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One of the first things I suggest to people I talk to who have questions about their web site metrics is to use some of the great free tools such as Quantcast to get a baseline read on site audience. Another similar tool is Alexa, but I trust Quantcast a lot more because it allows more control and will display real life data when you install their free tag on your site and become ‘Quantified’. Within a few days of installing the tag, data will start to appear on the Quantcast site for your domain.

Its a busy time in the web analytics world. Perhaps its innovation driven by the recession that no one is sure that we’re having now, or maybe its just “saavy” that’s finally made the rounds, but widespread interest in web analytics seems to be growing. Certainly it has something to do with “free” tools such as Google Analytics (no link required) or the relatively new and open source Piwik tool. Not to mention the recent news that Yahoo! acquired IndexTools. Whatever it is, now’s a great time to dig into the activity that occurs on your web site with the wide selection of tools available. Please contact me if I can help you get started!

Fellow web analytics practitioner Eran Ben Sabat blogged about onsite search metrics recently. A few years back I got the hang of the onsite search concept, and ever since, its been a minor obsession to always stay on top of it. Onsite search happens when your customer lands on your site and uses your site’s search functionality. The data gathered by watching onsite search is fantastic because it’s one place where your customer drops all disguises and simply asks for what she is looking for. The other aspect to monitor and action upon the findings is how your site reacts to these searches. Does it return good results? Does it guide the customer to finding relevant material, goods, etc. on your site? Or does it turn your customer away? Try some searches on your own site as a newly arrived visitor and think about what you see….. happy searching!

If you have a website, you should get into the habit of reviewing your web server http access and event logs. Its one of the best ways to know what activity is taking place on your site and the equipment that runs your site! Get yourself a good text editor and a cup of coffee, locate and open a log with your editor and have a look. If you need help, please let me know – I can help you decipher what’s going on…