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Web Analytics,Traffic Tracking, Measurement of Conversion and ROI

Table of Contents

Introduction


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Web analytics is critical for your online business success. Learn why you need a web analytics, what it does and what your options are. My short primer will introduce you to the world of web analytics.

This page contains various resources to web analytics, including some general introductory articles for beginners, tools, books, white papers and a list of web analytics service providers and products ranging from free web based or desktop tools to expensive enterprise solutions for complex visitor tracking, ROI and conversion measurement and deep website traffic analytics.

Learning Web Analytics


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... more about "The Long Tail"

Moved and Extended! Competitive Intelligence and Competitor Analysis Resources, Tools and Services for Organic and Paid PPC Search Activities, Traffic, Keyword Bidding, Ranking and more.

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Web Analytics Buyers Guides and Tips


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MarketingSherpa's Buyer's Guide to Web Analytics currently unavailable
50+ products from over 40 vendors profiled - using at-a-glance charts and detailed profiles, including separate product comparison charts for each price-point. Determine which vendors are the safest bets for the long-term, and which may go out of business. Download your copies instantly at: The Sherpa Store

Web Analytics Buyers Guide 2006 by e-Consultancy (UK service providers)
Accurate measurement and meaningful analysis have become a pre-requisite for a successful online business. The Web Analytics Buyer's Guide 2006 by e-Consultancy helps to find the right UK Web Analytics Vendor for your online business. You can dowload a sample of the guide in Microsoft Word (.doc) format. SampleSample

Free Articles and Guides to Web Analytics


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Web Analytics Service Providers and Software


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Enterprise Web Analytics and Tracking


LogoDescription
Omniture.com SiteCatalyst® - Enterprise Tracking and Web Analytics Solutions and Service that provides with actionable, real-time intelligence for large online businesses.
WebSideStory.com HBX Analytics® - (Hitbox) Enterprise Web Analytics Solutions and Services. Websidestory provides Free Webinars and other comprehensive Web Analytics Resources to clients and prospects. Account to access the resources is required. The Account is Free. WebSideStory also owns the Web Analytics Solutions by Visual Sciences which they acquired in February 2006.
Coremetrics.com SurfAid® - Enterprise Online Analytics and Benchmarking for larger Businesses with complex Online Business Strategies. Coremetrics also owns the Web Analytics platform SurfAid, which was developed by IBM. Coremetrics conducts training teleconferences and web seminars for free and hosts an annual conference.
Nielsen/Netratings - Examine your Web site audience size, demographic profile and behavior with solutions like "NetView", "MegaPanel" or "SiteCensus"
SAS Web Analytics Software is available in the US also as hosted solution. SAS Web Analytics is usually sold in a Package with other SAS Customer Intelligence Solutions.
Webtrends Analytics - Webtrends offers solutions for companies of all sizes, from small over medium to enterprise.
WebtraffIQ - Web Analytics, Reporting and Analysing cross business marketing initiatives such as Television and Radio advertising, Digital marketing and Direct Offline marketing.
iWebTrack provides hosted (ASP) real-time web analytics solutions for customers of different sizes and languages worldwide. A 30 days free trial is available for new customers to give it a try without any risks.
OneStat.com provides real-time web analytics for large, medium and small sites. The package for smaller sites starts at about $10/month and for large sites at about $155/month. OneStat is available in different languanges and has more than 75,000 customers worldwide. New customers can try OneStat.com risk free for 4 weeks without paying anything.

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Solutions for Small and Medium size Businesses


LogoDescription
Clicktracks.com - Clicktracks offers Hosted and Software Web Analytics Software and Service Provider for Internet Marketers of any shape and size.
Webtrends WebPosition Pro - Try it for Free! Marketing Excellence Award Winning WebPosition / WebPosition Pro is a Tracking and Web Analytics Solution by Webtrends. Try it for free and without any risks or obligations.
HitsLink.com - Advanced Keyword, Search Engine, Campaigns, Analytics and Website Statistics for Marketing Analysts. a 30 Days Free Trial is available!
IndexTools.com - Tracking, Web Analytics (E-Business or Enterprise Edition) and CPC Bid Management (Beta, Invitation only) Solutions for Google AdWords, Yahoo! (Overture) and Miva. Free Trial for Web Analytics solutions!
Fireclick by Digital River provides a comprehensive Web analytics solution that offers online businesses real-time, actionable information about their customers. Fireclick is a hosted application service.
Affinium NetInsight (NetTracker) by Unica (created by Sane Solutions which was aquired by Unica in 2006) is part (module) of Unica's Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) Software
NetStat Pro by the brittish company Netstat is a tracking solution for smaller websites. It cost £90 per year for 3 pages and max. 250,000 pageviews quarterly (or extra fees will be due). A free 4 weeks trial is available.

