WEB ANALYTICS FOR BEGINNERS
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 INTRODUCTION W HAT WOULD YOU PAY FOR A BOOK THAT COULD HELP YOU TAP INTO THE MIND SETS OF YOUR WEB SITE VISITORS SHOW YOU WHERE YOU RE MISSING GOLDEN SALES OPPORTUNITIES AND SAVE YOU BIG BUCKS ON ONLINE ADVERTISING INITIATIVES HOW ABOUT LESS THAN 30 IT S QUITE THE BARGAIN FOR A WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE ISN T IT WEB ANALYTICS FOR DUMMIES IS THE BOOK YOU VE BEEN WAITING FOR SEE WEB ANA LYTICS TOOLS ARE ESSENTIAL VITAL AND EVEN CRITICAL FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO IMPROVE HIS SUCCESS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB IN FACT FROM ENTREPRENEURS TO MEGA CORPORATIONS THE NEED FOR WEB ANALYTICS HAS NEVER BEEN STRONGER THE TRUTH IS WHAT YOU DON T KNOW ABOUT YOUR WEB SITE COULD BE HURTING YOUR BUSINESS WEB ANALYTICS FOR DUMMIES IS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WEB SITE STATISTICS THE BOOK WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND AND UNLEASH THE POWER OF WEB ANALYTICS IT WILL TAKE YOU ON A JOURNEY WITH A COLORFUL MAP THAT SHOWS YOU THE SIGN POSTS AHEAD AS WELL AS THE RIGHT AND LEFT TURNS TO LEAD YOU TO GREATER PROFITABILITY INDEED BY THE TIME YOU RE DONE READING THIS BOOK NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO CALL YOU A DUMMY ANYMORE YOU LL HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOUR ABILITIES TO USE THESE PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES THAT GET RESULTS ABOUT THIS BOOK THIS BOOK TAKES THE MYSTERY OUT OF WEB METRICS YOU FIND OUT WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO GET THE INSIDE SCOOP ON VISITOR BEHAVIOR MEASURE YOUR WEB SITE S PERFORMANCE AGAINST YOUR BUSINESS GOALS AND MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO HELP YOU MEET THOSE OBJECTIVES IN THIS BOOK WE SHOW YOU HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE OF WEB ANALYTICS CHOOSE THE RIGHT WEB ANALYTICS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR BUSINESS GET THE NITTY GRITTY ON WHAT YOUR VISITORS ARE DOING ON YOUR WEB SITE CALCULATE YOUR CONVERSION RATE AND SET GOALS FOR YOUR WEB SITE IDENTIFY YOUR MOST POPULAR AND MOST PROFITABLE PAGES GET THE LOWDOWN ON WHERE YOUR TRAFFIC IS COMING FROM AND DISCOVER WHICH SITE REFERRERS YOU WANT TO GET COZIER WITH FINE TUNE YOUR WEB SITE AND REDUCE SHOPPING CART ABANDONMENT AVOID COMMON DATA INTERPRETATION MISTAKES AND IMPLEMENT PROVEN BEST PRACTICES AND PLENTY MORE FOOLISH ASSUMPTIONS YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT PEOPLE WHO MAKE ASSUMPTIONS BUT BECAUSE YOU BOUGHT THIS BOOK WE HAVE TO PRESUME A FEW THINGS ABOUT YOUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES THINGS SUCH AS YOU OWN A WEB SITE ARE PLANNING VERY SOON TO BUILD A WEB SITE OR ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE IMPROVE THEIR WEB SITES YOU KNOW HOW TO USE A WEB BROWSER YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SOME SIMPLE MATH FOR EXAMPLE CALCULATING A PERCENTAGE OF COURSE IF YOU BOUGHT A BOOK LIKE THIS WE HAVE TO FIGURE YOU KNOW A LITTLE MORE THAN THE BASICS ABOUT HOW TO MANAGE A WEB SITE OR THAT YOU HAVE ACCESS TO SOMEONE WHO DOES BECAUSE THIS BOOK DEALS WITH STATISTICS GALORE AND HOW TO USE THOSE STATS TO IMPROVE YOUR SITE WE HAVE TO ASSUME THAT YOU CAN TAKE ACTION ON WHAT YOU GLEAN FROM THIS BOOK SPECIFICALLY YOU LL PROBA BLY NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO VENDOR RESEARCH COMPARE AND CONTRAST DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL SOFTWARE FIX ANY WEB SITE ERRORS THAT YOUR WEB ANALYTICS SOFTWARE IDENTIFIES MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR WEB SITE THE HOLY GRAIL OF WEB ANALYTICS IS NOT MERELY ACCESSING AND INTERPRETING THE DATA BUT ALSO USING WHAT YOU DIS COVER TO OPTIMIZE YOUR WEB SITE AND YOUR INTERNET MARKETING CAMPAIGNS WE DON T GET INTO CODING IN THIS BOOK THIS ISN T A PRIMER ON FIXING ERRORS OR USING HTML TO MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR SITE IN ORDER TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS BOOK HOWEVER YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW NEEDS TO HAVE SOME BASIC HTML SKILLS SO YOU CAN FINE TUNE YOUR WEB SITE THAT MAY MEAN MOVING A PICTURE FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN OR ADDING NEW CONTENT TO CERTAIN PAGES IF YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HTML PICK UP A COPY OF HTML 4 FOR DUMMIES 4TH EDITION BY ED TITTEL AND NATANYA PITTS WILEY 2 INTRODUCTION HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED THIS BOOK ISN T ANYTHING LIKE THE BORING REFERENCE BOOKS YOU RELIED ON FOR YOUR HIGH SCHOOL TERM PAPERS BUT IT IS ORGANIZED LIKE A REFERENCE BOOK IN OTHER WORDS YOU CAN START AT ANY CHAPTER AND GET THE INFORMATION THAT YOU NEED ON THE SPOT YOU DON T NECESSARILY HAVE TO READ THE CHAPTERS IN ORDER LIKE YOU WOULD A MYSTERY NOVEL THIS BOOK IS DIVIDED INTO SEVERAL PARTS THE BASICS CHOOSING THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO SUCCEED TIPS ON SEARCHING FOR STATISTICAL TREASURE HOW TO MAKE GOOD WITH THE KNOWLEDGE YOU VE ACQUIRED AND THE PART OF TENS IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CLIENT SIDE SERVER SIDE AND HOSTED SOLUTIONS READ CHAPTER 4 IF YOU NEED SOME INSIGHT INTO KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS KPIS METRICS THAT ILLUSTRATE HOW WELL YOUR SITE IS PERFORMING AGAINST GOALS READ CHAPTER 11 IF ALL YOU NEED IS SOME QUICK INFO ON HOW TO DETERMINE WHO IS SENDING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE GO RIGHT TO CHAPTER 9 YOU GET THE IDEA WITH ALL THAT SAID WEB ANALYTICS IS A COMPLEX TOPIC AND EACH CHAPTER SORT OF BUILDS ON THE OTHER AS YOU STRIVE TO ERECT YOUR WEB BASED EMPIRE YES YOU CAN SKIP AHEAD TO CHAPTER 5 AND START THE PROCESS OF COMPARING AND CONTRAST ING WEB ANALYTICS VENDORS IF YOU DON T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BASIC TOOL TYPES THOUGH YOU MIGHT CHOOSE THE WRONG SOFTWARE YOU CAN START WITH CHAPTER 3 AND TAKE A SNEAK PEEK AT THE DATA BUT IF YOU DON T SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF ANALYTICS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE A CLUE WHAT YOU RE REALLY LOOKING AT WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU TAKE THE TIME TO READ THE ENTIRE BOOK FROM COVER TO COVER AND THEN USE IT AS AN ONGOING REFERENCE GUIDE AS NEEDED WE BELIEVE THAT YOU LL BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW TO SET BENCHMARKS INTERPRET THE DATA PROP ERLY AND USE THE RIGHT DATA TO GUIDE YOU DOWN THE PATH OF WEB OPTIMIZATION PART I GETTING STARTED WITH WEB ANALYTICS IN THIS PART WE GIVE YOU THE KEYS YOU NEED TO START THE WEB ANALYTICS ENGINE AND KEEP IT HUMMING LIKE A FOREMAN SETTING OUT TO BUILD A SKYSCRAPER THIS PART OF THE BOOK LAYS A STRONG FOUNDATION THAT WILL SUPPORT YOUR EFFORTS AS YOUR WEB SITE GROWS WHY IS WEB ANALYTICS IMPORTANT TO YOUR BUSINESS AND FOR THAT MATTER WHAT IS WEB ANALYTICS WHAT S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HIT A PAGEVIEW AND A UNIQUE VISITOR IN THIS PART YOU LL FIND OUT THE BASICS OF WEB ANALYTICS HOW IT CAN BENEFIT YOU HOW TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE AND HOW TO ACCESS YOUR DATA AND START RECORDING SOME SIMPLE KPIS 3 INTRODUCTION