Web site Analysis

Web Analytics is a study of Web site visitor behavior. In the context of business applications, website analysis refers specifically to the use of information collected from a site to determine whether the site layout meets commercial objectives, for example, which landing page (landing page) is more likely to stimulate customer purchase. These collected information almost always includes the website Traffic report, may also include the e-mail response rate, direct mail activity information, sales and customer information, user performance information such as click on the hotspot map, or other custom needs information. This information is often compared with key performance indicators for performance information and can be used to improve the audience's response to the site or marketing campaign. Concept

Web Analytics

( Web Analytics) is a study of website visitor behavior. In the context of business application, website analysis refers specifically to the use of information collected from a website to determine whether the site layout is in line with business objectives, for example, which landing page is more likely to stimulate customer purchase.
These collected information almost always includes the website Traffic report, may also include the e-mail response rate, direct mail activity information, sales and customer information, user performance information such as click on the hotspot map, or other custom needs information. This information is often compared with key performance indicators for performance information and can be used to improve the response of the audience in the website or marketing activities.

Technical Introduction

At present, there are two main methods of collecting website analysis data. The first approach, the so-called ' Log File Analysis--The log file that reads the server records all of its transactions is processed. The second method, Add page Labels--use Insert JavaScript on each page to inform the third party that a page of the server is read by the Web browser.
Web server log file analysis
Every Web server in the market will record all of its transactions in a log file at any time since the beginning of development. This feature was soon realized by the network management can read it through the software to provide Web page popularity of relevant information, resulting in the rise of web site log analysis software.
In the early 90, Web site statistics were simply client requests for Web servers (or Access) is the value of the record. At first this is a reasonable approach, because each site usually has a single HTML file. However, this count becomes less helpful as the graphics go into the HTML standard and the site expands to multiple HTML files. [1] The first real commercial log analyzer was released by IPRO in 1994.
In the middle of the 90, two units of measurement were introduced to more accurately estimate the total number of human activities on the Web server. They are page views(Page views) and Number of visits(Visits, or section area (session)). Once the page viewsDefines a single page read request for a client to the server, just as opposed to a graphic request; Number of visitsis defined as a sequence of requests from a uniquely identified client to the server until it is idle for a period of time-typically 30 minutes. Web page views and visits are still common in the report, but they are now considered too simple to measure.
In the late 90, with the advent of web spiders and robots, it became more difficult to identify a single visitor to a website, with large enterprises and Internet service providers using proxy servers and dynamically assigning IP addresses. For this, the Log parser takes the specified cookie as a countermeasure for tracking traffic and ignores the read request of the known spider Bot.
The widespread use of Web page cache also causes problems in log analysis. If someone visits a page again, the second read request is usually made by the Web browser cache, so the Web server side will not accept the request. This means that the visitor has browsed the "footsteps" of the station is lost. The cache can be overcome when setting up a Web server, but this may result in a reduction in the site's effectiveness.
Add page Labels
Because of the attention to the accuracy of the log file analysis in the cache, and the desire to realize the site analysis as a kind of outsourcing services, resulting in the second method of data collection: Add page tags, or said Net Worm(Web bug) appears.
In the middle of the 90, web counters have become commonplace-these counters appear as images contained in Web pages, showing how many times the image has been read. The image content is the number of times the page was visited. In the late 90, this practice extended to include a tiny invisible image rather than a visible one. And, through JavaScript, some information about web pages and visitors requested by images is passed on to third party servers. This information is then processed by the Web analytics company and generates detailed statistical information.
The website Analytics Service also escrow the process of specifying cookies to users. This way you can identify the first and subsequent visits of each unique visitor.
With the popularity of Ajax-based solutions, an alternative approach to using invisible images implements a mechanism for "callback" servers from the Read page. In this case, when a webpage is read by a Web browser, some AJAX code on the page will call back to the server and deliver information about the client, which is then sent to the Web analytics company to do the rounding. This is still a loophole in some ways, because some browsers restrict which XMLHttpRequest objects can be contacted by the server.
Website Log analysis and the comparison of Web page tags website log analysis and add page tags both are ripe for the company to conduct website analysis. In many cases, the same web analytics company even provides both approaches. The question then came back to the company which method to choose. The two methods have the advantages of:
Site Log Analysis Benefits
Website log analysis is better than the addition of Web page labels mainly have the following points:
Web server generally has generated a log file, so the original data already exists. We have to make some changes to collect the information website by adding the Web-tagging method. Web servers rely on the processing of each Web page requirement and response to occur. Add Web tags to rely on the visitor web browser help. In some cases, browsers may not be able to do this (the browser disables JavaScript as an example). The collected data is located in the company's own server, and it is a standard format, not a private format. This makes it easier for the company to change its analytical programs or integrate with other programs to analyze past historical data. Additional Web labeling schemes may be blocked by service providers. The log file also includes access information from the search engine spider. While it is not possible to be classified as part of a customer's behavior, this information is important to search engine optimization. The log file also includes information about the failure of the request, and the page tag only records the event when the page was successfully read. Advantages of adding web labels
Plus Web page labels compared to the site log analysis of the main points are the following:
JavaScript executes automatically whenever a page is loaded. So there are fewer concerns about cache. Adding additional information to Javsscript is easier. These can later be collected by the remote server. For example, the size of a visitor's screen, or the unit price of a purchased item. and the website log analysis, the website server cannot normally collect the information can only through changes the website to collect. Add a page label to return events that do not occur to the site server, such as interactions with Flash movie clips. The Add Web tagging service manages the process of assigning cookies to visitors, and for log analysis, the server has to be specifically set up to achieve this. Add Web tags can help some small and medium companies without their own website server.

