VisiStat introduces new updates which includes an ExpressStat API which will help developers and web masters to automate the process of implementation and managing the VisiStat code.

The idea is to take the complexity out of the equation so that customers don't have to worry about implementation issues.

Read more at PRWeb

I personally have never used VisiStat before but there is a 7 day full featured trial version. I walked through the demo and the reports appear to be very simple and straight forward. VisiStat makes really good use of combining stats with a modern look and feel (which includes cool charts and graphics).

"Utah-based Omniture announced this evening that it is pricing its initial public offering at $6.50 per share, making its IPO worth approximately $50.1M. The offering price is below the initial $7.50 to $9 range the company had forecasted in its earlier IPO filings. The firm said that it is offering 10,700,000 shares of its common stock on the Nasdaq as OMTR"

See the fully story here: http://www.techrockies.com/story/0004413.html

"LONDON, June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WebSideStory, Inc. a leading provider of on-demand digital marketing solutions and real-time enterprise analytics solutions, today announced that it has been recognized by a leading independent U.K. research firm as having one of the most comprehensive solutions for meeting the needs of online marketers."

Fully Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060627/latu030.html?.v=59

"PORTLAND -- "Oscars of the Business World" recognize analytics leader for accuracy and usability enhancements introduced in WebTrends 7.5 On Demand WebTrends Inc., the market leader for web analytics and Marketing Performance Management solutions, announced today that it has been selected as a finalist in the "Best New Product or Service" category for the 2006 American Business Awards. WebTrends earned finalist honors for WebTrends(R) 7.5 On Demand, which introduced industry best practices for accurate metrics in the face of increasing third-party cookie rejection as well as new data discovery features, enabling marketers to easily personalize, understand, share and take action on web information."

Source: http://portland.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=77686&type_news=past

Yes this is still the same Web Analytics blog so please don't leave.

I have been testing out a new blog look and header image and have finally decided to stick with an idea. I tried a header with my face on it but it looked kind of weird so I got rid of it.

Thanks to Tracy Kalancha, for helping me out on this!

Google recently had some issues with its site command that may have affected the stats of many SEMs' clients (in terms of monitoring pages indexed).

This blurb is from Adam Lasnik at John Battelle's Searchblog

"I work with Matt Cutts and other engineers in the Search Quality Team at Google. And yes, we noticed that lots of subdomains got indexed last week -- and sometimes listed in search results -- that shouldn't have been. Compounding the issue, our result count estimates in these contexts was MANY orders of magnitude off. For example, the one site that supposedly had 5.5 billion pages in the index actually had under 1/100,000th of that.

So how did this happen? We pushed some corrupted data with our index. Once we diagnosed the problem, we started rolling the data back and pushed something better... and we've been putting in place checks so that this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

Besides offering some of the best free analytics available on the Internet, Google is striving to constantly improve by offering updates to its services. The latest list of updates that Google Analytics has made include:

- Support for Safari browsers
- Better Site Overlay (to work with dynamic content)
- Page Query Report updated with Dynamic Content Report
- Updated Filter settings
- Allowing for editing of time zones and account name changes

They are still only sending out new signups via invitation but if you ever do get an invite don't let go of it. Just because it's free doesn't mean it doesn't allow for in-depth segmentation which can help site owners find the keys to increasing ROI.

"Google Analytics has launched the Google Analytics Blog to provide product update news, bug fixes, and probably some how to posts."

Source: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060616-084003

Gord Hotckiss' latest Net Profit Article:

"What is the number one thing that keeps the sales teams at Yahoo, Google and MSN up at night? It’s not click fraud, it’s not capping of bid prices, and it’s not counting their stock options. This is another “C” word. I call it the C Level Ceiling...."

Box UK has recently launched their own web analytics product called ClickDensity.

The software records various visitor behaviour statistics (position, click) when they are visiting a website. The data can then be displayed in the form of heat-maps to allow site owners to see the ‘density of clicks’ on a page section.

"The system offers visitor behaviour analysis, letting Website owners see where visitors are clicking, both measuring the relative popularity of link and detecting usability issues, such as showing where visitors are clicking that they shouldn’t be."

The webside provides an excellent real time demo, so check it out.

Source: http://www.netimperative.com/2006/06/13/Box_UK/view

Omniture's SiteCatalyst will be improving its ability to track interactive media such as Flash and AJAX. This will go beyond the basic tracking that Omniture and other Web Analytics Leaders have possessed for years, by offering a MUCH easier way for developers to implement the tracking solution.

ActionSource will automatically track data because it is an integrated module that fits right into the development environment.

ActionSource will also get extended onto Omniture's ClickMap, which now will show user activity (clicks) on various types of interactive media.

A big issue that will get resolved is the problem of developers having to write custom scripts everytime they need to track Flash or AJAX.

