Web Analytics

Web Analytics

1. Successful Web Development Steps [1]

   • Understand the system’s overall function and operational environment including the business objectives and requirements. Clearly identify the stakeholders—that is, the system’s main users, the organization that needs the system, and those who fund the system’s development. Specify the technical and nontechnical requirements of the stakeholders and the overall system. Develop an overall architecture of the Webbased system that meets the technical and nontechnical requirements. Identify subprojects or subprocesses to implement the architecture. If the subprojects are too complex to manage, further divide them until they become a set of manageable tasks.

2. Successful Web Development Steps [2]

   • Develop and implement the subprojects. Incorporate effective mechanisms to manage the Web system’s evolution, change, and maintenance. As the system evolves, repeat the overall process or some parts of it as required. Address the nontechnical issues such as revised business processes; organizational and management policies; human resources development; and legal, cultural, and social aspects. Measure the system’s performance. Refine and update the system.

3. Website Success

   • Web site success is significantly associated with Web site download delay (speed of access and display rate within the Web site), navigation (organization, arrangement, layout, and sequencing), content (amount and variety of product information), interactivity (customization and interactivity), and responsiveness (feedback options and FAQs)..
   • Mnemonic*
     • R - Responsiveness I - Interactivity N - Navigation C - Content D - Download Speed

4. Web Metrics

   • the science of measuring websites….capturing as much data about a business' online interaction with its customers as possible.
   • Why Metrics?
     • Metrics help organizations generate more effective Web sites and provide measures that managers understand.
     • To provide practical value, metrics should identify frequency of measurement, frequency of review, source of data, rationale for introducing the measure, who will act on the data, and the purpose of the measure
     • For scientific, quantitative rigor, metrics should exhibit, at a minimum, construct validity and reliability
   • Web Search Metrics Characteristics
     • Relevance Comprehensiveness Coverage, Diversity , Discovery freshness Content freshness Presentation
   • Sample Metrics
     • Page Views
       • tells you the amount of views your website pages are getting – in particular, this allows you to see how your website fares over time.
     • Referrals
     • Traffic to conversion ratio
     • Downloads
       • Most downloaded files and file types Which files are customers choosing to download? Does this figure need to be increased?
     • Length of Visit
       • Length of visit?/ Average Time Spent Are customers only spending a short time on your site? This can be a classic symptom of a badly-designed website.
     • Exit Pages
       • This metric indicates the amount of ‘exits’ from pages on your website. Therefore, it reveals the pages on your website that drive people away. But remember, some exit pages are more natural exit pages, like purchase confirmation or newsletter signup confirmation pages. Look for the highest exited pages that seem to be an important path of your websites flow, like products pages or info pages, and improve these.
     • Entrance Page
       • Entrance page All too often people just analyse and improve the homepage, because they think that’s where the majority of their traffic arrives from. However, all too often the reality is that many people will arrive deep into your website through search engines. This metric reveals which of your pages are most often used as entrance pages. Look to improve these pages and make sure it’s easy for visitors to navigate from these pages – otherwise these entrance pages will become exit pages.
     • Navigation Behavior Tracking
     • Customer Profile
     • Bounce Rate

5. Usability and Design

   • Navigation response time, credibility, and Content consistency the ease of getting the Web site to do what the user intends it to do, clarity of interaction, ease of reading, arrangement of information, speed and layout.