Method

Questions about Cookies
Historically, web label analytics solutions providers have used third-party cookies, which are domains that are sent by the vendor domain rather than the Web site itself. Third-party cookies can handle visitors who cross a multiple unrelated domain within the company, because cookies are always handled by the vendor server.
However, third-party cookies, in principle, allow the tracking of individual users through different corporate websites, which allows analysis providers to extract personal information from websites where certain customers legally authorize retention of information to help the user think that he is an anonymous browsing site for activity analysis. Although the site analysis company denies doing this, other companies like to do web advertising banner company has done so. Concerns about cookie privacy result in significant minority users shutting down or deleting cookies from third parties. In 2005, many reports indicated that about 28% of Internet users closed third-party cookies, and 22% deleted cookies at least once a month [4].
Most of the Add-on label solution providers are now moving to the option to provide at least the first-party cookie (the cookie is specified by the visited site's subnet domain). Another issue is cookie deletion. When Web analytics relies on cookies to identify unique visitors, statistics rely on persistent cookies as vectors to accommodate unique user identifiers. When users delete cookies, they usually delete first-party and third-party cookies at the same time. If this happens during the interaction with the site, users will be treated as first-time visitors at their next interaction point. There is no persistent presence with unique visitor identifiers, conversion rates, clickstream analysis, and other variable systems that rely on unique guest activity over time, which cannot be correct.
Cookies are commonly used because IP addresses are not necessarily unique to the user and may be shared with a large group of machines or proxy servers. Other methods of identifying the unique user are technically challenging, and the trackable audience is limited, or can be considered unreliable. Cookies are chosen because, excluding the use of certain technologies such as spyware, it has the lowest threshold common source.
In the event tracking, the only landing page and referral page compared to most of the Web analytics package through the external site referrals through the advertising relationship generated activity number of tracking reports significantly more than the use of landing page is inaccurate.
Referral pages are unreliable sources of information for the following reasons:
They may or may not be provided by the Web browser. They may or may not be recorded by the Web server. They may be deliberately disrupted by web browsers to achieve the goal of users wishing to browse anonymously. They may be distorted or hidden by redirection, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Misunderstanding

