Making Sense of Web Analytics

One of the questions that stymies many of our small business search engine optimization prospects is, "How do you measure success?", which is surprising, since many companies invest a lot into their web design and if they hire us, into their web marketing.

The missing piece to many SEO programs are the metrics. Companies often get hung up on things like rankings and miss the point of the program - increase sales. Why have a great looking web site with excellent search engine visibility and not have the proper web site measurement tools in place?

The reason is, because most companies just don't know how. Even when a web analytics reporting tool is available, such as WebTrends, ClickTracks or Google Analytics, many webmasters do not report anything more than the number of site visitors and referring traffic.

This is an industry wide issue and the good news is that there are resources that small and large businesses can turn to for help. Associations like the Web Analytics Association offer training courses and advocacy. There are also seminars such as those offered at the Emetrics Summit, Search Engine Strategies and WebmasterWorld Pubcon.

Industry experts can also offer advice. In fact, Eric T. Peterson of Visual Sciences/WebSideStory is speaking at a MIMA interactive marketing and web analytics seminar this week titled, "Make Your Web Analytics Work. Hard.". I recently did an interview with Eric about Web Analytics Demystified where he shares how he got into the analytics discipline and what companies should be on the lookout for.

Of course, if you're in Minneapolis, then visit the MIMA events page for more information about the seminar Eric is speaking at. You'll find out how to get even more value out of the web metrics investment you've already made.

Tags: Tags: web analytics, web measurement, interactive marketing, search marketing, MIMA