Web Analytics For Dummies

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Overview

Performing your first Web site analysis just got a whole lot easier. Web Analytics For Dummies offers everything you need to know to nail down and pump up the ROI on your Web presence. It explains how to get the stats you need, then helps you analyze and apply that information to improve traffic and click-through rate on your Web site.  You’ll discover:

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Overview

Performing your first Web site analysis just got a whole lot easier. Web Analytics For Dummies offers everything you need to know to nail down and pump up the ROI on your Web presence. It explains how to get the stats you need, then helps you analyze and apply that information to improve traffic and click-through rate on your Web site.  You’ll discover:

  • What to expect from Web analytics
  • Definitions of key Web analytics terms
  • Help in choosing the right analytics approach
  • How to collect key data and apply it to site design or marketing
  • Techniques for distinguishing human users from bots
  • Tips on using Google and other free analytics tools
  • Advice on choosing pay and subscription services

A detailed and accurate analysis is crucial the success of your Web site. Web Analytics For Dummies helps you get it right the first time—and every time.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble Review
You're spending a fortune on the Web. Are you getting your money's worth? There's a way to find out: web analytics. No, it's not too complicated and expensive anymore: the tools are getting simpler, and some are even free. What's more, there's finally a guide to web analytics that anyone can understand.

Web Analytics For Dummies starts by outlining what web analytics can do for you. It demystifies the jargon that swarms around analytics, then walks you through the "nuts and bolts": choosing tools, getting to know your visitors, and understanding their (surprising) behavior. To help you benchmark, there's a full chapter on Key Performance Indicators, plus a great summary of best practices.

Best of all, the authors don't stop with capturing and analyzing data: they show how to use it: to increase traffic, refine advertising, identify cross-selling opportunities, tweak content and usability, and save hard cash. Bill Camarda, from the May 2007 Read Only

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780470098240
  • Publisher: Wiley
  • Publication date: 4/23/2007
  • Series: For Dummies Series
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 388
  • Sales rank: 903856
  • Product dimensions: 7.40 (w) x 9.30 (h) x 0.85 (d)

Meet the Author

Pedro Sostre is a respected Internet business and marketing guru and a columnist for Revenue magazine.

Jennifer LeClaire is a veteran e-commerce journalist and the weekly analytics columnist for newsfactor.com.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Started with Web Analytics 7

Chapter 1: Understanding Web Analytics 9

Chapter 2: Steering Clear of Common Terminology Confusion 21

Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands Dirty with Web Data 33

Part II: Choosing the Right Web Analytics Solution 57

Chapter 4: Web Analytics Tools You Can Use 59

Chapter 5: Investing in Web Analytics Tools 75

Chapter 6: Discovering Niche Solutions 97

Part III: Searching for Statistical Treasure 119

Chapter 7: Taking Out the Trash 121

Chapter 8: Reviewing Site Referrers 135

Chapter 9: Getting to Know Your Visitors 153

Chapter 10: Identifying Your Most Important Pages 167

Chapter 11: Key Performance Indicators Insights 179

Part IV: Knowledge Is Power — Making Analytics Work for You 199

Chapter 12: Sifting through Search Data 201

Chapter 13: Increasing Web Site Visibility 221

Chapter 14: Revisiting Your Online Advertising Strategy 241

Chapter 15: Chronicling Your Web Analytics History 267

Chapter 16: Fine-Tuning Your Web Site 281

Part V: The Part of Tens 301

Chapter 17: Ten Web Analytics Myths, Mistakes, and Pitfalls 303

Chapter 18: Ten Reasons Why Web Analytics Will Revolutionize E-Business 315

Chapter 19: Ten Web Analytics Best Practices 325

Appendix: Web Analytics Glossary 335

Index 343

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part I: Getting Started with Web Analytics 3

Part II: Choosing the Right Web Analytics Solution 4

Part III: Searching for Statistical Treasure 4

Part IV: Knowledge Is Power — Making Analytics Work for You 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 5