Misunderstanding One: Website analysis is the analysis of the site is a synonym for repeated, in essence it is not a mistake, but it will make people confused, and ultimately completely misunderstood the real meaning of website analysis.
This is the most need to be clarified in the field, you want to study human love, then you should first define the definition of love, as well, she and friendship is different. You like website analysis, then you should also understand what the site analysis is.
Macro-site analysis is actually divided into two categories, a class called Site analysis (on-site web analytics, or based on the site's own analysis), simply speaking, this site analysis is to measure the site of the user's access behavior, for example, which kind of user landing page (landing page) makes it easier for visitors to make a purchase, or what kind of source (such as a search engine or display AD) The visitor's access behavior on the site is different. In-site analytics for user behavior is often combined with a specific business environment and is driven by the commercial impact of the site.
Another type of website analysis (off-site web analytics), which is called a Web site, actually refers to the analysis of competitor websites throughout the internet, as well as the measurement and analysis of the effects of Internet communication and marketing. The former is the competitor's traffic sources, traffic quality, website strategy, user behavior and other aspects of research and comparison. The latter includes the targeting, tracking and analysis of potential audiences for internet marketing to identify opportunities, as well as the tracking of audiences ' perceptions of what is being exposed on the Internet. Of course, the Netizen's reputation (Internet Word of Mouth, abbreviation IWOM) monitoring and analysis as well as competition analysis is also the content that this area wants to include. As you can see, off-site web analytics and on-site web Anlytics are significantly different, the former measuring the entire internet outside of its own website, while the latter is analyzing its own web site.
Even on-site web analytics is not "an analysis of the site" as simple as the process, in fact, as a site analysis is a continuous process, it starts from the birth of the site, the end of the site's disappearance, throughout the entire site life cycle always. The specific content of the website analysis includes: Setting the website target, monitoring the website Access data, tracking the visitor's behavior, analyzing the website visitor's intention, summarizing the various performance reasons of the website, suggesting the optimization of the website, and testing the optimization suggestion. This process is repeated, if you want to use a vulgar but accurate expression to describe the site analysis, then the "spiral Rise" is the most appropriate. Misunderstanding two: Website Analysis =seo website analysis and SEO have a common point, that is, both are used to optimize the performance of the site. But the difference is also significant, that is, their purpose and means are different.
Every time when a friend asked me, I explained very simply:
Website analysis is to optimize the user's experience on the site, ultimately contributing to the transformation of the visitor, the optimization of the foothold is the visitor itself; SEO is to optimize the performance of the site in search engines, ultimately resulting in more high-quality search engine visitors into the site's visitors, optimize the foothold is the search engine; from a few angles we look at the difference:
1. From the point of view of the flow itself: the site analysis does not directly help to obtain more traffic (although the site user experience continues to improve, traffic does continue to increase), and SEO is a high-quality website marketing method, can help to obtain targeted and valuable traffic.
2. From the Optimization: Website analysis for the optimization of the site is biased to guide (or even induce) the visitor, in order to promote the visitors to achieve the site owner's desired behavior; SEO for the site's optimization is biased to guide the search engine, in order to make the search engine more comprehensive, more in-depth, more accurate crawl site content (keywords), and set a higher keyword weight for the content of the site to encourage more search engine users to enter the site.
3. From the results of the implementation of: SEO Help the site to obtain high-quality correlation of strong traffic, site analysis to help the site's traffic into a real user or buyer.
You can think that SEO more is to optimize the site to get better traffic (responsible for the front-end), and site analysis is to optimize the site to achieve more business transformation (responsible for the backend). Overall, better traffic can magnify the business value of the site (SEO role), and the flow of better conversion is more directly for the site to create value (the role of website analysis). Myth Three: Site analysis needs to achieve multiple optimization goals Another common misconception of site analysis is that the site itself has too many optimization goals. The Web site usually achieves only one core business purpose, but the implementation of the core business purpose may involve many aspects of the site. In the case of e-commerce sites, the ultimate goal of such sites is to increase turnover to generate more revenue. But in order to achieve this, the site needs a lot of effort, for example, to consider increasing website traffic, but also to increase the quality of website traffic, and to optimize the site structure and page to enhance the user experience, but also to find ways to promote user conversion and so on. All of this makes sense, but the problem arises when these things are handled at the same time without priority.
The symptoms of the problem are usually hectic and missed real optimization needs. Although it is possible to optimize in all aspects, the actual operability is very small, though it can be seen from the show. The more goals of site optimization, the more KPIs, and the performance of these KPIs are often pushed up the gourd, they do not simultaneously clear or simultaneous rain, resulting in thinking and execution of the disorder, and eventually missed the real need to focus on the goal.
A Web site may have many problems, but the most significant impact on business performance (performance), usually only one or two issues, you need to do is to find the one or two problems, and then focus on one or two corresponding KPIs, and other data and variables as a reference. In China this is possible, otherwise we will be without information from the annoyance of a sudden leap into the pain of information, both will not bring you the most effective optimization action.

