An Introduction to Website Analytics

Website Analytics or website statistics can provide you with floods of information regarding who your visitors are, how many of them there are, where in the world they live and even how long they browse each web page. Most websites, especially out of the box sites, will have such a feature contained within the package, but this valuable tool is very often not exploited as it should be and is used just for a quick reference.

Website Analytics Programs

There are many large companies whom offer free website analytics programs to owners of websites. They gain information for themselves on website habits and you have access to lots of free information that can help you to grow your business more quickly. The accuracy of certain programs will differ, so ensure you spend some time researching your options before deciding to stick with one brand.  Some analytics providers are Google Analytics, Unica, Coremetrics, WebTrends and Omniture.  Do you own search for website analytics software and you’ll see them all.  But there is another missing piece that you shouldn’t forget about when it comes to analytics and that is testing the design of the website.

What About Website Design Analytics?

What is often overlooked is website design analytics.  Testing your website’s design with consumers at the design, wireframe, comp or QA stage will help save money, time and headaches with post launch issues that don’t relate to site analytics.  In other words, testing the designs with consumers prior to launch helps you flush out bad designs, navigation, copy and layout schemes.  And best of all, you’re doing so with your target market.  And you’re doing it PRIOR to production release.  After the site goes live, website analytics are essential, but don’t forget to “bake into” the design what your target consumers want, need and prefer from your website’s interface.  It’s what they deal with.  Not code.  Get that right from the outset and you’re in much better position to analyze your data from your website without having to worry as much about interface design issues.

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