The Importance of Web Analytics
Web analytics is a great tool, but it must be used properly in order for it to be useful. Let us look at an example comparing a real world visit to a store and a visit to an online store.
A customer walks into a store and walks around looking at products. They may be there for just a minute or they may browse around for an hour. At the end of the time period they may or may not buy something. For the store owner, there is no information beyond the fact that someone came in and if a purchase was made, then that information is there too.
In an online business with web analytics the store owner will know
- Which page the customer came from
- what pages they looked at
- how long they spent on each page
- what purchases they made
- the geographical location of the customer, etc
However, all this amounts to just data if the store owner does not know what to do with it. What they should be doing is looking at each section of data and asking the question “Why?”
For example, if 60% of the visitors leave after viewing the homepage, then the reason for that has to be investigated. Perhaps the homepage is cluttered, perhaps it has the wrong information or it is misleading or maybe it is just too complicated. Whatever the reason is, it has to be fixed. In the same manner, every bit of the analytical data that is presented has to be analyzed this way. By doing this, a great deal of information can be gleaned from web analytics which can ultimately help the business move forward.