A Beginner’s Guide to Web Analytics

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The era of web analytics is upon us in the marketing industry. It’s becoming ever more vital to measure human behaviour when analysing our website’s success. People no longer devote their attention to one page and remember the URL of a particular site. Instead, people allow search engines to do the work for them and scroll through many tabs at a time.

Descriptive analytics: These are like old style counters. They show baselines such as how many visits each page has gained, and how many people have watched a particular video or clicked a particular link.

Diagnostic analytics: These assist us in knowing what happened, and why. For example, if you begin to lose money, you can use this type of analysis to find out where on the customer journey your customers are dropping out. You can then use that information to target that particular section of your site.

Prescriptive analytics: This is data that tells you what to do next. A good example for this would be Google Maps. When they collect data about rush hour, they are then able to prescribe a different route to drivers so they can avoid the rush. It measures patterns in behaviour and allows us to decide how to avoid that pattern.

Predictive analytics: As the name suggests, these tell us what is likely to happen in a particular scenario. For instance, you could use this data to determine which of two website designs is likely to attract the most traffic. If one design is proven to be more popular, you can then predict that your traffic will increase should you use it.

Research:

You can use the above types of analytics to research your website’s performance and outreach. You can also use them to research the best ways to move your site forward so that you can maximise your output and sales targets. Companies like PPC Management can offer you services in this area and can train you tor understand web analytics.

Measurement:

Most metrics allow us to measure how our business is growing. We all create our own ideas of success. Effective use of analytics can help us to measure whether we are meeting our targets. Businesses often measure their success without prior research or future analysis. Measurement is meaningless without researching data from the past, and analysing future growth prospects.

Analysis:

Analysis is the process of breaking down the information you have into smaller pieces. You should be using your analysis skills to unravel the information, and to determine what lurks beneath the surface. Why are people visiting certain pages and not others? Why are people not clicking on a particular link? These are both questions that can be answered easily through analysis.

Use these simple steps and you will quickly become a pro at web analytics. Remember to research previous stats and to measure your success based on recent data. And also remember to analyse what lies behind the figures and what this may mean for your future success.

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