Have you ever wondering why web analytics is important?
You’ve got your website up online – a blog, sales page, landing page, corporate site, etc. – there on the Internet just waiting for all those visitors! Working hard getting the layout and branding just right, and it looks great. You’ve researched keywords, determined what people are searching for, and created a stream of new and fresh content you believe they want. You’ve even implemented social sharing buttons and widgets across the site, which at a glance tell you what pages and content people like and are sharing.
However, do you know anything about who’s accessing your site, from where, how frequently, and what content they are consuming? Do you have enough information to make the necessary changes to your website to improve readability, usability, or even search engine rankings?
If you answered ‘no’ to any of these, then clearly, you’re going to need some help – this is where Web Analytics software comes in.
What is Web Analytics?
Web Analytics is often confused with website statistics and traffic monitoring, but there is a difference. In plain terms, Web Analytics is the collection, measurement, analysis, and reporting of your website data to understand web usage. The idea is that once you understand the detailed usage of your site, you can then take action and optimize various aspects to achieve better results.
Should You Implement Web Analytics on Your Business Site?
Yes, however, many site owners are still failing to implement analytics tools on their sites.
Why Is This?
In most cases, perception seems to be the primary issue. They believe that it is too difficult, both technically and also when using the reports and graphs to determine what should change. In others, site owners don’t believe it’s necessary, particularly if it’s a new or small site.
It is important to understand that collecting data from day one is good practice. Even if you’re not going to use the data straight away, at least it’s being collected and ready for the time when you do need it. If you’ve not already done it, it is highly suggested that you implement Web Analytics today.
There will come a time in the future when you will need to perform analyses on your site’s usage, and having the historical data over many months or even years will give you greater insight.
When the time comes for you to analyze your site’s usage and it will come, you’ll find that you’re not making as much money from your blog as you anticipated. Your Sales page isn’t converting as well as it once did or people are no longer signing up for your email newsletter. There are a handful of scenarios where analyzing your site’s usage is going to be useful.
If you implemented a toolset from the outset, then you’ll have all that historical data to feed into the analysis. You’ll be able to determine what’s working, what isn’t including the possible reasons why.
If you’re not getting the conversions, you expect then Web Analytics will help.
An example of where Web Analytics can help
Imagine having a monetization strategy to embed affiliate links within articles on your blog for products and services you recommend. The articles and information they provide are the most important part, and the affiliate links are secondary.
You’ve implemented a Drupal plug-in that takes care of affiliate link management and gives you the ability to automatically add affiliate links within an article and across the entire site based on one or more defined keywords. Just add a new affiliate link, punch in the words the link should be added to and bingo, you’ve easily monetized your site.
OK, So You’ve Added the Affiliate Links, But What Next?
If you write a long article, say some 2,000 words, and there are a dozen affiliate links for the same product, how do you know which one is responsible for a referral?
You’d have to create a unique affiliate link for every keyword, and that would take up a lot of time. Now multiply that by each product, and you can see that attempting to track affiliate links in this way is not feasible – this is where Web Analytics comes into its own.
There’re products available that provide the capability to visualize where users are clicking on your pages and posts. Using this feature, you’d be able to see which affiliate links are working and being clicked on and those that are not.
Now That’s Incredibly Powerful Isn’t It?
You’ll know what triggering words and sentences are sparking the visitor to click on a link, and you can then take this knowledge and adapt it for other articles. Maybe it’s specific words you’re using each time; maybe it’s something in the formatting, whatever it is, will be more easily understood using this sort of tool.
Finally
You may think you’ve created the most amazing website within your chosen niche, but if you don’t have an analysis of your website’s usage, you won’t know for sure.
On that note, we’re sure you can think up other specific scenarios where implementing Web Analytics will give you the in-depth understanding you need to help you optimize your site and achieve the best possible results.
Do you need to implement web analytics into your business website? Hit us up today, we’ll love to work with you!
