I�m getting a website together for my ecommerce store and website, and I�d like to know exactly what a web analytics package is; what it entails, the importance of acquiring one, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Web analytics is a function of data collection. A company can use it to get reports on all kinds of data about the functionality, usability and success of your website. It basically works to collect data about users of your website and analyzes the users’ actions to increase traffic to your site, as well as show you how successful certain types of information or actions within that website are.

It not only measures traffic to your website, but it is also used as a means for market research. Web analytics can show you how successful an advertising campaign is. It can show how the traffic patterns change after implementing a campaign and will describe the data about visitors to a particular page, how many page views it received and so forth so you what trends are working and what the traffic patterns are.

Web analytics traditionally works in two ways - off-site or on-site.

Off-site analytics reveals how your website works within the larger context of the web itself, assessing audience, visibility and buzz (or user comments). It develops an account of who the potential users for your website could be.

On-site analytics show how users act once they are at your website. Analytics reveal what types of information or content leads people to buy. This is basically a measurement of how well your site does in a commercial setting. You can then use the data to make the website more successful and use specific marketing strategies to improve user response to your site.

As you can see, web analytics in its most basic form can help you get an edge over your competition and focus your energies on what works best for your company and your products.

What are my options as far as a package? What tools or functions are critical for me to start with?

Most web analytics package will perform a few basic functions.

1. Logfile

• Reading this information shows how popular your website is. It basically counts the number of visitors (or hits) to your web server.
• Page views. This function gathers how many visitors come to each page, and it excludes graphics.
• Visits. This function collects information about one particular user, who may view several pages, and then collects the total number of “visits” by or behavior of each user.
• Cookies. Tracking cookies further delineates the number of users to the site and their activity.

2. Page Tagging

• Web counters. This function shows how many visitors a page has received in total.
• Cookies. Cookies evolved to assign a unique identity to each user to track his visits.
• DNS. This capability can retrieve the IP address of the visitor and collect data about him.

There are a lot of other functions you can include in your package to get a more detailed account of user activity and response to your website.

Click Analytics

This analytic will count “clicks” (often referred to as “point-and-click”). It will show you specifically where on your website users are going. User activity can be monitored in real time, showing what is happening and what type of content is attracting users. It can also be monitored over a wider time frame to gauge the attraction of ads, design or writers.

Customer Lifecycle

This technology takes into account each users’ patterns and what they are attracted to, and it can then offer details about the typical customer and how they use the website, what draws them in, etc. It basically gives information about the behavior of users that can be turned into marketing potential and website optimization.

Scroll Reach Heatmaps

This data will tell you everything about how a user (or users) uses the website; it then collects the data for all the users and analyzes the patterns of use. It can tell you how far down the page a user goes and where they stop and leave the page or site. This information can then help you tailor your pages to suit the users who are attracted to your site and draw more users.

Advanced Filtering

This function works to help businesses increase sales and convert visitors into buyers. It can give you access to see which website processes attract users, what kind of users land on the site and complete the process of buying, which users abandon the process, and it also tells you why they left. This can be invaluable to take your business to the next level.

Ecommerce Tracking

Web analytics can include the option to track your ecommerce store user behaviors and patterns. It can connect various user transactions to keywords, which shows you what attracts users and what is successful. It reveals how loyal users are and helps you to mark out aspects of your site and any ad campaigns, etc., that are actually bringing in revenue.

Pivoting and Secondary Dimensions

This technology allows you to view key information about users in one report. You can choose to view keyword usage and location (the city of user) together to identify trends that are particular to a group or location and how they search. Another example: you can view data about source along with visits and page views.

Event Tracking

Here, web analytics will compile information about how users interact with elements on your site, like a graphic or video.

There are many other functions within web analytics. It’s best to know what type of information your business needs and then proceed from there. There are many free web analytics packages that can provide you with the same basic (and often advanced) functions that any other program that you pay for will do.

Are there any packages that you would recommend?

I can give you a couple of web analytic packages that are free and provide the most basic functions, along with some unique advanced functions. These packages are either free or have a free trial period.

ClickTale – This technology focuses on customer behavior and use.

eLogic Web Analytics – This package is easy to use, reliable and offers “real” information about user behavior. They include over 25 features.

Google Analytics – This package is also easy to use and offers a lot of features. It also has three different “views” for reporting, each of which includes its own unique reports.

StatCounter.com – This is a reliable web counter (invisible) that gives you data in real time. It includes basic analysis functions.

FoxMetrics is a real time web analytics tool that provides reports to you in real time. It has a very simple and intuitive UI, our latest release has web analytics, live streaming, custom event tracking, segmentation and more. Soon we will be adding heat map, click map, seo analysis and more actionable insights.