Professor’s name: Dr. Patricia Pedraza-Nafziger
Introduction:
Web analysis is a technology used to collect and report information on the websites usage of data. This technology can be categorized into on-site and off-site web analytics. On-site analytics focus on direct user- website interactions (Bekavac & Garbin Praničević, 2015). It reports issues such as how many times the site was accessed and the exact time when the access was reported. Off-site analysis focuses on the reports from third party companies. A good example would be information from popular magazines. Web analytics is very important in collecting information about the websites that are useful to the entrepreneur. This research seeks to understand the various web analytic tools and how they can benefit the small businesses. It thus explores the use of web analytic tools within the wider business contexts.
The aim of this paper is to identify the various web analytic tools and how they can benefit an entrepreneur. Our main focus will be on the small business entrepreneurs. Over the past years, online marketing has become the most common way of doing business. Most companies are now venturing into digital marketing with most of them having their own websites. These companies however do not use or rarely use website analytics. Instead, the mostly use websites for common advertisements. There are many reasons why company heads are reluctant to apply web analytics. For example, they may not have a strategy for tying the outcomes of the business to the social media (Tidal, 2013). Other reasons include; poor tools used, lack of analysis expertise and having unreliable data in their websites. Despite the benefits of web analysis, small businesses still think it is only for the large corporations that serve a wider customer base.
Sub-Topics:
Web analytics can be discussed under several subtopics to understand how it works and how it may benefit an organization. When exploring web analytics, the first subtopic we are going to look at is data analytics. This focuses on the processes used for identifying data and the sources of the data. We can also break down the topics and look at the web analytic tools (Bekavac & Garbin Praničević, 2015). Here we explore the various methods that analytics can use to collect and trace trafficking. Another sub topic can be on web metrics where we will examine how analytics analyze trafficking and compare them to the goals of the business (Loftus, 2012). Finally we are going explore on the benefits of web analysis on both the large and small businesses. We will also look at the factors that organizations must consider before deciding on the best web analytic tool to use. This serves to promote the objectives of the company within its area of specialization
My organization utilizes web analysis in many ways for growth and improvement in communication in the business. First, my organization uses web analysis for measuring web traffic. It measures the number of visitors vising the site, where they might be coming from and what product they could be searching for. Web analytics identifies the channels the visitors could be using to reach the site. It could be from an email, social media or even the search engines. This information helps my organization decide which channel of communication they are going to focus on and invest. Second, my organization is able to monitor the number of individuals visiting the site, how much time the spent and what they preferred or found important at the site. This report enables my organization to know what pages/ products interests the visitor and they can invest more on that.
Apart from tracking visitors, web analysis also helps my organization track bounce back rates. This basically means how many times a visitor visits a site and leaves without taking any action. A page with more bounce backs means that the information in that page is not useful to the visitor. My organization therefore makes decisions on what to be done to improve the pages. Also, the results of Web analysis helps my organization identify the target market for my products. Web analysis traces the, needs/interests, number and geographical location of the visitors this information clearly indicates the market. In general web analytics helps my organization to identify target audience, improve on the bounce back rates and be able to align products with the right channels. Reports from web analytics are very useful in decision making in the organization thus in the end run improve productivity. They also communicate a lot on the customers, market and the products/services.
References
Bekavac, I., & Garbin Praničević, D. (2015). Web analytics tools and web metrics tools: An overview and comparative analysis. Croatian Operational Research Review, 6(2), 373-386.
Tidal, J. (2013). Using Web Analytics for Mobile Interface Development. Journal Of Web Librarianship, 7(4), 451-464.
Loftus, W. (2012). Demonstrating Success: Web Analytics and Continuous Improvement. Journal Of Web Librarianship, 6(1), 45-55.