Best Web Analytics

Web analytics collects the data they need using ‘tags’ or ‘cookies’ to track users when they end up on your website. It also monitors ‘individual ‘sessions,’ indicating how long they stayed and what their activities are during their stay. Tagging involves a unique snippet code in the JavaScript of your web pages, which would be recognized by your analytics tool every time your pages get a visitor or click a link. This tag can be modified to collect other data, such as devices, browsers, geographic locations of users, etc.  

Conversions are the events in your website that landed a successful desired user action. Examples of conversion could be your user spending a specific time on your website, signing up for your email subscription, etc. Conversions can be tracked by setting up the goals and defining the particular event when customizing your analytics tools. 

Some web analytics would need you to download their application. Others merely require you to create an account, sign in, and customize accordingly to your desired metrics. They would then need you to add a unique JavaScript code to tag your website. 

Some of the web analytics are free, and you simply need to make an account. Others have a free trial and would require you to pay a recurring fee per month. There are also available brands that offer a one-time payment upfront to enjoy their services. 

Yes, you can, as no web analytics platform can commit complete accuracy in the data extracted, and different tools process some discrepancies in the results. Using more than one web analytics software can be used to harmonize the results you gain from multiple software. But it’s still ideal to choose one software with most of the features you wish to analyze and fix some of the tracking system’s flaws through coding if need be. 

Cloud computing is used to render computer system services, such as data storage and computing power over the Internet (the ‘cloud’) without directly managing it. Cloud computing is used for hosting web analytics applications as a form of software as a service (SaaS) app. Most web analytics applications are already set up in cloud hosting services for better performance, extensibility, and flexibility.

As long as your visitors’ browsers enable cookies, web analytics tracking reports won’t be hindered by your URL’s length. Although it is important to note that some browsers cannot handle URLs that are more than 2048 characters so the web page may not even load in the first place. So, some web analytics reports may shorten the URL code’s length, depending on the display options. 

Dashboards are interfaces of widgets collection that show you a graphical presentation and a brief overview of the web metrics you value the most. They allow you to monitor the analytics report of different metrics simultaneously, allowing you to visualize and observe trends currently happening on your website. Therefore, dashboards are essential for you to have a good health status report of your website in a single glance.

Segmentation is the process of segregating your data to perceive actionable items. They allow you to pin down the massive lump of data that your web analytics show, into even more specific data you wish to analyze, to answer your website’s particular question. They also make you examine intrinsic trends that could arise in your business and respond accordingly to these trends. 

User tracking with web analytics helps not only you as the website owner but also the internet and its users. Web analytics helps improve website interfaces and the building of constructive and relevant content, which would benefit your visitors. As for your visitors’ privacy rights, they should be aware of their browser’s privacy settings and modify it to suit their preferences accordingly. For suspicious websites, you can use preset browsers that turn off your JavaScript, cookies, and flash, etc. In the end, your visitors are responsible for their rights to privacy. 

Having many page views is good, but having your viewers do what you wanted them to perform on your website is another thing altogether. Your goals set you up to measure the specific actions that your viewers do on your website. They eventually help you determine the strong (and even the weak) points of your marketing efforts. There are four different goal categories you can decide from:Destination - This category is based on your visitors landing on a desired page, such as a ‘thank you’ page or confirmation screen for signing up or an approval for a download option. Duration - This category is based on the set amount of time spent on your website. Pages/Screens - This category is based on a determined number of pages they have visited on your site during a session. Event - This category is based on your visitor performing a particular set of actions. Examples of this could be watching a video, clicking on an ad, downloading a catalog, etc. 

Web analytics metrics is the generic term for quantitative information about your website’s visitors and their website’s activity. Web analytics metrics are often set as thresholds to meet specific goals and are used as key performance indicators (KPI) in businesses. Below are some of the most used examples of web analytics metrics:a. The bounce rate is the ratio of viewers who landed on your website but promptly left for whatever they may have. A high bounce rate could be due to several factors, such as website interface, content, or long loading time.b. The page views are based on the number of successful visitors who can load and view a page on your website. Successful viewing includes everything within your content, such as words, images, and features, on your web page. c. Landing pages are the first web page your viewers would find upon discovering your website. This metric determines the most viewed and popular page of your website.d. Exit pages are the pages on your website where your viewers often find themselves seeing their way out. e. The site speed is a metric for examining page timing, the average page loading time, of your website pages. f. The average session duration measures the average length of time your audience has spent on your website. An increase in average sessions duration can be caused by placing relevant content and allowing your viewers to immediately find what they are looking for when browsing through your website. g. The average time on page measures our audience’s average length of time on each web page of your website. h. The total site traffic depends on the number of visitors that arrive on any of your pages.i. The sources for incoming traffic allows you to determine where your visitors are coming from. Visitors may originate from these sources:       I. Direct visitors - this visitor type arrives at your website by typing in your exact URL in their search engines or browsers.       II. Search visitors - this visitor type comes to your website by search queries and your website being clicked on from search engines (also known as an organic traffic source).       III. Referral visitors - this type of visitor lands on your website after clicking on an ad or blog of your website links or other  partnered website that may or may not be affiliated with you.       IV. Social media - visitors arrive at your website coming from different social media platforms. j. The value per visit lets you determine how much value you can receive out of every visit from your viewer. It’s the ratio of the number of visits in contrast to the total amount the visit created. This metric can be a little bit tricky to calculate as values are not easily defined.