Tudor House

Implementation

Implementation of analytics can be achieved through two main methods, each with their own advantages and disadvantages – via a page ‘tag’ solution (such as Google Analytics, HBX analytics), or through server log file analysis (such as ClickTracks or Affinium NetInsight).

Page tagging provides a relatively quick implementation, dropping a provider’s specified tag onto pages within the website. At its most basic level, this tag will then record and report back customer data to an online system, which you can access. Google Analytics provides a very good solution for this – more so because it’s free – the only cost to you being implementation. More advanced tags can be added where online purchases take place, and the system can be setup to provide you with conversion rates, bestsellers, and revenue generation across pages – all in all quite a thorough tracking solution.

It does however have its limits in terms of reanalysing data and ‘profiling’ visitors – if a tag isn’t implemented and specific information is required then you can’t go back into the data and reanalyse to dig deeper into the information. Generally this tracking would only be recorded going forward, so it’s important to perform a thorough audit of all the tracking and tagging required initially before implementing page tags to ensure no information is missed.

Server logfile analysis can provide more flexibility and depth of reporting, but can take more expertise and time. Database driven log file tools physically analyse the logs generated by the web server each day, compiling the information into a database which can then be manipulated. These logs are stored physically, so data can be queried and filtered, segregated and compared multiple times – once it is in this database format it can be manipulated as required and across multiple tools – something which is difficult for tag solutions to do. This is particularly useful when doing a detailed site analysis as filters can be constantly changed and re-generated as the analysis evolves and more issues are discovered.

Performance Must be Measured

Any company that trades online should have some tracking implementation at a minimum – in the same way shops and superstores change their layout to increase sales and promote product lines. With good analytics a site can be constantly optimised to drive conversions – without analytics, you will lose market share to the competition.

With so many good solutions now on the market such as Google Analytics, there’s really no excuse. Simple on site optimisations through results analysis can boost online sales and provide some informative insight into how your site is being used. Even if making a few simple changes increases conversions by 0.1% – on 100,000 visitors a month that’s an extra 100 orders @£65 AOV = £6,500) – a fraction of setup AND analysis costs.

In our experience, online activity is generally not being tracked as well as it could be across the majority of online ecommerce sites – and those that do have tracking, have it implemented incorrectly or at a very basic level. Usually in these cases, a small amount of work can provide so much more information and insight into how a website is being used – improving performance and sales as a whole.

Since writing this article, Google Analytics has seen some great improvements.  The addition of segementation for one, has been highly valuable and has brought it up to speed with many other analytics packages, allowing detailed analysis of specific visitor types to be analysed.  It’s such a useful tool I can’t recommend it enough – if you don’t have it on your site, implement it now!  For more info on the page tag vs log files debate, see my previous article.  Also, since doing this, HBX to my knowledge has ceased to exist, and has since been bought up by Omniture.  Expect to see some big developments there; it wasn’t a groundbreaking tool but was very straightforward and simple to use.

The morale of the story? If you’re in the business of having a website and using it for any customer/visitor activity – get some tracking on it! Would you open a shop and not be aware of how busy the shop is? How many sales you made? How popular it was? Doubtful!

Previous Blog Post – What to measure Online & How – Part 1