Welcome to Maturing Web Analytics. This article is for everyone who, after reading Beginning Web Analytics, following the links, and setting up your own web analytics, now want to take the next step. You have plenty of data filtering in now, so the question becomes, how can I turn this data into profit?
For many people, web analytics is a scary term, conjuring up mental images of failed math classes. That’s probably what brought you here: You were pondering methods of bringing more traffic to your website when someone brought up the term “web analytics“, and all of the sudden those nightmares kicked in.
But when you recovered, as the serious eCommerce entrepreneur you are, you got online with the goal of looking the term up. And now you’re here, you’re interested, and you’re a little confused. What are web analytics? Are they really worth investing in? What are they going to cost me? How much time do they take?
The first eRetailer, Bath and Body Works, recently implemented a new analytics and tracking program into their website using LIVEmark technology and services by Coremetrics. LIVEmark basically collects data from more than 400 eRetail brands and is designed to shed light on the most important areas that an eCommerce store can enhance or make better. Bath and Body Works was able to track and identify several important areas across their site which need improvement including product page design, site search, navigation and landing pages.
Last week’s article, aptly titled “Beginner eCommerce Keyword Research Using Google Keywords Tool,” discussed how to conduct keyword research efficiently using Google AdWords Keyword Tools. However, once the initial list of likely candidates are found and implemented into an eCommerce website, they need to be continuously monitored and changed as needed. A good tracking tool for doing this is Google Analytics.