Web Analytics Singapore | WebSell Solutions

Collection, measurement and visualization of web data (traffic and usage data) for the purpose of analysis is termed as Web Analytics. Primarily related to website data, its scope can be extended to mobile and web based online applications as well.

Insights gleaned from Analytics can help businesses make informed decisions, measure performance and track/monitor operations. If implemented and consumed correctly it can serve as a trustworthy compass guiding you to the direction of the true north.

Sophisticated reporting and analytics accessible previously only to large companies that could afford them are now mainstream and easily obtainable, with many of them absolutely free!

What can Analytics do for you

Traditional Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics platforms can deliver significant value at strategic as well as tactical levels to an organization. As opposed to the conventional way of reporting thru fixed format, canned reports which can get unwieldy, Analytics offer summarized views of the information – metrics and data points that can be sliced and diced by different dimensions (viewpoints). Besides, the ability to drill-down on data also gives the added capability to look at lower level details and facts. Such features are ideal for getting clarity on issues and finding out the root cause.

Dashboards, a popular way to visualize data and present key metrics are ideal to monitor events, study trends, do time period based comparisons and check website health/usage at a glance. All in all, Analytics enables you to make decisions that are based on factual data rather than on using gut-feel or guesswork. Besides giving you the capability to measure performance so that you can manage your business or website better, it helps in forecasting, planning and mitigating risks.

How does a Web Analytics System work

While BI & Analytics offers a superb information delivery mechanism, a lot of complexity and heavy lifting goes before it. Information has to be prepared by crunching vast volumes of history data, summarized at different aggregate levels, and assembled in an easily consumable visual format.

In the case of Web Analytics, data is collected by means of a tracking code on the Website that tracks and sends data about the user, user session, and the user activities performed to a central database server. Data from other sources can also be collected and integrated with website tracking data. All incoming data has to be transformed and loaded into a pre-defined data models. After aggregating and organizing data, reporting views are built from where the Analytics can be presented to the end user.

On the front-end users have the flexibility to query, filter, group, setup conversion goals and consume the data in a variety of formats.

While a Web Analytics System can be custom built like any other BI application, Google Analytics provides a compelling offering that is easy to implement and is available free of charge. Initially developed out of an acquisition Urchin Software, Google Analytics today has grown to be the industry standard for Web Analytics. Its new Universal Analytics framework lets users collect data from other digital devices (besides websites & mobile apps) and manage all analytics under a single user interface.

What can you Analyse and how can it Help

There are various analyses that can be performed using web Analytics. These can give plentiful insights not only about your Website or App but also about the medium which brings traffic to your web property. Basic level analytics can be categorised under 3 buckets –

1. Visitors

Helps you understand the characteristics of your visitors such as where they come from, how they access and how long they engage with your Website or App

What can you Analyse?	How can it help?
Customer profile analysis – How many new or returning visitors came to your site, how much time they spent on it, how may pages they view and so on	Can give inputs for developing your loyalty program or remarketing efforts to grow your returning customer baseHelps you evaluate the effectiveness of your content by checking if the time spent is commensurate with the intended purpose of the site content
Geo view of audience – Map view with viewership broken down by continent, country and city	Can help you to focus on marketing efforts in locations where needed or invest in business development in areas where there’s more potential
Technology & device used – What browser and OS do your visitors use; percentage of traffic from desktop, mobile, tablets and using which device	Studying the Bounce Rates by device gives an indication if the site is optimized (say for Mobile) or needs to be responsive

2. Acquisition

Gives information on how your users actually find you. Provides you insights on which marketing channels and sources are effective

What can you Analyse?	How can it help?
Channel Analysis – Lets you analyse traffic and conversion to your website by Channel	Can help you decide which channel to focus on for your marketing efforts
Traffic Source Analysis – Gives you visibility on what medium and source sends traffic to your site along with behavioural and conversion metrics.	Can help you distinguish which site or traffic source is best for investing your advertising dollars
Search Marketing – Provides detailed reporting on user query terms, Paid/organic keywords, and statistics on the landing pages appearing on search	Helps you measure performance of your Search Marketing initiatives – whether your SEO or PPC efforts are working or not
Campaign Analysis – Lets you study traffic that came from a particular Campaign (if it was campaign tagged)	Helps measure performance of Marketing Campaigns

3. Interaction

Tells you how users interact and engage with your content – what do they look at and how do they navigate between the pages

What can you Analyse?	How can it help?
Site Content Statistics – Gives detailed reports on what content was accessed, how many times and how long is the interaction; Entrance Paths and Exist pages; etc	Helps you identify low performing pages that need improvement or high performing content that can be used as a guide for future reference
Site Search – Used by visitors when they don’t find the information they are looking for	These stats can be studied to identify missed opportunities or investigate if your site navigation needs any improvement
Event Tracking – Gives ability to track and measure the actions you want your users to take such as Download, Ad Clicks, Video Plays and so on	Event based goals can help you measure and manage effectively, the desired actions you want your users to take
In-Page Analytics – Lets you see which part and portion of the web page users interact with	Helps you study the hot spots and unclicked portions on your page
User Flow Visualization – Lets you analyse the path taken by visitors while navigating your site, where they entered from, what did they pass thru and from where did they exit	Helps you analyse the effectives of a given page as landing page or which page has the maximum drop-offs.

Besides these, advanced web analytics can be employed to study Conversions, E-commerce reporting, Sales Attribution models and so on.

Key Metrics & Reports beginners should look at in Web Analytics

While there numerous metrics that can be analysed and tracked in Web Analytics. Here are the key one’s that anyone beginning with Web Analytics should look at.

Visits/Sessions – Number of times a visitor comes and interacts with your website
Page Views – Total number of pages viewed by your site visitors
Average Session Duration – Average length of time (in minutes & seconds) visitors spend on your site during a session
Bounce Rate – Percentage of visitors who visited your site and hit the back button or immediately moved on without going to any other page on the website. Bounce rate should be as low as possible
All Traffic Report – Provides a breakdown of Visits/Sessions by Traffic Medium and Source
Site Content Reports – Measures Page Views, Time Spent, Bounce Rate, Entries & Exits across the Site Content (by Page)

WebSell Value Proposition for Analytics

While Web Analytics tools and services are easily available to Website and App owners nowadays, understanding and exploiting the wealth of information that it provides goes largely overlooked. Extracting “actionable” insights, being able to forecast and implement changes at a strategic & tactical level is the key. Only then are the full benefits of Analytics realised.

With years of experience in Business Intelligence; integrating data from multitude of sources and skills with tools & technologies to deliver Analytics, WebSell is well positioned to help you glean knowledge from your data and take steps in the right direction for an effective web strategy. Combined with our expertise in Websites and Online Marketing methods we are able to deliver and execute a holistic plan for our clients.

Contact us for a no-obligation appointment to discuss what you can do with Analytics and how WebSell support you in your business objectives.

Request a Case Study

Find out more on how WebSell utilised actionable insights gathered from Google Analytics to revamp the website of a Personal Fitness Trainer in order to make it more conversion centric. Request this Case Study that we’ll be happy to email.