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Web analytics
is the measurement, collection, analysis and
reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding
and optimizing web usage. Web analytics is not
just a tool for measuring website traffic but
can be used as a tool for business research
and market research.
Web analytics
applications can also help companies measure
the results of traditional print advertising
campaigns. It helps one to estimate how the
traffic to the website changed after the launch
of a new advertising campaign. Web analytics
provides data on the number of visitors, page
views, etc to gauge the traffic and popularity
trends which helps doing the market research.
There are two categories of web analytics; off-site
and on-site web analytics.
Off-site web
analytics refers to web measurement and analysis
regardless of whether you own or maintain a
website. It includes the measurement of a website's
potential audience (opportunity), share of voice
(visibility), and buzz (comments) that is happening
on the Internet as a whole. On-site web analytics
measure a visitor's journey once on your website.
This includes its drivers and conversions; for
example, which landing pages encourage people
to make a purchase.
On-site web analytics
measures the performance of your website in
a commercial context. This data is typically
compared against key performance indicators
for performance, and used to improve a web site
or marketing campaign's audience response. Historically,
web analytics has referred to on-site visitor
measurement. However in recent years this has
blurred, mainly because vendors are producing
tools that span both categories. The remainder
of this article concerns on-site web analytics.
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