The efficacy of a website design is as much art as science. There are aspects of a site that can be easily measured, such as: Hits per page, Unique Visitors, Revenue or Sales generated.
These are all helpful figures that provide information about a visitor’s behavior, but are not the only way to measure the actual effectiveness of a website design. It is just as important to know why a visitor behaves a certain way, as it is to know how.
The answers to these questions may seem simple, but are potentially complex, for example: Was your site interface effective and easy?, What similar products or services is your visitor interested in?, Will this visitor choose to return to your site?
These questions are not as easily answered, but there are ways to get inside the “heads” of potential visitors to truly measure the success of your website design.
Internet analytics have been around as long as the Internet itself, but have come a long way in a short time. Now the data is useful to a broader array of users – including marketers, website design professionals and business experts. In a world of R.O.I., visitors must be engaged beyond a site visit - they must become customers. With interfaces that are highly intuitive and state-of-the-art collection methods, the analytics tools of today truly measure a site’s success.
Analytics software has two ways of collecting critical data: Through Log Files, automatically tracked by the web server, Through “Page Tagging” which sends the data to an analytics server, sometimes placing a “cookie” on the user’s computer.
While both methods provide vital information, Log Files tend to be more general than “Page Tagging.” For example: Log Files record the number of site visitors, page views, page exits, timing of visits and search engine activity. “Page Tagging,” however, requires additional code for each tracked page and can include much more detail.
No matter what your choice of technique, analytics programs provide information, distilled into simple reports and charts, helping you make better decisions about your website design – and your online business.