What is Web Analytics?

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 provides data on the number of visitors, page views, etc. to gauge the traffic and popularity trends which helps when doing market research.

Web analytics applications can also help companies measure the results of traditional print advertising campaigns and it can be helpful to use analytics software to estimate how the traffic to a website has changed after the launch of a new advertising campaign.

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 they are 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.