The document provides an agenda for a web analytics training day. The objectives are to understand web analytics and how to use analytics tools to understand website visitors and enhance online performance. The agenda includes explaining what web analytics are, why they are useful, demonstrating site-focused and market-focused analytics tools like Google Analytics, browser plugins and SEO analytics software, and how to use analytics packages. Practical exercises are also included to allow participants to apply the concepts.
3. Your Host for Today!
• Andy Atkins
» MD of Web Kinetics & Lead Internet Marketer at
MBL Solutions
» 10+ years experience in online marketing
4. Objectives for Today
• To understand the scope of web analytics and be able to
select the elements that are important to your organisation,
including those not included in most analytics packages
• To acquire the knowledge required to use analytics tools and
to understand your visitors – where they come from, what
they do on the site, where they go, why they leave?
• To enhance internal skillsets to the point that web analytics
tasks can be managed internally or that direction can be
given to external agencies.
• Fundamentally, to be able to use online performance data to
focus business growth efforts or cost management activities.
7. The Agenda
• What are web analytics?
• Why are they useful?
• Site-focused analytics
• Market-focused analytics
• How to use analytics packages
• Some group work, practicals ….. and some trade secrets!
11. Web Analytics – What are they?
Web analytics is the process of analyzing the behavior of visitors to a Web site. The use of Web analytics is
said to enable a business to attract more visitors, retain or attract new customers for goods or services, or to
increase the dollar volume each customer spends.Web analytics is often used as part of customer relationship
management analytics (crm analytics). The analysis can include determining the likelihood that a given
customer will repurchase a product after having purchased it in the past, personalizing the site to customers
who visit it repeatedly, monitoring the dollar volume of purchases made by individual customers or by specific
groups of customers, observing the geographic regions from which the most and the least customers visit the
site and purchase specific products, and predicting which products customers are most and least likely to buy
in the future. The objective is to promote specific products to those customers most likely to buy them, and to
determine which products a specific customer is most likely to purchase. This can help to improve the ratio of
revenue to marketing costs.
In addition to these features, Web analytics may include tracking the clickthrough and drilldown behavior of
customers within the Web site, determining the sites from which customers most often arrive, and
communicating with browsers to track and analyze online behavior. The results of Web analytics are provided
in the form of tables, charts, and graphs.
A generic term meaning the study of the impact of a website on its users. E-commerce companies often
use Web analytics software to measure such concrete details as how many people visited their site, how
many of those visitors were unique vistors, how they came to the site (i.e., if they followed a link to get to
the site or came there directly), what keywords they searched with on the site's search engine, how long
they stayed on a given page or on the entire site, what links they clicked on and when they left the site.
Web analytic software can also be used to monitor whether or not a site's pages are working properly.
With this information, Web site administrators can determine which areas of the site are popular and
which areas of the site do not get traffic and can then use this data to streamline a site to create a better
user experience.
12. It’s just the numbers that relate to the online aspects
of your business or organisation!
It extends beyond your website(s) to advertising,
social media, inbound links, etc.
It’s not only Google Analytics….
13. Why is it important/useful?
Some Examples
• Which keywords are the most searched/most competitive in your sector?
• Which Adwords campaigns are actually converting profitably?
• Are people finding the information on my site that they’re looking for?
• Do visitors click on the things that you want/expect them to?
• Do people actually engage with your social media content?
• Have your key competitors got better inbound links than you?
• How do people find your website?
• Which pages on your site encourage conversation?
• How do your competitors get higher rankings in the search engines?
15. 3 Broad Categories of Tools
External
Perceptions
on the Internet
(Chrome SEO)
Performance vs.
Competition &
Market (WebCEO)
On-site Metrics
Tools
(Google Analytics)
18. Web Server Logs
• Solid basic statistics
• Level of analysis is dependent on the interface available at the
hoster
• Based on activity that can be measured by a web server only
• Doesn’t measure activity as seen by the user of the website
• Unable to identify many of the off-site attributes that can be
tracked by analytics software
36. The FREE Stuff
Issues
• Internet Explorer doesn’t usually accept plugins of this kind
• Different plugins for Chrome & Firefox
• Great for snapshots and quick ‘sneaks’, but not for proper
analysis or performance over time
• Some of the data is not as robust as it seems
• Not effective for looking at rankings, keyword analysis or
linking
38. The Paid Stuff
Issues
Pro’s
• Generally robust data
• Feature-set usually includes
rankings, keywords, backlinks
& page analysis as a min.
• Good for comp. comparison
• Can track results over time
• One-time report set-up
Con’s
• Costs – typically £200/250 for
software and then annual
update fees on top
• The fuller-featured tools tend
to have a steeper learning
curve
• Separate software setup and
use
• Reports can tie-up connections
for long periods
48. Setting It Up…..
1. Set up a Google account
2. Go to Account Settings
3. Add Analytics to your account
4. Copy the code snippet into the <head> section of your site
or send it to your agency/designer to add
5. Wait a few hours and then watch your data appear!
56. Can you find the following?
• Which keywords are the most searched/most competitive in your sector?
• Which Adwords campaigns are actually converting profitably?
• Are people finding the information on my site that they’re looking for?
• Do visitors click on the things that you want/expect them to?
• Do people actually engage with your social media content?
• Have your key competitors got better inbound links than you?
• How do people find your website?
• Which pages on your site encourage conversation?
• How do your competitors get higher rankings in the search engines?
57. Final Thoughts
• Use only the analytical tools that relate directly to your objectives
• Don’t be afraid to pay for the right tools – they’ll save you money
• When using on-site analytics, focus on a limited set of relevant
metrics and investigate others by exception
• Remember that browser plugins are just rough ‘snapshots’
• Don’t use your own browser to measure rankings!
• Always link Adwords and Analytics accounts
• Remember that, without the metrics, you’re flying blind online….
