Web Analytics : The Need of Today’s Business - Ayush | Product Manager

Web Analytics - Why is it the need of today's business? — With the invention of cloud computing massive data explosion , analytics industry has taken off

What is Analytics?

Analytics plays a key role in the success of today’s businesses. It can be defined as the study of past data to drive continual improvement.

Why Analytics?

Have you ever wondered how you get the content you like in your recommendations/advertisements?

It’s all thanks to analytics. Most websites you visit use your data to show you content you’re interested in. This benefits both the site owners and you, the users, and here’s how:

Site owners use your data to display relevant information that you will like. The data they gather includes what you click on, where you came from, when you exited their site, what you searched for, and how long you were active on their site, among other things. For users, it makes it easier to find what they need, saving them time, and businesses make a positive impact on visitors, which over time increases their site visits.

Reasons why every business should use analytics

Website Analytics provide actual reports on who your users are, their genders, what they are looking for, how they landed on your site (traffic source), the most popular content on your site, total conversions, and more. With this information in hand, you can plan fully informed business strategies and grow your business faster.

“Data is what you need to do analytics, Information is what you need to do business.” — John Owen

Here are some reasons why website analytics are important for your business growth:

Know your visitors well and enhance User Experience
Identify your best-performing content and focus on it
Improve your SEO ranking
Track referrals and build strategies to gain more of them

Types of Data

Data can be categorized into two main types: Qualitative data and Quantitative data. When gathering information, researchers often employ both qualitative and quantitative methods:

Qualitative Data: Gathered through user research, it involves observing people to understand why they do certain things.
Quantitative Data: Obtained through analytics, it focuses on identifying what actions users take when they visit a page and how many users take those actions.

Types of Analytics

Analytics serves various purposes and can be categorized into four types:

Descriptive Analytics: Provides baseline information, such as how many people visit a page, click on a button, or watch a video.
Diagnostic Analytics: Helps us understand what happened and why. For example, a business might use data to find out why its sales declined in the last month.
Prescriptive Analytics: Refers to using data to inform someone on what to do next. For instance, Google Maps collects data about traffic to prescribe a better route for drivers.
Predictive Analytics: Tells us what is likely to happen in a scenario. For example, it can predict the outcome of running a campaign with a 25% discount on a product.

All four types of analytics rely on metrics, often based around Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). A KPI is a measurable action or signal correlated to business success.

Effective Tools for Analytics

Several tools can assist in analytics:

Google Analytics: Provides insights into website traffic and marketing effectiveness through user session metrics, including bounce rate, keyword frequency, and more. It’s free, easy to set up, and highly customizable
Moz Pro: Moz, originally an SEO consulting company, offers a suite of tools for optimizing content and collecting and analyzing data. Pricing options range from $79/month to $599/month.
ClickTale: Captures and records every mouse move, click, scroll, and keystroke made by visitors on a webpage, sending this information back to the ClickTale servers. Subscriptions start at $9 for individuals and $99 for businesses, with pricing based on the number of recordings.