Image by eric.delcroix via Flickr

Web analytics are used to collect, measure and analyize web data for use in optimizing web usage. Web analytics can be used as a business tool for measuring website traffic and to conduct business and market research. Web analytic software could also assist in the measurement of print advertising as well. This can be done by analyzing the change in site traffic once the print advertising is started.

Web analystics track the number of visitors to your website and how many times each page was viewed. This helps to provide valuable information on which web pages are the most popular and what type of content your viewers like. Providing this information is two types of analytics, off-site and on-site.

Off-site analytics is the measurements of a websites opportunity, visibility, and comments. The opportunity is who the websites potential audience is,  the visibility is the share of voice on the internet and the comments refers to the buzz on the internet and any given point in time.

On-site web analytics refers to your visitors time once they are on your site. This will track which web page your customer began, or landed, on as well as any other pages that they access while visiting your site. Web analytics is an essential part of any online or print advertising. If you don’t know where your customers are coming from or where they are going to, how will you know what they want from your business?