Website Analytics: Process and Tools

Imagine you own a letterpress firm. You are the owner, and you are happy with your new site. You announce your new website to your existing clients and family, and you're getting good feedback from your Facebook fans. 

 

In any event, we do have one advantage: the internet, where we can screen the pages our visitors visit and immediately make assumptions about how to respond to their behavior.

 

You're ready to do a Tightwad McDuck and recklessly dive into the huge vault of money that will undoubtedly follow. But your website doesn’t do great here, we have the internet on our side.

 

The good news in this tale is that our website can adjust to the demands of our customers and our company. But, before we can worry about particular metrics, we need to know what we anticipate from our consumers. We need to get started on our web strategy.

 

 

What is website analytics?

 

Website analytics is the process of studying the behavior of website visitors. This is recording, evaluating, and reporting data in order to assess web activity, which includes the use of a website and its components, such as web pages, photos, and videos.

 

Web analytics data may include traffic sources, referring sites, page views, pathways taken, and conversion rates. The gathered data is frequently used in CRM analytics to assist and streamline better business choices.

 

Web analytics tools allows a company to retain consumers, attract new visitors, and raise the amount of money each client spends.

 

Process of Web Analytics

 

1. Setting objectives: 

 

The initial stage in the web analytics process is for firms to identify their goals and the desired outcomes. Increased sales, customer happiness, and brand exposure are examples of such objectives. Business objectives can be quantitative as well as qualitative.

 

 

2. Data collection: 

 

The collecting and storage of data is the second phase in web analytics. Data can be collected directly from a website or web analytics platform, such as Google Analytics, by businesses. 

 

The data is mostly derived from Hypertext Transfer Protocol requests, including information at the network and application levels, and it may be supplemented with other data to evaluate online usage. 

 

A user's Internet Protocol address, for example, is frequently correlated with a variety of parameters, including geographic location and click through rates.

 

 

3. Data processing: 

 

Businesses then turn the obtained data into useful information in the following level of the web analytics funnel.

 

 

4. Key performance indicators identifying (KPIs): 

 

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurable statistic used in web analytics to monitor and evaluate user behaviour on a website. Bounce rates, unique users, user sessions, and on-site search queries are some examples.

 

 

5. Creating a strategy: 

 

This step entails putting insights into action in order to develop strategies that are in line with the aims of the company. 

 

For example, on-site search queries can assist a business in developing a content strategy based on what visitors are searching for on its website.

 

 

6. Experimentation and testing: 

 

Businesses must test many tactics in order to discover the one that produces the greatest outcomes. A/B testing, for example, is a basic approach for learning how an audience reacts to different types of material. 

 

The procedure entails developing two or more versions of material and then exposing it to different audience groups to see which version performs better.

 

 

Why is website analytics so important?

 

It's an ancient cliché in business that anything worth doing is worth measuring. Website analytics give insights and data that may be utilised to improve the website visitor experience.

 

Understanding customer behaviour using analytics is also important when it comes to optimising a website for crucial conversion metrics. 

 

Web analytics, for example, will show you the most popular pages on your website as well as the most common pathways to purchase. 

 

You may also use website analytics to precisely track the efficacy of your internet marketing operations in order to inform future efforts.

 

 

9 Website analytics tools

 

1. Google analytics

 

Google Analytics is one of the greatest free tools for tracking and analysing Web traffic data that every website owner may utilise. 

 

You can monitor which keywords attract the most traffic to your pages and which features of your designs put people off. 

 

This application will create a report for your website that contains data on users, traffic sources, objectives, content, and e-commerce. The disadvantage of Google Analytics is that it takes time to update.

 

At the moment, the real-time version is currently under beta testing. There are various solutions available now that provide real-time changes to your data. 

 

 

2. Yahoo web analytics

 

Once you've mastered Google Analytics, Yahoo's comparable product allows you to go a bit further into your surveys. 

 

It provides superior access control settings and a more straightforward approach to multi-site analytics, raw and real-time data collecting (for free, unlike Google). 

 

You may import cost of products data, visitor behaviour and demographic information, as well as customizable alternatives. 

 

Yahoo Analytics is a step up from Google Analytics in terms of profiling, filtering, and customisation, so it's an excellent alternative for people who want to dive a little further.

 

 

3. Clicky

 

Clicky also provides a free service if you only have one website, as well as a Pro membership for a monthly cost. You receive real-time statistics, as well as Spy View, which allows you to see what current visitors are doing on your site. 

 

Clicky's dashboard is easy to use and simply displays all of the information you need to view. They also provide a smartphone version that allows you to check your stats from anywhere.

 

 

4. Mint

 

Mint is a self-hosted analytics solution that costs $30 per website. You get real-time statistics, something you don't get with free Google Analytics. You can keep track of who visits your site, where they come from, and what pages they visit. 

 

And Peppermill, a Mint component, allows you to customise it with a plethora of free add-ons to make it more user-friendly.

 

 

5. Kissmetrics

 

Kissmetrics is one of the simplest solutions to set up (it just requires a one-time Javascript installation), and its goal is to give businesses an easily installed and customizable feedback form for website users. 

 

On the business side, you can manage all of the questions you ask consumers through a single, easy-to-use dashboard. The nicest aspect of Kissmetrics is that your consumer feedback is sent in the form of extremely simple and brief remarks. It offers both a free and a subscription version for $29 per month.

 

(Must read: Customer Journey Analytics Guide)

 

 

6. UserTesting

 

UserTesting is a one-of-a-kind method of gathering information about site visitors. You are paying for a group of participants to complete a series of activities on your site. The user and his activities will be videotaped. 

 

You will receive your feedback in approximately an hour. You get to hear what users in your target demographic are thinking. The fee is $39 for each person you select. You can select from one to one hundred testers.

 

 

7. Crazy Egg

 

Crazy Egg allows you to create heat maps and monitor your visitors' every click based on where they are particularly visiting inside your website, which is a lengthy way of stating that you're investigating the usability of your website. 

 

It enables you to see exactly which portions of your site people find most intriguing and click on the most. It can assist you in improving your website design and, as a result, conversion. 

 

Setup is also really straightforward, and they provide a 30-day money-back guarantee on all accounts, which is a great touch.

 

 

8. Facebook insight

 

If you use Facebook for any aspect of your business, this is the most basic free data analytics product from Mark Zuckerberg's team. It gives you a lot of information about your followers, likes, and comments on your articles, among other things. 

 

There are two sorts of Facebook Insights, which are based on both users and interactions with your content. This is the only tool you'll need if you're leveraging Facebook content to increase consumer engagement.

 

 

9. Twitalyzer

 

Twitalyzer is a free analytics dashboard with precise stats that is the most comprehensive programme for monitoring impact, engagement, and influence on your Twitter usage. 

 

Twitalyzer, like Facebook Insights, provides a more comprehensive picture of your account's influence on consumers based on followers, retweet level, how frequently an account answers and interacts in discussion, and more. Because you can search up a Twitter account and obtain fast information, simplicity is crucial here.  

 

These data analytics tools enable businesses to obtain detailed information on demographics, user activity, age, gender, and traffic source. 

 

Organizations may use web analytics to acquire immediate insights into how their website is doing and what consumers are saying about their products or services.

 

(Suggested reading: What is people analytics?)

 

In the end, website analytics is essential for any website, especially when Google is releasing new improvements, to ensure that you are focusing on the appropriate metrics at the right time. 

 

Investing in website analytics can help identify the causes of poor traffic and revenues. It may highlight your site's traffic and conversion statistics, as well as advise you exactly what improvements your site may require to boost its performance.