Colorado Web Solutions

Website Analytics: Small Business Power Tools

Posted on June 26th, 2007 by cwsnews

The world of website analytics was born out of the very basic necessity to know statistical information regarding one’s website. “How many people are coming to my site?” “Which day of the week do I get the most visitors?” “What month?” “What time of day?” The answers while fascinating are really not very useful in answering the real question at hand: “Is my website working?”

Consider the fact that the very basic analytics that are part of a web hosting package can tell you with accuracy that your website receives 5000 hits daily. What these basic analytics can’t tell you is why only one of those 5000 hits results in a sale. This article will discuss the depth of information that is available today via powerful website analytics systems and the importance of what that info can tell a website operator or business owner.

There are two types of analytics systems available today to website operators. They are Log File and Web Based. Log File analytics systems look at the log files created by the web servers and are prone to up to a 30% error rate because of a lack in effective customer identification methods. Due to an inability to correctly identify visitors they are prone to drastic over-counts of potential customers and new visitors to a site. Web based analytics rely on placing an HTML tracking code in the browser of the visitor. The tracking code will remain in place (unless the visitor has deleted their cookies) for future visits to identify them as a returning visitor. In general web based analytics systems are a far more accurate and effective means of gathering data that will help address marketing issues that are critical to the success of your website.

The depth of available information from web based analytics systems is truly astounding. In real time you can find out information as basic as which time zone accounts for the majority of your customers to in depth step-by-step scenario analysis that will shed light upon the effectiveness of checkout procedures and signup forms. And you can do so for any timeframe you choose with a single click of the mouse. The available information can be broken down into two main categories. They are demographic and operational.

Demographic information is specific info regarding your potential customers that is incredibly valuable from a marketing standpoint. A good analytics system will be able to tell you what carrier your visitor is using, and also number of visitors by time zone, visitors by country, visitors by state, visitors by zip code, visitors by city, and visitors by area code. This geographical information is extremely useful for the purpose of targeting print, radio, and television advertising. Knowing specifically which areas account for the majority of your traffic will make targeting your advertising and promotional efforts a simple task.

Operational information available via web based analytics systems is often times the most important and eye opening data regarding one’s website. Operational data will tell you where customers go within your website. It will map out the most popular click trails taken by your visitors. It will tell you which actions are most frequently taken by visitors (i.e. signing up for email lists, file downloads, tell a friend actions etc.). It will help determine the effectiveness of online advertising efforts including Pay-Per-Click advertising and email campaigns. It can determine the number of visitors from organic (free) placements in search engines. It can break down search engine results by search engine name and even by phrase and keyword. It can track visitors from affiliate links, email links, link exchanges and other links. It can determine the average number of clicks it takes a potential customer to reach key pages of your site. And perhaps most importantly it can determine bounce rates for specific pages and also determine the effectiveness of page sequences like your shopping cart or account creation page. It also allows website operators to tweak small things or make experimental changes to their site based on analytic information to see what changes are affected. This is really just a sampling of the operational data that is available, but it is easy to imagine the light that this much info can shed upon the general effectiveness of your entire website.

Traditionally this level of information may have only been available to large companies with great financial means. This is certainly not the case in today’s online business world. With the advent of programs like “Total Analytics” from Colorado Web Solutions, even small business owners can be privy to such a tremendous level of information for surprisingly little cost. To see an overview of available packages within Total Analytics click here: http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/total_solutions_total_analytics_main.htm

An understanding of both the operational and demographic data that is made available by web based analytics systems can only serve to improve the performance of your website and of your efforts to attract new customers. The ability to know not only who is coming to your website, but where they came from, whether or not you paid for their visit, how much you paid, and how often those visits result in sales is incredibly important. Website operators and business owners who have an understanding of this information, and use it to make sure that their website is performing at a high level are at an obvious advantage over those who must make changes and simply hope that they will effect the problems they may be having in the correct way. Simply being able to correctly diagnose problems will save time in fixing them and pay for itself in the long run with an effective and user-friendly website.

Colorado Web Solutions
http://www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

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