Appendix 5

Icons Used in This Book 5

Part I: Getting Started with Web Analytics 7

Chapter 1: Understanding Web Analytics 9

Web Analytics: Why Bother? 10

Who should use Web analytics? 10

Why you should use Web analytics 12

The importance of benchmarking 14

Web Analytics 101 14

Thinking like a journalist 15

The language of Web analytics 18

Chapter 2: Steering Clear of Common Terminology Confusion 21

Hitting the Terminology Targets 22

Hits: The most deceptive stat of all 23

Pageviews: Getting closer to the truth 24

Unique visitors: The undisputable facts 25

The ABCs of Web Analytics 26

Mastering Internet Marketing Lingo 29

Defining Actionable Data 30

Untangling Technical Terms 31

Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands Dirty with Web Data 33

Help! I Can’t Find My Stats! 34

How to access your Web analytics tools 35

What if my host doesn’t offer analytics? 42

Taking a Sneak Peek at the Data 42

Recording your monthly history 42

Making note of peak days and times 45

Where’s my traffic coming from? 49

Comprehending Conversion Rates 53

Calculating that all-important metric 53

Goal Setting 101 55

Part II: Choosing the Right Web Analytics Solution 57

Chapter 4: Web Analytics Tools You Can Use 59

Before You Begin 60

What’s my budget? 60

What does your hosting company support? 60

Surveying Server-Side Software 62

The selling points of server-side analytics 63

Server-side shortcomings exposed 65

Are server-side solutions right for me? 66

Discovering Desktop Applications 66

Maintaining control with client-side analytics 66

Client-side cons and desktop downsides 68

Are client-side solutions right for me? 69

Hooked on Hosted Solutions 69

On-demand: Let the vendor do the work 69

Keep your cash flow flowing 70

Anytime access 70

Individual page tagging 71

One Web site, multiple servers 71

Hosted analytics pitfalls 71

Are hosted solutions right for me? 72

Getting the Best of All Worlds 72

Leveraging synergies of multiple tool types 73

Why you might want to use multiple vendors 73

Chapter 5: Investing in Web Analytics Tools 75

Before You Begin 76

Don’t Forget the Freebies 76

What to expect from free analytics tools 77

What not to expect from the freebies 77

Finding free analytics tools 78

Low-Cost Solutions, High-End Returns 84

Valuable capabilities for the value-conscious consumers 85

Getting acquainted with low-cost vendors 85

Enterprise Analytics for the Data Hungry 92

Web Trends Web Analytics 8 93

Omniture Site Catalyst 13 94

WebSideStory HBX 94

Coremetrics Online Analytics 95

Web Analytics For Dummies xii

Chapter 6: Discovering Niche Solutions 97

Web Analytics: A Boon for Bloggers 98

Mint 98

Measure Map 99

Bloglet 100

Technorati 100

103beescom 102

Read All about It: RSS Analytics 103

FeedBurner 104

FeedFoundry 105

Pheedo 105

SimpleFeed 106

Analytics in a Pod 108

Tracking with PodTractor 108

RadioTail Ripple 109

Because You Are Paying Per Click 110

CampaignTracker 20 111

BlackTrack 112

People Watch with Live Analytics Tools 113

WhosOn 114

VistorVille 114

VisiStat 116

Exploring A/B and Multivariate Testing Software 117

Part III: Searching for Statistical Treasure 119

Chapter 7: Taking Out the Trash 121

Classifying Nonhuman Users 122

Robots, spiders, and Web crawlers 122

The evil of e-mail harvesters 123

Uptime hosting monitoring services 124

Gotta love link checkers and validators 125

Recognizing RSS feed readers 126

Blog-monitoring services 126

Why Eliminate Nonhuman Users? 127

The Danger of Referrer Spam 129

Recognizing referrer spam 129

Fighting Referrer Spam 130

Blacklist the spammers 130

Use the rel = “no follow” solution 131

Rely on your analytics tools 131

Ignoring Non–Mission-Critical Stats 132

Who needs hit counts? 132

Do you have the time? 132

