Wide World of Web Analysis

The web is full of tools to measure everything from traffic to top content and beyond. If you haven't looked at your website traffic logs lately, you should. If you wish you had more info than you are getting, it's out there!

For companies that are currently using some type of in depth analytics programs here are a few things you should be looking at on the surface:

1. How many visits am I getting. This should be easily seen on the front page or dashboard.
2. How many pages are viewed on average by each visitor? The higher the better of course.
3. What is the bounce rate? How many visitors came to the first page then left without going further? The lower the number the better.
4. Where is my traffic coming from? While this is especially important if you are paying any company for links or click traffic, it also helps to know what search engines are working well for you.

Dig a little deeper and you should be able to find out what information is most important to your visitors. By honing in on key areas you'll be able to "market smarter" and focus your company efforts towards possibly unseen "hot buttons" of your visitors. You'll also be able to discover additional opportunities within the site, possible areas of improvement.

As more companies use web analysis (and people who know what to do with the info) there will be an increasing demand for ROWA - Return on Web Analysis - the need to know if all the analysis is translating into dollars saved or dollars earned by the company. This is an important question on the horizon and it will be interesting to see how companies react.