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Web Analytics

10/15/2009

Chris ThornMIST 7500

MIST 7500 MidtermChris Thorn

Web Analytics

Web Analytics are numbers, stats and metrics that measure the activity on a website.They are a statistical rabbit hole for web administrators and site owners to fall downwhen analyzing the performance of their site. The available metrics range from theobvious, headline-grabbing Number of Daily Visitors to the esoteric, subjectiveConversion Rate. Understanding the meaning, context and level of accuracy of webanalytics is important.Depending on their needs, users can choose from a number of web analyticsservices and programs. Corporations can purchase or build enterprise-level software for large scale platforms. Smaller users can choose from various free analytics programs tomonitor their websites. The key is finding an analytics program that captures theimportant information and displays it in a way for the user to effectively analyze and process the data.To find the right program, users must understand the metrics definitions andfunctionality. Key metrics include Unique Visitor, Repeat Visits and Session Durationamong others. Unique Visitors, as defined by Wikipedia, is a uniquely identified visitor to the site, whether by IP address, visitor log-in or cookie, during a certain timeframe set by the analytics software or administrator. This metric is often confused with thelaymen’s perception of hits, which are the number of requests for files on a page. Serverscan request many hits per page depending on the number of files, such as images, text,ads and other files, hosted on that page. The number is incredibly misleading but stillhaunts the industry today. For example, the sales team at my office is constantly askedhow many hits our network of sites receives on a daily basis. The metric is meaningless.Unique Visitors on the other hand is more accurate but still has flaws.Why Unique Visitors works better is that it counts a metric once during a set time period. If a user visits a site in the morning and returns in the evening, depending on theset time constraints, they are likely viewed as one unique visitor for the day. This metricis built on a few assumptions. First, there is one user per measurement method, whichmeans the analytics program assumes the same visitor used the same computer (if usingfirst-party cookies) or came from the same IP address (if using web log analysis) that day.But if a home computer is used by multiple family members to visit CNN.com during asingle day, the analytics software will only count one Unique Visitor despite differentusers at the computer. IP address analysis also can be inaccurate because some corporateusers share one external IP address or use dynamic IP assignment. Multiple users might be hitting the site from one IP address.Another metric that is focused on by administrators is New vs. Returning Visitors.At first glance, this appears to be an amazingly powerful metric. In theory, as theanalytics software tracks site activity, it differentiates Unique Visitors that are new to thesite from others that are returning to the view the content. When I first started trackingvisitors to my web comic, I misinterpreted this metric in the way mentioned above. Asmy understanding of site analytics grew more nuanced, I realized that New/Returningalso is flawed. When users clear their cookies or visit from different IP addresses, they

are classified as new. Considering how many users clear their cookies after each onlinesession, this can be an inaccurate measurement tool.Obviously web analytics are not 100 percent accurate. Some metrics are better gauges than others. Daily visitor rates or other stats can be frustrating when viewed as just numbers because they can’t be trusted as absolutes. But where I’ve found webanalytics to be incredibly useful is in understanding visitor trends and site effectiveness by putting the metrics in context.My MIT blog has generated no traffic since I installed Google Analytics andSitemeter software to the blog (in full disclosure, the site has counted 6 visits but they areall from me). But I have used both programs to track and develop my web comic,http://www.registered-weapon.com, and I’ll discuss one method used to derive meaningfrom the captured analytics.Both analytics programs are installed by inserting a piece of javascript code intothe HTML of the targeted site’s homepage. Simply create an account with the trackingservice, copy the code from the service site, paste it into in the HTML of your site. Onceenabled, the analytics starts tracking immediately but it may take some time to displaythe results.First Google Analytics is the more sophisticated of the two programs I’vementioned.Above is the analytics overview page. With a quick glance, I can see the generalstats for all of my sites during the last 30 days. For deeper analytics, I can click on theView Report link.