Basking in your international appeal 133

Table of Contents xiii

Who’s hosting my visitors? 133

Authenticated users and anonymous users 134

Downloadable files 134

Favorites and bookmarks 134

Miscellaneous miscellany 134

Chapter 8: Reviewing Site Referrers 135

Revving Up for Referrers 136

Discovering Your Traffic Partners 136

Identifying your referrers 138

Classifying sources of Web traffic 140

Searching for Statistical Treasure 141

Which search engines list your site? 142

Are you missing out on the search action? 143

Which search engines send you traffic? 144

Beyond Search Engines: Where Else Is My Traffic Coming From? 147

Measuring the value of link building campaigns 149

Are my Web rings really working? 150

Counting click-throughs from e-mail campaigns 151

Chapter 9: Getting to Know Your Visitors 153

Gleaning from Your Visitors’ Past 154

Searching for Significance 156

Determine popular search terms 158

Find requests for products, services, and information you don’t yet offer 158

Referring off-the-wall requests 159

Gleaning from Clickstreams and Labeling 159

Wow! My Site Has Multinational Appeal! 162

Betting on Browser Data 163

Monitoring browser usage 163

Mulling over miscellaneous browser data 165

Chapter 10: Identifying Your Most Important Pages 167

It’s Not a Popularity Contest — Or Is It? 168

Which Pages Drive Your Traffic? 171

To Err Is Human, to Fix Is Divine 173

Deciphering error codes 173

Unearthing unsightly errors 176

Working with Dynamic Pages 177

Chapter 11: Key Performance Indicators Insights 179

KPIs: When Not Just Any Data Will Do 180

Calculating basics: Percentages and rates; averages; and ratios 181

Keeping up with common KPIs 183

Web Analytics For Dummies xiv

The Granddaddy List of KPIs 188

User and traffic growth KPIs 188

Content-effectiveness KPIs 189

Internal search effectiveness 191

Marketing-effectiveness KPIs 192

Conversion KPIs 194

Shopping cart KPIs 195

Which KPIs Are Right for You? 196

E-commerce sites 196

Content sites 197

Lead generation sites 197

Support sites 198

Creating Your Own KPIs 198

Part IV: Knowledge Is Power — Making Analytics Work for You 199

Chapter 12: Sifting through Search Data 201

Sifting Your Search Terms 202

Accessing the search data 202

Reviewing your top search terms 204

My Visitors Are Searching for What?! 206

Pleasant surprises 206

Searching for relevant terms 207

Profit thieves 207

Cashing In on Common Misspellings 208

Beyond Traffic to Conversions 209

Traffic Analyzer 210

Portent Interactive 210

103beescom 212

Flip-Flopping the 80/20 Rule 212

Monitoring Internal Site Searches 215

Driving sales, not traffic 216

The bottom line from the top down 216

Before you begin 217

Searching for Accuracy and Relevancy 218

Creating Targeted Landing Pages 218

Your Search Yielded Zero Results 219

Chapter 13: Increasing Web Site Visibility 221

Finding New Customers 222

Scanning your search engines 222

Improving your search rankings 223

Measuring your SEO efforts 224

Table of Contents xv

Extending your geographic reach 229

Targeting high conversion categories 230

Milking Multichannel Sales 233

Reach Out and Touch Your Referrers 233

Like needles in the proverbial haystack 234

Pondering strategic alliances 235

Qualifying the leads 236

Understanding Strategic Alliances 237

Affiliates 237

Link exchanges 238

Content sharing 238

Co-registrations 238

New people, partners, and opportunities 240

Chapter 14: Revisiting Your Online Advertising Strategy 241

Many Ad Types, Many Analytics Tools 242

Tracking Efforts with Tracking URLs 243

Tracking keywords with Google Analytics 244

Tracking URLs cons 246

Adding Campaign Analytics to the Mix 246

Openads points you to profits 247

TrackPoint ad tracking 247

Clickalyzer’s marketing co-ops 248

Combating Click Fraud 248