Traffic Stats, Site Monitoring, Search Engine Submission....

LogoDescription
Google Analytics (based on Urchin Web Analytics Software, which was aquired by Google in late 2005) - Free Website Statistics (Only recommended, if you do not mind that Google will have access to your complete analytics data). Urchin by Google Analytics, Desktop Software Download and Upgrade (Trial Version)
Google Analytics buy Google Analytics Google Analytics 2.0, the book about Google Analytics, written by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri Ledford will help you to get started with Google Analytics and teach you how to leverage some of the advanced features of the free Google service.
Microsoft Gatineau is Redmonds answer to Google Analytics. It is currently in private beta, but you can request an invitation on their website. Like Google Analytics, MS Gatineau is free, but you have to ask yourself if you are confortable with MS having your sensible analytics data.

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Small and Free Tracking Services and Software


LogoDescription
Site Meter is a free Web Analytics and "web counter" service that tracks basic metrics. The special feature of the service is the option to make the stats available for accessing to any visitor of your site, either completely or just the summary, or nothing. It's up to you.
103Bees.com - Search traffic analysis, 30 days free, then one-time fee of $19.95 for sites with traffic < 100,000 visitors per month, sites that have more visitors than that have to pay $9 per month. It's focused on keyword analysis, rankings and referring search engine. I say that it is a good addition next to having a full blown web analytics solution to track everything else in more detail.
AddStatsFree.com is a full blown web analytics package by a company who does web analytics since 1999 already. The only catch is, that the tracking code shows a little icon with a link to their website on your site. That is a small trade off for what they give you in return.
3DStats.com is for the people who like the stats provided by AddStatsFree.com, but don't want to have their icon showing up on their websites in return for the free service. 3DStats.com is the paid professional version by the same folks who created AddStatsFree.com.
Clicky.com Web Analytics 2.0. Clicky has a very comprehensive API available for automated access to the analytics data, it offers a very cheap white label option, starting at $49 per month for 20 sites and 100,000 daily page views.

Regular premium services starts at less than $2 per month. You start with a free account and can't even upgrade right away. You have to wait 14 days that you know what you will pay for (that's what they say).

Other features include: custom tracking options, widgets, Feedburner feed tracking (awareness API), RSS feeds for quick stats. You can host the JS tracking code on your own server and gather all the date there and transmits the information via a basic image link.
Lodgy.com is a classic web analytics solution with a web 2.0 interface. You start with a 14 days free trial and then have to decide if you want to continue the service or not. The fee ranges between $3 and $10 per month, which depends on two factors, the number of page loads per month (page views) and the number of last visitor information stored for review (300, 500 or 1000).
ExtremeTracking.com - Advertising Supported Tracking Service which provides the basic Analytics and Reporting (Non-Public Pro version Available)
TheCounter.com is a very basic but free web counter and logging service provided by Internet.com, which is owned by JupiterMedia Corp.
WhoZonTop HitTracker or DirectHit by ICDirect provides free real-time stats for your web sites. The commercial version which does not show the HitTracker logo and link on your website starts at the low price of $5.99 per month.
phpMyVisites is a free and powerful open source (GNU/GPL) software for websites statistics and audience measurements. phpMyVisites is PHP based and requires the Apache webserver, MySQL and PHP version 4.3 or higher. It has a practical GUI interface, which is available in more than 30 languages.
phpOpenTracker is a framework solution for the analysis of website traffic and visitor clickpath/clickstream analysis. It is written in PHP and can be integrated into your website either by using an image tag or by adding a few lines of code to your existing PHP code. It can be used on any platform that supports PHP (including Windows with MS IIS) and several database platforms, including MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL.

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Other Web Analytics Services and Software


LogoDescription
Analog.cx is a free raw web log analyser desktop software for Windows 32bit to analyse your websites log files. Analog is available in over 30 languages.
WebAlizer is a free web server log file analysis program that is distributed under the GNU General Public License.
Reinvigorate.net - Measurement, performance, and regression analysis tools for evolving websites and blogs of all sizes. Currently in free beta. A new group of people is invited about every one/two weeks or so.
ClickTale.com - Web Analytics solution that provides next to standard tracking and reporting features also the ability to record and replay a limited number (per day) of actual user sessions, including their mouse movements and actual time spent on each page. The ClickTale service is currently in closed beta, but accepts new beta testers, if they qualify.