The definition of keywords in

In the field of website analysis, there is no universally agreed definition, so the industry is trying to agree on some fairly useful and reliable definitions at some point. Major groups that have contributed to this area are JICWEBS (Network Standards Industry Committee, Industry Committee for WEB Standards)/ABCE (Circulation Audit Organization Electronics, Auditing Bureau of Circulations Electronic, UK and Europe), WAA (Website Analyst Association, USA), to a relatively small range of IAB (interactive advertising agency, Interactive advertising Bureau). This does not prevent the following list from becoming a useful guideline, but the explanation is slightly blurred. Both WAA and ABCE provide more reliable lists for reference.

• Click (hit)-a request for an archive from the Web server at a time. Only in the site log analysis. The number of clicks on the site is often used to claim the popularity of the station, but it is extremely misleading and dramatically overestimating its popularity. A single Web page usually includes multiple (usually a dozen) individual files. Each file with the download of the page is also recorded click, so the amount of clicks is actually an overly arbitrary number, it reflects the complexity of individual pages, rather than the actual popularity. The total number of visitors or page views provides more realistic and correct popularity estimates.

• page views (page View)-a request for a file whose profile is defined as a Web page in log analysis. Also defined as the Add page tag method in which the script is executed once. In log analysis, a Web page click rate may result in multiple clicks as all pages require resources (images,. js, and. css files) to be read.

• Number of visits (Visits)/ Section (session)-a series of requests from the same uniquely identified user with expiration time. A single visit is expected to include multiple clicks (in log analysis) and page views.

• first visit/first section area (FirstVisit/first Session)-a visit from a guest who has never visited came across.

• Visitors/Unique visitors (visitor/unique Visitor)-a client that has identified a requirement (log analysis) for a Web server or viewed a Web page (plus a page tag) in a predetermined time segment (e.g. days, weeks, or months). The only visitor in the time section is computed only once. Visitors can visit multiple times. The only visitor currently is the mandatory variable system in the Circulation Audit Bureau Electronics (ABCE) Audit utilization.

• Repeat visitors (Repeat Visitor)-a visitor has at least one previous visit record. Between the current and the most recent visit is called the Visitor brand new degree (visitor recency), it is calculated in days.

• New Visitors (New Visitor)-a visitor does not have any previous visit records. This definition produces quite a few misunderstandings (see the following common Myths section) and is sometimes superseded by first-time access analysis.

• Impressions (impression)-once impressions are loaded on the user screen for each ad. Any time you see a website ad banner, that's even an impression.

• Monomer (singletons)-The number of visits that only a single page is inspected. Although it is so useful to the variable system or its own part, the monomer number is a variety of different forms of "click cheat" indicator, and it is often used to calculate the bounce rate, and in many cases to identify the automaton ("robot").

• Bounce Rate (Bouncerate)/ % departures (%exit)-refers to the percentage of visitors who leave the same page on a page without visiting any other pages.

Web site Analysis