Rambling Thoughts

Looking at different side of Web Analytics

Posted on 18. Mar, 2009 by Nikhil Sheth in Analytics, Knowledge

I have been using custom analytic tool along with various other web analytics tools. There are a variety of tools available out there to help analyze web sites, such as Omniture’s SiteCatalyst, Google Analytics, ClickTracks, WebTrends and many more.The issue is that every tool has a different way of calculating the same basic metrics.

For example, one of the most common differences in calculations is in user sessions, or visits. What’s the maximum length of inactivity in a session before a new session is counted? If a user enters the site multiple times in a given time period, how many visits are counted

In addition there are several technical issues that can cause data loss, such as the analytics code not having enough time to execute before a user leaves a page. These technical issues can result in variances in unique visits, number of pageviews, number of form completions, revenue, etc.

Here is a summary of some factors that would potentially cause the analytics packages to report different results:

1. Placement of the JavaScript on the page, this does affect counting significantly.
2. Session tracking timeouts algorithm used.
3. Cookie blocking – some packages do not fall back on a combination of pixel tracking and/or IP and User agent detection to still count those visitors. Some packages do, and in addition, there are multiple ways for them to implement this.
4. Spyware blocking communications with the analytics server. This will not affect implementations where first party cookies are set up at the DNS level.
5. Analytics server down time (rare).
6. Network problems preventing communication with the analytics server.
7. Analytics servers being blocked by firewalls (e.g. a corporate firewall).
8. JavaScript is disabled on the user’s browser.
9.Multiple users on one computer will be treated as a single user.
10.One user who uses multiple computers will be counted as multiple users.

An example of a potentially questionable session is a visit from a new IP address with an unknown user agent, that views only 1 page, and that has no referrer. One package might throw this out, and another might leave it in. This type of decision-making could have a large affect on traffic counts, but the visitors we are talking about are untraceable.

Even if an analytics package is measuring the behavior of only 80% of their users, it remains highly relevant and valuable data. By contrast, the traditional print industry relies on subscriber surveys, and feels lucky if they get 20% response. They would die for data on 80% of their customers.

Web analytics can be best utilized for tracking search engine marketing performance and tuning, search engine optimization, online and offline campaigns, A/B testing, multivariate testing, and visitor segmentation. It’s important not to get hung up on specific numbers, but instead to look at the trends those numbers are showing. The fact that your website received x amount of visits is nice to know, but it is more important to know whether your traffic increased or decreased during a given time period, or whether conversion rates have changed, find out what caused those changes, and to come up with an action plan to improve performance.

The bottom line is that web analytics packages are like any other tool, and when used properly can help you understand and grow your business.

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Tags: Analytics