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Special Tracking and Analytics Services


LogoDescription
HitTail (beta) at MyLongTail.com - Free tool to track SE referrer Keywords used by visitors to find your site on search engines, focusing not on the top keywords but "the long tail" ones instead.
DigitalPoint Search Engine Keyword Tracker & Keyword Ranking Tool (requires DigitalPoint Account / Free)
CrazyEgg.com - Click Tracking Service. Shows Stats in Site Overlay, "HeadMap" display feature (Free to $99 per month).

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Keyword Tracking for Paid and Organic Search Marketers


LogoDescription
Search Term Optimizer by SearchTerms.com - Search Term Optimizer - Find the best search terms for your site.
HyperTracker is an automated, easy-to-use pay-per-click campaign tracking and management tool. It is free to use for 14 days and only $19.95 per month after the end of the trial period.
KeywordMax is a keyword research, tracker and ROI analysis service provided by Direct Response Technologies who has years of experience in affiliate program tracking through their main product/platform DirectTrack.
Omniture SearchCenter® - PPC and SEO Campaign Tracking and Management Solution for Enterprise Clients
Dynamic Bid Maximizer Advance and Dynamic Bid Maximizer Overture. Manage your PPC(Pay-Per-Click) campaigns by Apex Pacific.
AdGooRoo.com PPC Campaign Monitoring. Organic Results Monitoring and Keyword Research.
OneStat AdWorks provides real-time web analytics and tracking for PPC advertisers who are using Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Enhance, Miva, Kanoodle or Espotting. Try it free for 4 weeks.

Search Term Optimizer by SearchTerms.com - "Bid or Optimize?"
Search Term Optimizer - Find the best search terms for your site.
more...


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Testing and Search Optimization Services


LogoDescription
WinnerAlert by LowerYourBidPrice.com - AdTool to lower your bid spending on AdWords. Split Testing for the lazy folks.
Split Tester is an easy to use and free online tool to compare the performance of two pay-per-click ads based on a few basic figures that are tracked and reported by all major PPC services providers.
BetterPPC.com provides professional PPC Ad Testing and PPC campaign setup, configuration and management via patent pending technology for the serious paid search marketer
Offermatica is a professional hosted testing and optimization service for paid search campaigns and beyond.

Paid search campaigns have their own unique needs and problems that you have to deal with in regards to tracking, statistics and analytics. My resources for paid search campaign management, tracking and reporting are just what you need to find those solutions for your unique problems.

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Web Analytics and Stats for Bloggers, Podcasts and RSS Feeds


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LogoDescription
MyBlogLog - Track Links on your blog for fee (standard), or PRO for only $3 per month. It also has a social network aspect to it that might be of interest as well. MyBlogLog was acquired by Yahoo! at the end of 2006.
Performancing.com, also known as Performancing Metrix, is a free hosted blog analytics solution that provides blog traffic statistics and more. Performancing was acquired by Pay Per Post in December 2006.
Feedburner.com provides blog RSS or ATOM feed enhancements, distribution and performance tracking services, beyond your blog activities alone, such as feed usage, subscriber and reader figures, clicktroughs and more

For detailed Keyword Research visit my comprehensive collection of Keyword Research Resources, Tools and Services. There are a number of resources out there in all kinds of different varieties. The resources are often free, some have a fair price and others that are suited for experienced professionals and large corporations only. Do your Keyword Research well, it is the foundation of your whole SEO or PPC Campaign!

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Web Analytics Resources, Tools and Organizations


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   ... See also Web Analytics Blogs

Web Analytics Organizations
Web Analytics Association - WAA. The WAA unites and fosters the interests of industry practitioners, vendors, consultants and educators who use, sell, install, implement, consult, teach or train in the field of web analytics.

   ... More Internet Marketing Organizations

Also worthwhile to check out:
Trends & Statistics, internet research companies & services and Internet Marketing Benchmark Guides.

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Conversion Attribution Resources and Information


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Conversion Attribution is the advanced subject in Web Analytics about the methods and techniques to track and determine the credits for a conversion that involve more than one exposure of the customer to your advertisements at different times and different channels.