Source: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3613526

Mature e-business involves using analytics and other customer and competitive intelligence to make educated decisions, and also involves using those same data sources to quantify later successes. Web Analytics and tracking user behavior are more popular than ever before, partly because of the availability of robust tools, and partly because of the need in the wake of a growing competitive landscape. It isn’t enough just to be online anymore, like it was in the early nineties, now, with e-retail anticipated to grow by over 30% this year, you have to be effective and efficient to capture a larger share of your target market. Whether you are an advanced user who is looking to dissect conversions and PPC campaigns, or you are a basic user who simply enjoys seeing how many referrals from Hotbot you have received each day, your future success is inextricably tied to using your web analytics to the furthest reaches of its capabilities.

There are thousands of websites that have been around for years and years, and many of them are built on top of proprietary content management systems. These systems can often be very difficult to work with from an analytics implementation perspective because in order to paste 10-15 lines of analytics code, it requires a person to search within multiple levels of imbedded templates to reach the correct file and location in the source code. Finally, when you arrive at the right file and code section, webmasters/SEO consultants conclude that they cannot implement friendly page names on all 1,000 pages because it would require them to update each page individually (and they are paid by the hour). Problems such as these can transform what was originally expected to be a 3-week, fully functional implementation into a 6 month phased project that is only ever partially complete.

If your IT team decides that an analytics implementation project is too daunting of a task to code on individual pages, I would suggest that you start with a cost/benefit analysis. Get the IT dept to estimate their time (and cost of that time) to complete all the coding properly, then estimate your potential revenue gains if your conversion rate goes up 1, 2, 3% or more and project this into the future. According to the time value of money, the NPV of a 2% higher conversion rate (and revenues associated with that) will more than likely be worth a lot more than the cost of the implementation in the first place. The lifetime value of the implementation means that you’re losing money every month by not doing it.

In my past analytics implementation experiences, I have found that the most difficult sites to deal with are the ones for which the stakeholders have not been proactive in thinking about web analytics. Implementations are difficult because every site section either requires a custom programming solution or requires extra consideration so that the net effect on the website can be calculated.

The most trouble-free setups have come when the website is developed with web analytics in mind and they both are cohesively implemented. This way, a more diverse tracking strategy can be applied because you know that you can develop your site based on the best interest of the web analytics. A simple example of this is developing a separate page for confirmation for a support request rather than having the same page execute the confirmation. Having a separate confirmation page allows for more accurate conversions tracking than having your scenarios linked to the click of a submit button.

Whichever road you choose, I believe it's beneficial to seek the aid of a good analytics consultant. This person will be able to help your IT team with best practices in the implementation process as well as help your marketing team and other key stakeholders address key performance indicators that the web analytics solution should be tracking specifically for you. A consultant can also help in creating custom dashboards with metrics that are important to all levels within your organization, so the entire executive suite can see your successes and trending in a single snapshot.


Special thanks to Petra Leinemann and Rick Tobin on this article

WebsideStory's latest study shows that the top 4 Percent search queries account for up to 50 percent of all searches done on a website.

With a strong analytics package it is quite easy to analyze how users perceive your website through search. Using this top 4 percent figure, site owners can really take advantage of where to spend their marketing efforts. It also helps pinpoint the keywords that are having little affect so that site owners can potentially help boost their popularity.

I think people are in fact looking for websites to have a search engine type feel to them. A recent internal study my firm did on a client showed exactly that. Visitors want search suggestions and will abandon a website when they see no results. They also prefer the search results to have their key terms bolded so that the click decision is easier to make.

Advertisers! Interested in some credit towards one of the best Analytics Packages

ClickTracks, an industry leading Web Analytics organization has announced that they are ready to give $1000 credit towards their web analytics software to advertisers who help Google AdWords identify click fraud events.

ClickTracks believes they have the best fraud identification tool and want advertisers who have noticed click fraud to use ClickTracks and claim part of the $90 million Google settlement fund.

Source: http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=100114

Microsoft is expected to select WebTrends as their analytics software of choice for their own website as well as their other property sites.

Microsoft will be using WebTrends On Demand and will be added to the list of WebTrends clients which includes companies such as: IKEA, General Mills and TicketMaster.

The news is set to be announced later on today by WebTrends.

I think I remember seeing the Microsoft Logo on Omniture's client page, apparently Microsoft has been looking for an analytics solution since last May.

Source: WebTrends Press Release

WebSideStory is quickly following in the footsteps of Omniture by launching it's Active Marketing Suite (which includes Analytics + Bid Management Software) in Europe. However, WebSideStory specifically only launched in the United Kingdom.

WebSideStory hopes to enhance their offerings by combining the power of their analytics software, HBX and their PPC management tools (Active Marketing Suite).

I imagine we'll see more Web Analytics companies offering their services outside of North America in order to attract a large chunk of the online market.

Source: http://www.computing.co.uk/itweek/news/2157484/websidestory-hosts-online-sales