Web Analytics

Ramalee Rodrigo SENG 42293

Lesson 11

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Web Analytics : What and Whys
Web analytics is the collection, reporting, and analysis of data
generated by users’ visiting and interacting with a website. It is the
process of analyzing the behavior of visitors to a website.

This involves tracking, reviewing and reporting data to measure web

activity, including the use of a website and its components, such as
webpages, images and videos.

Web analytics is a method used to measure user behavior and

optimize a website's user experience, with the ultimate goal of
meeting business objectives such as increasing conversions and
sales.
To achieve this, it is important to identify measures that align with
both organizational and user goals and to use website data to assess
the success or failure of those goals. Insights gained from web
analytics can then be used to drive strategy and improve the user
experience.

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Web Analytics: Importance
Your website is often the first place that users go to learn about your product, and it can provide
valuable information about their expectations. By collecting data on website visitors, you can
gain insights into what they expect from both your website and product.

• Understand your website users

• Analyze website conversions
• Boost your search engine optimization(SEO)
• Understand top performing content
• Understand and optimize referral sources

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 Web Analytics : Categories
On-Site Web Analytics
On-site web analytics provide data about how visitors to your website interact with it, and
what content they find engaging. This helps you understand how effective your content
strategy and marketing campaigns have been. The information comes directly from your site
– hence “on-site”. It measures the users’ behavior once it is on the website. For example,
measurement of your website performance.

Off-Site Web Analytics

The practice of monitoring visitor activity outside of an organization's website to
measure potential audience. Off-site web analytics provides an industrywide analysis
that gives insight into how a business is performing in comparison to competitors. It
refers to the type of analytics that focuses on data collected from across the web, such
as social media, search engines and forums.

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The process of web analytics involves:

• Setting business goals: Defining the key metrics that will determine the success of your business and website
• Collecting data: Gathering information, statistics, and data on website visitors using analytics tools
• Processing data: Converting the raw data you’ve gathered into meaningful ratios, KPIs, and other information that tell a story
• Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s): The quantifiable measures to monitor and analyze user behavior on a website.
(ex: bounce rate, unique users, user sessions, etc.)
• Developing an online strategy: Creating a plan to optimize the website experience to meet business goals
• Experimenting and testing: In order to find the most effective strategy, businesses must try out different approaches. ex: A/B
testing to determine the best way to optimize website performance

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 Actionable
Insights from
Using Multiple
Tools

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Web Analytics: Jargon
• Page views- total number of times a page was viewed on your site
• Unique page views-Unique pageviews is the total number of times a page
was viewed by users in a single session.
• Page view Duration/Time on page- Average amount of time visitors spend
on each page of the site
• Session- It is a time a visitor actively engages with your website.
• New Visitor/Unique visitor/ Returning visitor
• Overall Traffic- the number of visits your site gets over a specific period
• Traffic sources- Web analytics tools allow you to easily monitor your traffic
sources and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly
• Bounce rate- the percentage of visitors that leave your website after viewing a single page.
• Conversion rate- The conversion rate is the percentage of users who take a desired action. An example of conversion
rate is the percentage of website visitors who buy something on the site

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 • Google Analytics
• Optimizely
•
Web •
•
Kissmetrics
Crazy Egg
HubSpot Marketing Analytics & Dashboard Software
Analytics •
•
Adobe Analytics
Amplitude
Tools •
•
Contentsquare
Glassbox
• Heap
• Mixpanel
• Pendo
These tools are commonly
used for product
analytics, social media
analytics and marketing
analytics.

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Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3X-hYRxBL8
Step by step guide: https://websitesosimple.com/how-to-set-up-google-analytics-tutorial-for-beginners/
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 Google Analytics: KPIs and Metrics
• Sessions and Users: How does the website traffic develop?
• New and Returning Visitors: How often do users return to the
website?
• Bounce Rate: Are the visitors' requirements being met?
• Goal Conversion Rate: Do visitors perform desired target actions?
• Time on Page: How much time do visitors spend on a page?
• Average Page Load Time: How important is the page speed, actually?
• Bounce Rate by Browser: Are there issues with certain browsers?
• Organic vs Paid Sessions: What is the share of organic traffic?
• Average Session Duration: What is the quality of the generated
traffic?
• Top 5 Search Queries: What are the most common search queries?
• Users by Gender: What is the gender and age distribution?
• Pages per Session: How many pages are being visited on average?
• Best Pages by Gender: What content has the most page views?
• Top 10 Landing Pages: Which landing pages are most relevant?

Further reading: https://www.datapine.com/kpi-examples-and-templates/google-analytics PREPARED FOR UNIVERSITY OF KELANIYA

Web Analytics : Challenges

• Keeping track of too many metrics

• Data Accuracy Issues
• Data Security Issues / Data Privacy at risk
• Data doesn’t tell the whole story
• Insufficient Knowledge

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Web Analytics: Uses
• Measures and maximizes ROI –identifies referral sources generate most revenue and orders for your
business

• Helps in Targeting your marketing efforts better-Determine which visitor groups are most likely to
convert into customers

• Optimize Conversions-Tracking to maximize the rate at which your website visitors convert into
customers, subscribers or members.(CRO-Conversion optimization rate)

• Save on Customer support-Improving the efficiency of your online support to dramatically reduce
your offline costs.

• Pinpoint online revenue-Enhancing Opportunities-Determine upward and downward trends in a

particular product, and which products would function best as loss leads to attract new customers

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