What is web analytics?

The Web Analytics Association defines web analytics as follows: “measurement, processing, analysis and reporting of internet traffic to understand and optimize the use of a website”. This means working on web traffic as the main performance indicator.

But web analytics is not restricted only to traffic, as it depends on factors such as:

quality of the website and its content
user experience
link building
hosting and domain effectiveness
landing page design
ease of transactions
etc.

As the definition states, the goal of web analytics is not merely informative, but to optimize the performance of a website to improve the way it is experienced by both users and search engines.

Because of the important role it plays in the Web 2.0 concept, it is also known as Web 2.0 analytics.

Web analytics and brand strategy

Deploying digital marketing campaigns without using web analytics tools to “correct the trajectory” of your website, would be like groping on the web, without a road map. That is why web analytics actions and brand strategy must go hand in hand.

Only if you understand the web traffic you have achieved since the beginning of the marketing campaign, can you take steps to increase your acquisitions and conversions, as well as your relationship with the consumer. Ultimately, you can rethink your branding strategy in order to get optimal results.

Yet, some people see web analytics and brand strategy as separate things. They think that, if a company is well established, it is not necessary to use web analytics because its products and/or services are already selling “on their own”. They don’t take into account that the online market is unstable, and that both the public and the competition are constantly changing.

If you don’t keep track of your site’s web traffic, you run the risk of losing marketing opportunities or, worse, of perpetuating a brand strategy that is no longer producing the same results.

what web analytics tools to use?

There are many web analytics 2.0 tools that you can use in your daily work. The choice depends on the characteristics of each one and, of course, on your marketing objectives.

Google Analytics: is the most popular of them all and one of the most complete, as it allows you to monitor all kinds of web metrics, although its use requires some training.
TrueSocial Metrics: excellent for estimating the return on your investments in social networks, examining the comments, likes and posts shared by users, which will help you better understand your audience.
W3Counter: many consider it one of the most powerful web analytics tools, almost as powerful as Google Analytics, with the added advantage of being easier to use.
Open Web Analytics: with this online tool you can, in addition to measuring the usual metrics, analyze the user experience with such precision that you will even know which keystrokes or cursor movements they make when they are on your website.
Kismetrics: also allows you to examine in real time the user experience, but using data related to customer acquisition and interaction between users of our website.

We should also mention web 2.0 analytics tools such as Woopra, Clicktale, Webtrends, Simply Measured, Alexa and Yandex, among many others.