web analytics, a succesful web analytics strategy

Finally! the last blog! I will no longer be required to type about topics chosen by another!

The way I understand web analytics is weird to say the least. I will try to explain what it is not. As I explained in my report traditional web analytics is dead. Traditional web analytics is not helpful in any way. It tells you how many people visit a web site. So? There could be any number of reasons why someone would visit a web site (even if it was just an accident!). All in all keeping a counter on web site hits, views, etc. are not telling of any useful information. All in all traditional web analytics is dead because it is misleading and pretty much useless. Historically, web analytics has referred to on-site visitor measurement. However in recent years this has blurred, mainly because vendors are producing tools that span both categories.

Web analytics in it's contemporary form then is that much more complicated. People actually make money out of doing this analytics for you (which I recommend really for most people out there). Google analytics is a great free website that will inform you when something comes up on a subject of your choice. Personally, I used it to watch for changes in National Basketball Association (NBA), so I could keep watch on trades and other transactions before the coming season.

Web analytics are separated into two kinds. off-site and on-site;

Off-site web analytics refers to web measurement and analysis irrespective of whether you own or maintain a website. It includes the measurement of a web site's potential audience (opportunity), share of voice (visibility), and buzz (comments) that is happening on the Internet as a whole.

On-site web analytics measure a visitor's journey once on your website. This includes its drivers and conversions; for example, which landing pages encourage people to make a purchase. On-site web analytics measures the performance of your website in a commercial context. This data is typically compared against key performance indicators for performance, and used to improve a web site or marketing campaign's audience response.

Some things that make a successful web analytics strategy:

Focus on Customer Centricity, Solve for business questions, and follow the 10/90 rule.

Customer Centricity
Customer centricity refers to the orientation of a company to the needs and behaviours of its customers, rather than internal drivers (such as the quest for short term profit). Depending on your walk of life your website can be tailored to many different markets. To focus on Customer Centricity is to basically give them what they want so that they give you what you want (in most cases that is ultimately money). The main failing of these websites are that most people do not come to by your product or service. Most people come to look for job opportunities, compare prices, etc. By using data mining you may just be able to make it so that your website ideally will convince your customers to buy your stuff. While for the normal person, analyzing this kind of information would prove very difficult. Which, is why I suggest seeking professional help.

Solve for Business Questions
This is very ambiguous because it deals with business questions which in themselves are open ended. What I think this means is to use Business Questions to make yourself better. For me, I would get other people to critique my work (website in this case) and to make suggestions. That is sort of how the business questions work. They're purpose is to help you improve, like constructive criticism. In reality, this is very very very difficult and you may find that you cannot answer some of the questions put in your way. Which like I've been saying seek help!

Follow the 10/90 rule
That is, 10 percent on the tools and 90 percent on the people or the brains of the operation. After all, what is a tool without someone to utilize it? The way I see it is that you can have the best darn equipment in the world and it wouldn't make a bit of difference if you do not have anyone who can use it properly. It is a waste of time and money to get a machine that no one can use (except maybe as a hundred thousand dollar paper weight or something). By having someone who does know how to use a tool completely in and out, you have someone who might even use the tool in unexpected ways, maybe much more than you expected.

All in all I admit, I do not understand much about contemporary web analytics, maybe I am not meant to. After all there are professionals out there for this work (which is why I keep suggesting to seek their help). It's a whole new world out there for business people. A whole new game to play. Web analytics just seem to be the best tool for winning it.