular visitor on the website or total time by visitors as a whole. Such reports help to enhance pages and reduce their bounce rate (or low engagement). It additionally demonstrates high engagement time of pages and tells in which item or service visitor may be interested.

Track bounce rate

A bounce describes a situation in which a visitor visits a page on the site and leaves that page without making any move or clicking on any links on that page. A high bounce rate could mean visitors were unable to find what they were searching for in the site.

Identify exit pages

A few pages on a site may have a high leave rate, similar to the thank you page on an online e-commerce website after purchasing is done successfully. A high exit rate on a particular page demonstrates that the page has some issue and should be investigated quickly. Examination of such pages should be done to determine whether visitors are not getting the intended information for which they have visited the website. Web analytics tools help in finding such pages quickly and rectifying the problems with those pages.

Identify target market:

It is essential for advertisers to understand their visitors and deliver information according to their requirements. The discoveries of analytics services uncover the present market requests which generally change with a geographic area. By utilising Web analytics, marketers can track the volume and geographical information of visitors and can offer things according to the interest of visitors.

Article Source
  • Kaushik, A. (2007). Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. Sybex.


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