Chris Avery

1

• Presented by
• Chris Avery

2
What If you launch an ad campaign and you can't
tell whether it drove anyone to your site?

• That was the question facing Jerry Jacobsen of
  JN Computer Services in Fairport, New York.
  Until two years ago, the Web-based computer
  equipment reseller didn't know how people found
  their way to the site or what they did once they
  were there. He had no way to know whether the
  customers had clicked on the URL in an e-mail ad
  blast, surfed in through a link, or found the
  site via a search engine.

3
WebSideStory's Web analysis tool HitBox
Professional

• Looking for a way to analyze site data, Jacobsen
  implemented WebSideStory's Web analysis tool
  HitBox Professional, and within hours he knew
  exactly where customers were coming from, how
  they moved through the site, and when they left.

4
Web analytics

• This year aloneeven in the midst of an economic
  downturnmore than 87 percent of surveyed
  companies say they expect to increase spending
  for services that help sustain or create sales
  growth, including log file crunchers and
  full-scale Web analytic tools.
• Meta Group, another research firm, says the
  clickstream analysis market will grow 40 percent
  this year, even if we are in a widespread
  recession.

5
Web analytics

• Web analytics was born out of hit counters and
  Web server logs.
• Whenever a browser or application makes a page
  request from a Web server, the instance is
  recorded or logged with every other request that
  comes in.

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Cryptic Web Logs

• A log file is just cryptic lines of text. It's
  tedious if not impossible to slog through
  hundreds or thousands of page requests line by
  line, and manual analysis gathers very little
  usable information. That's where analytic tools
  come in.

7
Two Analytic Tools Solutions

• Analytic software installed on a Web server,
  separate server, or desktop PC
• Analysis services that use application service
  providers

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Analytic Software

• The most common solution is analytic software
  installed on a Web server, separate server, or
  desktop PC.
• All of the analysis is done locally, using a
  database and algorithms optimized to handle the
  number crunching.

9
Analysis services

• Analysis services that use application service
  providers are also gaining traction.
• With this type of services, such as Hitbox
  Professional, a web designer places several lines
  of JavaScript code on each page he wants to
  track. Every time a hit is logged, the code sends
  the information back to a WebSideStory server.

10
Benefits

• Usually apparent within days or even hours of
  implementation, depending on the size and scope
  of the site
• You can also use Web analysis tools to find
  broken links by looking for page requests that
  weren't fulfilled
• You can tell whether the site has enough
  bandwidth and can avoid bandwidth blackouts when
  demand outstrips capacity
• If customers are hitting a particular product
  page more than others but clicking three or four
  times to get there, you can move the product
  closer to the main page or even place it on the
  front page as a featured item.

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Some Current Web Site Analysis Tools

• VisiStat 2.0
• http//www.visistat.com/
• Visitorville
• http//www.visitorville.com/
• SiteCatalyst 11
• http//www.omniture.com/products/web_analytics/sit
  ecatalyst
• WebTrends Analytics 8
• http//www.webtrends.com/Products/WebTrendsAnalyti
  cs8.aspx
• WebSideStory's HBX Web Analytics
• http//www.websidestory.com/products/web-analytic
  s/hbx-analytics/