How to Measure the Results of an Online Marketing Campaign With Web Site Analytics by Elizabeth Kirwin

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How to Measure the Results of an Online Marketing Campaign With Web Site Analytics
by Elizabeth Kirwin

A web site is a unique and revolutionary marketing tool because each time a web site is visited, every move of the visitor is recorded. Think about it. Television, print, or radio cannot be measured in this way. Downloads of audio and video podcasts can be measured statistically too. Every bit of information that is disseminated on the Internet, whether it is an article, press release, blog, or even the text of a web site page, can be measured for its impact and popularity by a web site analytics program. In fact, web site analytics are the foundation of any solid ‘usability study’ of a web site. Where the user pauses to read, enters, and exits a web site can have a profound effect upon future web site architecture, marketing goals, and online conversion rates. Effective online marketing means more sales generated from the Internet.

How Do I Access My Web Site Analytics??Many web site owners are unaware they even have a web site analytics program. This program is usually put in place on the server, by the web site host. The host usually requires a username and passcode to access web site analytics. The best way to find access to web site analytics is to phone or email the web site host for instructions. Or, phone or email the web site designer to find out how to access statistics.

What are the Best Web Site Analytics Programs??There are many different software programs designed to record and publish web site analytics. In my opinion, the best programs are AW Stats and Webalizer. These programs offer monthly breakdowns on web site visits, daily breakdowns, and even hourly analyses of visits. They allow the user to look at ALL referring URLs and they also capture visitor landing and exiting pages. There are many other features of these programs. I am only highlighting the features I feel are important to measure on line marketing activities.

Posting Articles, Press Releases, Blogs and Podcasts on the Internet?Posting information on one company or organization web site is not enough. Materials such as articles, press releases and blogs can be spread across the internet easily through RSS or Real Simple Syndication networks. These days, audio and video podcasts can also be syndicated. In order to promote a web site to the highest search engine position, text based materials and podcasts must be published at multiple web sites, and republished by digital and print publications, Publishing and republishing text materials also creates link popularity for a web site and ‘click thru’ traffic to the site over the long term.
?How are Press Releases, Articles, and Blogs Tracked by Web Site Analytics??Whenever any articles, press releases, or blogs are syndicated or posted on the Internet, a web site’s analytics program is available to immediately test and record the popularity of the materials. How does an analytics program measure user behavior? Check to see the top 25 URLs or web pages the user lands on when visiting the site. The user should be landing on the home page. However, when articles, blogs, or press releases are posted on the web site, users may enter to read these materials first, because they found them in keyword searches. If a visitor entered to read an article it will show by indicating the article or landing page. If the visitor read the information then exited, the analytics program will show this, too. The most popular articles, blogs, and press releases are visited month in and month out, and visitor reception to the information is easy to measure by calculating the number of visitors who read the information.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns?To measure the effectiveness of keywords purchased for a PPC campaign, focus on the keywords/keyphrases section of analytics and note the number of click thrus for purchased keywords. Also, if an Adwords campaign was In progress, note the number of Google searches which were used as a referring URL.

Referring URLs?The referring URLs section of the analytics program is crucial to understanding the reach of syndicated materials. To see which URLs have referred visitors to your web site, check this section regularly. Press release and article sites are found here, as are other web sites where a hot link to your web site is posted.

Keywords or Keyphrases?A good statistics program will show the top 10-25 search keywords and search keyphrases used to find a web site. This information is important for an on line marketing campaign. After depositing say 2,000 words of keyword rich text onto a web site in the form of an article and multiple blogs, an analytics program will let the user know almost immediately if the article and blog content has successfully increased the density of keywords desired.

Duration of Visits?It’s nice to know if your web site visitors breezed through or stayed for a while. Looking closely at these figures will let you know how many visitors you actually engaged. The visitors most interested in your product or service stayed for more than 10 minutes, and probably visited several pages.

What’s a Bot?????It is important that spiders and robots (bots) visit your site. A bot is an automated program designed to crawl a web site’s content and report back to the search engine the content therein. Every month, bots and spiders should be crawling web site content, looking for updated and relevant information. If an article marketing, press release, or blogging campaign is in progress, bots and spiders need to be crawling the newly uploaded information. A correctly designed web site will allow spiders and bots to crawl each piece of new information uploaded to a web site immediately. A web site analytics program will confirm that a site is being crawled by spiders and bots. Just check the Robots/Spider Visits section.

Web Site Analytics and ROI?I have highlighted some of the basic sections of a web site analytics program that can be used to evaluate an online marketing campaign. For PR and Marketing professionals, keeping a watchful eye towards web site analytics can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful online marketing campaign. Gaining access to a client’s web site analytics can be a challenge. But it can also prove to be valuable information to measure return on investment (ROI). It’s important to remember that click-thrus to a web site have real value in the Internet world.
Sadly, many web site owners and public relations and marketing professionals are daunted by technical personalities and technical terminology. Engaging in the interpretation of web site analytics is a good introduction to the terminology. So long as misunderstood terms can be explained, why not embrace this amazing new marketing tool, and use it to our best advantage?

Technical Terms Defined:
AW Stats: A web site analytics software program?Bot: An automated program that originates from a search engine (i.e. Yahoo, MSN, Google). The Bot is designed to crawl web site pages, find content, evaluate and categorize it based on certain criteria.?Crawl: a term used to describe a search engine spider or bot that scans and categorizes information uploaded to your web site.?Exit Page: The page on a web site where the visitor disengages from the site?Keywords/Keyphrases: Words of phrases typed into search engines to find your site?Landing Page: The page a visitor lands when they visit your site?PPC: (Pay Per Click) Paying for keyword click thrus on Google or other search engines.?Referring URL: A web site that contains a link to your web site, the user ‘clicks thru’ and visits your site?ROI: Return on Investment.?Spider: Same as Bot. See above.?URL: (Uniform Resource Locator) The actual web site address: http://www.sidhecommunications.com?Webalizer: A web site analytics software program?

Author's Biography:

Elizabeth Kirwin has published work in national magazines and newspapers. She is co-owner of http://www.sidhecommunications.comin in Asheville NC. She develops keyword rich copy for web sites, search engine marketing plans, and helps companies and organizations deploy website promotion strategies. For more information, e-mail ekirwin@bellsouth.net.

Posted on: February 8,2007

Email: ekirwin@bellsouth.net
Website: http://www.sidhecommunications.com