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Elizabeth W. QuillianDr. Craig PiercyMIST 7500October 15, 2009Applying Web Analytics, Search Engine OptimizationAnd Search Engine Marketing to My BlogData, and lots of it, will be generated when using web analytic tools. Problems oftenarise, however, when trying to evaluate this enormous amount of data and decide what actionsto take, if any, based on this evaluation. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search enginemarketing (SEM) combined with web analytics provide the foundation for building andmaintaining a successful web site or blog.Web analytics is defined by the Web Analytics Association as “the measurement,collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for the purposes understanding and optimizingweb usage” (Cowen). The methods used to collect and measure the data are usually determined by the goals of the owner of the web site. A goal is a desired outcome or objective of someaction measured by performance indicators. The goals of an online retailer may be vastlydifferent than the goals of a blogger and therefore, what is tracked on the respective web sitesoften are different. In the case of an online retailer web site a goal can be an increase in thenumber or dollar volume of sales, or a blogger may simply want to know the number of times acertain page within the web site has been viewed. In each of these instances the method of tracking the goals will be different.1

Because different types of web sites (and bloggers) need different types of data, there areseveral metrics available for tracking in web analytics. These include; using log analyzers,monitoring hits or page views, exit points, conversions, bounce rates, page tags, and clicksamong many others. In the 1990’s, log analyzers were used most often in gathering data. As thename implies, log analyzers involve the review, either manually or automatically, of internet logsfor instances of a specific event, i.e., a site visitor lands on a specific page. A bounce is definedas a user comes to a page and immediately leaves the site without proceeding to another page inthe site. A high bounce rate is usually a good indicator of what isn’t working on a web site or blog. Another indicator of what isn’t working is the exit point or where the visitor exits the site.Where a visitor exits the site can be caused by a number of things, i.e., poor site design, lack of inventory, price. A conversion is defined as the site visitor performs some defined action, thecompletion of a purchase transaction or a submitting a request for information. A hit or pageview is a request for a file from a server (Wikipedia). Counting a hit or page view can bemisleading because any images, tables or .css files on a page also send requests to the server.Page views do generate valuable data but users must be careful in the evaluation of this data.Page tags are meta tags or JavaScript snippets (sometimes both) that collect visitor data and writethe information to a database (Byrne).

The use of page tags is discussed further when discussingsearch engine optimization below. A click is an instance of a user using a hyperlink to navigatefrom one page in a site to another within the same site.Once the determination has been made to use web analytics, the next step is whatapplication or vendor to use to gather and interpret this data as there are several web analytics products available. According to the “Forrester Wave: Web Analytics Q3 2009” (Lovett), themost important factors when choosing a web analytics vendor or application are: accuracy of 2

information, flexibility of reporting options, standard features and functionality, ease of integration with other data types, and ability to measure new media. Google Analytics is a freetracking service launched in 2007 by Google is very easy to install on your web site or blog.Once installed, it will monitor over 18 different metrics such as keywords, browsers, location,site visits, etc. One of Google Analytics’ most useful features is Conversion University which isan online tutorial to help in the use and application of the metrics on your web site.Table 1. Screen Capture of Google Analytics for ewq-MIST7500 BlogOther web analytic vendors include Omniture, Webtrends, Coremetrics, Teradata, and Yahoo!Web Analytics. The determination of which vendor/product to use will be based on the size of the organization that “owns” the web site, the purpose of the web site, and the goal(s) of using3