Need detectives on your case? 249

CFAnalytics: Free and plenty of perks 250

AdWatcher adds it all up for you 250

WhosClickingWho? 250

Evaluating E-mail Marketing Campaigns 251

WebTrends targets markets 251

Reaching for relevancy 252

E-mail marketing KPIs to monitor 253

Tracking Offline Responses to Online Ads 255

Using coupon codes 256

Using unique URLs 256

Using unique toll-free phone numbers 256

Ferreting Out Ad Stats that Don’t Work 257

Comparing engine to engine 257

Comparing keyword to keyword 260

Unraveling Conversion Process Breakdowns 261

Understanding the conversion funnel 262

Cueing in to conversion funnel issues 262

Examining Google’s Conversion Funnel 263

Employing Conversion Tracking Tools 264

Optimizing Your Ad Campaigns 265

Web Analytics For Dummies xvi

Chapter 15: Chronicling Your Web Analytics History 267

Name, Rank, and Serial Number 268

Saving data on the server side 269

Saving data with client-side solutions 270

Saving data with hosted applications 270

Saved by the spreadsheet 270

Benchmarking Your Conversion Rate 271

Oh, what difference does it make? 273

Benchmarking against the masses 273

Benchmarking Your KPIs 274

Benchmarking Times and Seasons 275

Month-to-month monitoring 275

Scoping history season-to-season 275

Another year goes by 276

Identifying Hidden Trends 277

Many Tools, Many Benchmarks 278

Access Log Files: To Save or Not to Save? 278

The case for dumping logfiles 279

The case for saving access logs 280

Chapter 16: Fine-Tuning Your Web Site 281

Understanding Optimization Strategies 282

Search engine optimization 282

Calling on conversion design 283

Capturing customers with conversion content 284

Optimizing Your Home Page 285

What Sends Visitors Running? 287

Optimizing Your Landing Pages 288

Measuring landing page KPIs 289

If visitors don’t love the landing page 290

Optimizing Product Pages 291

Measuring product page KPIs 291

Perking up poorly producing product pages 292

Starting with a Clean Web Slate 293

Determining Why Your Customers Abandon You 293

Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment 295

Finding out why shopping carts are abandoned 296

Shopping cart KPIs to watch 296

Sealing the shopping cart deal 297

Measuring the Effect of Site Changes 299

Part V: The Part of Tens 301

Chapter 17: Ten Web Analytics Myths, Mistakes, and Pitfalls 303

Averages Are the Analytics Answer 304

Monthly Visitor Trends Tell All 304

Table of Contents xvii

Pinpoint Precision Is Paramount 305

Unique Visitor Data Tells the Truth 307

All Web Analytics Software Is Alike 307

But Numbers Never Lie 309

Make money with your metrics 310

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words 310

Popular Search Terms Hold the Key to More Traffic 312

Funnel Vision Offers a Quick Fix 313

Betting the Farm on Top 10 Lists 313

Chapter 18: Ten Reasons Why Web Analytics Will Revolutionize E-Business 315

Truly Develop a User-Oriented Web site 316

Make the Most of Online Marketing 317

Save Money on Paid Search Campaigns 317

Cross-Sell and Up-Sell Your Customers 318

Realize Real-Time Opportunities 319

Combating Controversial Click Fraud 320

Closing the Delayed Conversion Loop 320

Optimize Self-Support Functions 321

Increase Results from E-Mail Campaigns 322

Predict the Future Here and Now 323

Chapter 19: Ten Web Analytics Best Practices 325

Define Metrics That Matter 326

Monitor Only Your Vital KPIs 327

Segment Your Visitors’ Behavior 327

Know Your Navigation Report 328

Keep Up With Keyword Campaigns 329

Optimize Your Landing Pages 330

Calculate Visitor Conversion 331

Save Your Historical Data 332

Make Changes Gradually 332

Commit to Continual Improvement 333

Appendix: Web Analytics Glossary 335

Index343

Web Analytics For Dummies xvii

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