For Example:

  1. Customer searched for a generic search term that describes your product and clicked on your advertisement that you placed there as part of you Pay-Per-Click search engine marketing efforts.
  2. Customer sees your sponsorship ad on respected industry expert's blog, who wrote a postive review of your product and company.
  3. Customer watches a video on a social media site, which demonstrates the reliability and ease of use of your product.
  4. Customer clicks on a Link on a price comparison site that you partnered with.
  5. Customer clicks on an affiliate link on a page that features a special promotion for your product.
  6. Customer buys the product from your web site.
  7. Customer remains a loyal customer of yours, who is doing new product purchases over the years, again and again.
I think there is no need to argue that every exposure to your company's name and products in 1. to 5. helped to some degree to close the sale at 6. The question is "how much?". You spent money on almost all of the exposures and giving appropriate credit to each is important to be able to determine the ROI of your advertising dollars spent.

Another interesting question is "Would the sale also have happened without any of the exposures?", if not, what is the likelihood that the sale does not happen, if any of the exposures or combination of exposures didn't happen? Conversion Attribution is the less than perfect and never 100% accurate science of finding answers to as many of those questions as you can and as good as it is possible.


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Web Analytics Books


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I own this myself

Web Analytics Demystified
A Marketer's Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business by Eric Peterson


I wrote a review for this book. Read it!

I own this myself

Marketer's Guide
to E-Metrics
(Web Analytics)

by Bryan Eisenberg
and Jim Novo



Web Metrics
I own this myself

Web Metrics - Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success
by Jim Sterne


buy Web Metrics
Google Analytics
I own this myself

Google Analytics 2.0
by Mary E. Tyler
and Jerri Ledford


buy Google AnalyticsI wrote a review for this book. Read it!
Advanced Web Metrics
I own this myself

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics by Brian Clifton is a hands-on guide fot how to use Google Analytics (including source code samples)


buy Advanced Web MetricsI wrote a review for this book. Read it!
Recommended
Landing Page Optimization
I own this myself

Landing Page Optimization
The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash of SiteTuners.com, is a real-world practical guide to landing page testing and optimization


buy Landing Page OptimizationI wrote a review for this book. Read it!
Recommended
The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators
I own this myself

The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators
by Eric Peterson

e-Book
buy The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators
Buyer's Guide to Web Analytics

Buyer's Guide to
Web Analytics Software

by Marketing Sherpa


buy Buyer's Guide to Web Analytics Software
Currently Unavailable!
The UK Web Analytics Buyer's Guide
I own this myself

The UK Web Analytics Buyer's Guide
by e-Consultancy can help you find the right UK Web Analytics Vendor


e-Book - Download Free Sample

buy The UK Web Analytics Buyer's Guide
Internet Statistics Compendium
I own this myself

Internet Statistics Compendium
by e-Consultancy - always up-to-date compilation of internet statistics and online market research with data, facts, charts, and figures.

e-Book

buy Internet Statistics Compendium
Marketing Metrics
I own this myself

Marketing Metrics - 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master
by Paul W. Farris, Neil T. Bendle, Phillip E. Pfeifer and David J. Reibstein


buy Marketing Metrics
Web Analytics
I own this myself

Web Analytics An Hour a Day
by Avinash Kaushik


buy Web Analytics

... more Benchmark Guides

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Web Analytics and Business Intelligence


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Web analytics is only one part that plays a role in what is called "Business Intelligence" or BI, but it is the most important part for your online business. However, integration with your business intelligence solution that also keeps track of all your offline world activities is key to be able to get a clear picture of your business as a whole.

Large web analytics vendors offer APIs to integrate with other software solutions. Not only with CRM or email list management solutions, but BI solutions as well. Don't expect such features from the smaller or mid size vendors out there. Below is a list of the largest Business Intelligence (BI) software vendors on the market today.

Most vendors offer a web analytics module or solution themselves, but with the exception of SAS, are non of those solutions in my list of relevant enterprise web analytics solutions.

LogoDescription
Hyperion (owned by Oracle) is the largest BI software provider on the market. It also has a build-in web analytics module called "Web Analysis".
Cognos (owned by IBM). A tighter integration of Cognos into IBM Websphere web server is planned. Cognos offers today already analytics for customers who use IBMs Websphere as web server for their website.
Business Objects (owned by SAP) They offer also a web analytics solution that integrates with their business intelligence platform called WebIntelligence®.
PerformancePoint Server by Microsoft (formerly called Microsoft BI). It is not clear at this point how and if PerformancePoint Server will have a tight integration with Microsofts web analytics platform dubbed "Gatineau", which is currently in closed beta.
SAS Institute offers next to their enterprise level business intelligence solution also an enterprise web analytics solution as well.
MicroStrategy provides already an integrated solution for customers who are using the e-marketing enabled CRM platform Annuncio.
Information Builders BI solution WebFocus is a scalable SOA (Software Oriented Architecture) product that allows integration with various other software vendors via their ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) services and DataMigrator tools.

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