Privacy is an issue with any tracking or monitoring mechanism, whether its web analytics or video surveillance cameras. The collection of data by [...]]]> Over the past few years, Google Analytics has become very popular with website owners wishing to track website usage and visitor statistics. It has everything most businesses need, its easy to use and free.

Privacy is an issue with any tracking or monitoring mechanism, whether its web analytics or video surveillance cameras. The collection of data by technology such as Google Analytics is normally covered within the Terms and Conditions of Use for a website.

However Google has decided to implement a new way for web users to protect their privacy by allowing users to opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics.

It was announced in the Google Analytics blog last week by their product manager Amy Chang:

“Over the past year, we have been exploring ways to offer users more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics. We concluded that the best approach would be to develop a global browser based plug-in to allow users to opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics.”

They anticipate this new technology will be available in the next few weeks.

What does this mean for website owners?

It removes a level of certainty in the statistics collected – the Google Analytics reports will only show a proportion of the traffic. Conversion tracking data from e-commerce sites will no longer match up with the shopping cart statistics. etc etc etc.

On a more positive note, it is likely that the number of web users who will be interested in the browser plug-in and actually install it will be very small.

So, will you be installing the Google Analytics browser opt-out plugin?

If you would like to learn more about how Google Analytics can help your business, call WSI today on 01928 787026.

A very valid concern as the traditional web analytics methods can only really measure activity on your own website.

However there are now a wide variety of new tools and services available to allow companies and their [...]]]> One of the often heard concerns about the use of social media by business is “How do I know its working?”.

A very valid concern as the traditional web analytics methods can only really measure activity on your own website.

However there are now a wide variety of new tools and services available to allow companies and their marketing consultants to monitor the social media and to measure the “buzz” surrounding a brand name, product and keyphrases.

Now, the effectiveness of social media campaigns can be tracked and measured.

Some tools are free, such as -

Google Alerts – emails updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Social Mention – for one-off keyword searches,  it provides results from blogs, twitter (microblogs), video, comments, bookmarks, news, events etc.  and includes information such as Sentiment, Top Keywords, Top users and Sources. A lot of useful information at a glance.

However the bulk of the social media monitoring tools are chargeable based on access and usage. These offer much more sophisticated data collection and analysis across a wide variety of keywords, with comprehensive dashboard and reporting facilities.

If effective use of the social media is part of your marketing plans for 2010, we can advise you on the tools available and provide a regular social media monitoring and reporting service for your business. Call us today on 01928 787026

Avinash Kaushik explored the likely reasons for this in a recent blog post and gave a simple formula for improvement:

However a recent survey in eMarketer reports that while 79% of companies are capturing data, only 30% are then using that data to improve the perfromance of their internet marketing and website!

This is [...]]]> With the shift of marketing budgets towards online activities, more and more companies are adding collecting visitor data, using technologies such as Google Analytics.

However a recent survey in eMarketer reports that while 79% of companies are capturing data, only 30% are then using that data to improve the perfromance of their internet marketing and website!

This is a missed golden opportunity, not just for the 49% who are not using their data effectively but also for the 21% who are not collecting web visitor data!

Is your company in the 30%, 49% or 21% sector?

To find out more about how Web Analytics can help improve the performance of your company, download WSI’s free Web Analytics whitepaper.

Alternatively just get in touch, and we’d be happy to discuss it with you.

Every business should have a goal for its web site. It should define what actions you want visitors to your site to take - Complete a form, buy something, sign up for the newsletter etc. 

Without [...]]]> Web Analytics are vital for any business as they provide a window into your web site to examine how well it is doing its job.

Every business should have a goal for its web site. It should define what actions you want visitors to your site to take - Complete a form, buy something, sign up for the newsletter etc. 

Without clear goals, it’s difficult to objectively measure and monitor how it is performing.

Once you have a goal, you can use web analytics tools such as Google Analytics to identify those pages that are having the biggest negative impact on the total number of people “converting,” or achieving that goal.

For example common reports to look at include :-

Top Landing Pages – Examine how well your entrance pages are working. What happens when visitors arrive at the site - do they click through to more content, or just ‘bounce’ off? Pages with high bounce rates could be losing you valuable visitors.

Goal Visualization – If you have a shopping cart on your site, then visitors need to go through a number of defined steps to make their purchase, which is the goal. By monitoring those key steps using Goal or Funnel Visualization,  Google Analytics will show you where people leave or abandon the buying process.

Exit Pages – everyone will leave your site, but where are they doing it? If some of the important sales pages have high exit rates then that could spotlight an issue.

By identifying potential problems using Web Analytics, a process of page optimisation and improvement can be instigated to improve performance and Return on Investment.

Web analytics will also give you an immense amount important visitor data to help you assess the effectiveness of your online and offline marketing campaigns, but that’s for another post.

If you would like more information on how Web Analytics can help your business, contact us today for a FREE consultation.

Most enterprises can provide a ’soft’ or qualititive answer – ‘we want sales enquiries and we know we get quite a few from the web site”.

However far fewer have established targets or success criteria – “we aim for an average of 10 leads a [...]]]>  Its simple question that reveals a lot about a business and their internet presence.

Most enterprises can provide a ’soft’ or qualititive answer – ‘we want sales enquiries and we know we get quite a few from the web site”.

However far fewer have established targets or success criteria – “we aim for an average of 10 leads a week, and have achieved that for the past month”.

Similarly most companies with websites, if pushed, can usually find some usage statistics – “4132 page views last month”. However few look at measures which are meaningful to the business itself – “number of forms submitted, number of unique visitors, number of brochure downloads….”

Web Analytics enables a company to manage their web presence like any other resource – setting targets, monitoring results, implementing improvements. By setting and measuring business related outcomes, the company web site can be managed to deliver tangible results to the benefit of the organisation as a whole.

Web Analytics can collect the vital information about your site visitors, their location, how they found you, and how they used your web site, how long did they stay, which pages did they visit.

Without Web Analytics, you can only guess what is happening in your web site. And that is no way to manage anything!