Website Analytics : Basics

Web Analytics
What & Why
Quite unlike anything in the past, businesses
now can get 'live' data from their website and
can use  this to improve their operations

 
But most businesses suck at knowing what to do
with this ‘live’ data
Like BIG time

And that’s why Web Analytics is a

‘much in demand’ skill.
 User searches
Clicks on messages/ads
Goes to the website
After that what?

He reaches the website

How did he reach my website?
But where is he going?
Does he like my product?
Did he see all the products?
How much time did he spend?
Where did he go after that?
How can studying data can help you run your
business better

And why are managers not doing it currently?

Businesses usually stop at just setting up
analytics

That’s where it is supposed to begin.

 Importance of good Analytics
Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for
the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage.
- Web Analytics Association

Importance of good Analytics

• Optimize to reach site goals more efficiently

• Actionable insights based on precisely measured metrics.
• Better understanding traffic behaviour
• Test creatives, communication, layouts, etc with ease.

Who are your visitors? Improve ROI

• Country/city
• Browser/OS data How do they reach your website?
• New/Repeat • From which site?
• Which campaign works better? What are they doing..?
• What SEO/SEM keywords work? • Are they converting?
• How long do they stay on your site?
• What do they read?
• What’s making them leave? 8
• …much more
Career Potential
 Even if you don’t see job titles for ‘Web
Analytics’, this is a very useful additional skill to
have

Especially if you have been around for a

couple of years in the ‘web’ industry.
The future’s bright

“Web Analytics is hard.”

– Eric Peterson

“10% of your budget should be spent on tools, while 90%

spent on people (brains) who will be responsible for
insights.”
– Avinash Kaushik
 Brief History
JavaScript
JavaScript Tags
Tags

Log
Log Files
Files &
&
Hit
Hit Counters
Counters

Click
Click &
& heat
heat Mobile
Mobile
maps
maps Analytics
Analytics 12
Putting the GA code on your site and
checking for it
Placing the analytics code
Other web analytics packages
Other Web Analytics Providers
Let’s open a GA account
 Basic Terminology before we Jump In

Hits: Any element caused by the browser when it requests the page
(A single page can register 1 hit or hundreds of hits based on different
elements on it)

Page Views: Number of pages divided by number of visitors (number of

pages viewed by the visitor)

Sessions or User sessions: Amount of time user browsed your site

Unique visitors: No. of people visiting a web site for the first time or at
least once within a 30 day time period

Repeat visitors

Referrers or Referring sites: Place from where the user has originated

Bounce rate: % of entrance on any given page that resulted in an exit

without entering any other page on the site

Exit rate: % of exits from a page to the total number of visits to that page
 Basic Terminology before we Jump In

Time spent on the website

Page views per visit

Geographic location

Goals & Funnels

Some tricky metrics

Absolute Unique Visitors/Unique Visitors

Clicks/Visits

Visits/Sessions/Visitors
What does
analytics
measure?
Reported Segments

Google
Analytics
collects your
data based on
5 broad
segments …Which give us over 80
primary reports, which
can be further drilled
down to over 1,000
unique reports.
 Data Representation

Easily export/email a
report
• 4 format options, incl. PDF,
XML, CSV & TSV Graph
• Day/week/month views
• Compare 2 metrics
• ‘Compare to site’
• Compare date ranges
• Highlight data point on
mouse-over

Data table
• Overview of selected
component
• 5 unique data views
• Search box to
include/exclude specific
data
• Easily compare
performance to Site Avg.
Why ask for GA access before you
submit a SEM/Digital Marketing
proposal
• Know feasibility of campaign objectives
from past data.
• Get an idea of offering acceptance by
means of closures and engagement
metrics and visitor loyalty.
The tougher job is to know what to
look out for

The easier part is to navigate the

interface
A case study for what you would
‘look out for’ while studying
Google Analytics