In order to establish and then maintain a successful presence on the Web, designing a creative site is only half the battle. What good is an intricate Web infrastructure if you're unable to measure its effectiveness? That's why every business is desperate for feedback on their site's visitors: Who are they? Why do they visit? What information or service is most valuable to them?
Unfortunately, most common Web analytics software applications are long on functionality and short on documentation. Without clear guidance on how these applications should be integrated into the greater Web strategy, these often expensive investments go underused and underappreciated.
Enter Web Site Measurement Hacks, a guidebook that helps you understand your Web site visitors and how they contribute to your business's success. It helps organizations and individual operators alike make the most of their Web investment by providing tools, techniques, and strategies for measuring--and then improving--their site's usability, performance, and design. Among the many topics covered, you'll learn:
definitions of commonly used terms, such as "key performance indicators" (KPIs)
how to drive potential customers to action
how to gather crucial marketing and customer data
which features are useful and which are superfluous
advanced techniques that senior Web site analysts use on a daily basis
By examining how real-world companies use analytics to their success, Web Site Measurement Hacks demonstrates how you, too, can accurately measure your Web site's overall effectiveness. Just as importantly, it bridges the gulf between the technical teams charged with maintaining your Web's infrastructure and the business teams charged with making management decisions.
It's the technology companion that every site administrator needs.
Chapter 1 Web Measurement Basics
Hacks 1–13: Introduction
Talk the Talk
Best Practices for Web Measurement
Select the Right Vendor
Staff for Web Measurement Success
Get to Know Your Visitors
Understand Common Data Sources
Understand Visitor Intent
Know When to Use Packet Sniffing
Write a Useful Web Measurement Request for Proposal (RFP)
Find a Free or Cheap Web Measurement Solution
Use Analog to Process Logfiles
Build Your Own Web Measurement Application: An Overview and Data Collection
Build Your Own RSS Tracking Application: An Overview and Data Collection
Chapter 2 Implementation and Setup
Hacks 14–36: Introduction
Optimize the Implementation Process
Improve Data Accuracy with Cookies
Know When to Use First-Party Cookies
Alternatives to Cookies
Use Macromedia Flash Local Shared Objects Instead of Cookies
Fine-Tune Your Data Collection
Define Useful Page Names and Content Groups
Understand Where Data Gets Lost
Deconstruct Web Server Logfiles
Exclude Robots and Spiders from Your Analysis
Bust the Cache for Accuracy
Use Query Strings Effectively
Web Measurement and Visitor Privacy
Establish a P3P Privacy Policy
Deconstruct JavaScript Page Tags
Understand Web Bugs
Hack the JavaScript Document Object Model
Use Custom Variables Wisely
Best Practices for Data Integration
Measure Your Intranet or Extranet
Measure Your Mistakes
Build Your Own Web Measurement Application: The Core Code
Build Your Own RSS Tracking Application: The Core Code and Reporting
Chapter 3 Online Marketing Measurement
Hacks 37–53: Introduction
Understand Marketing Terminology
Identify Your Business Objectives
Define Conversion Events
Measure Banner Advertising
Measure Email Marketing
Measure Paid Search Engine Marketing
Measure Organic Search
Contrast Paid Keywords Versus Actual Search Queries
Measure Affiliate Marketing
Use Unique Landing Pages
Measure Content Syndicated via RSS
Segment Visitors to Understand Specific Group Activity
Measure Conversion Through Multiple Goals
Leverage Referring Domains and URLs
Calculate Click-to-Visit Drop-off
Create Visitor Loyalty Segments
Build Your Own Web Measurement Application: Marketing Data
Chapter 4 Measuring Web Site Usability
Hacks 54–67: Introduction
Measure the Value of Pages and Clicks
Measuring Clicks the Old-Fashioned Way
Use Language to Drive Action
Deconstruct Time Spent on Site
Use the Entry, Exit, and Single-Access Page Report
Measure Multi-Step Processes
Measure Usability in the Checkout Process
Measure "Internal Campaigns"
Use Browser Overlays
Run Your Own Split-Path Tests
Measure Internal Searches
Take Advantage of "Zero Results" Internal Search Results
Effectively Measure the "Known" Visitor
Build Your Own Web Measurement Application: Usability Data
Chapter 5 Technographics and "Demographics"
Hacks 68–80: Introduction
Measure Site Performance
Measure Connection Type
Know How to Use Screen Resolution Data
Know How to Use Browser Version Information
Know if People Are Bookmarking Your Site
Measure Browser Plug-ins
Know Which Technographic Data to Ignore
Know How to Use Visitor Language Reports
Hacking into Page-Level Details for Language
Track Demographic Data Using Custom Variables and Visitor Segmentation
Track Your Geographic Visitor Distribution
Accurately Measure Downloads
Build Your Own Web Measurement Application: Technographic Data
Chapter 6 Web Measurement and the Online Retail Model
Hacks 81–90: Introduction
Know How to Use Retail Analytics
Measure the Shopping Cart
Measure the Checkout Process
Understand Frequency and Lifetime Value
Measure Potential Customer Value Using Recency and Latency
Manage Lifetime Value Using the Visitor Segment Value Matrix
Use Cross-Sell Data to Sell More Products
Use Geographic Segmentation to Measure Offline Marketing
Measure New and Returning Customers
Build Your Own Web Measurement Application: Commerce Data
Chapter 7 Reporting Strategies and Key Performance Indicators
Hacks 91–100: Introduction
Distribute Reports Wisely
Know If the News Is Good
(Don't) Benchmark Your Site
Use Key Performance Indicators
Know the Difference Between a KPI and a Measurement
Key Performance Indicators for Online Retailers
Key Performance Indicators for Advertising and Content Sites
Key Performance Indicators for Customer Support Sites
Key Performance Indicators for Business Sites (Lead Generation)
Build Your Own Web Measurement Application: Reporting
Eric Peterson has been working in Web analytics since 1998 in both a technical and a marketing capacity. Currently, he is an analyst at JupiterResearch, a well-respected analyst firm focusing exclusively on the Internet, covering analytics, search, content management systems and related application technology. In his short tenure at JupiterResearch, he has been quoted in a number of well-respected publications, including InternetRetailer, InfoWorld, The Deal, Ecommerce Guide, Datamation, MediaDaily News and Clickz. He regularly give Webinars on a number of site operations subjects including Web analytics, key performance indicators, search, usability and content management.
Disappointed that Example Code is Not Available for this Book
By bhoff
from Undisclosed
Comments about oreilly Web Site Measurement Hacks:
No example code is available on Mr. Peterson's web site or O'reilly's site for this book.
Going to the author's web site, where the book indicates the example code should be located: http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/byo/ , I see this comment: "We're in the process of cleaning up the code referenced throughout the book and hope to have it available via this page very soon. If you need the code right away, please feel free to email the book's author, citing the code and/or hack that you'd like." I have emailed the author, with no response.
O'reilly books are known for good example code, however, I have recently experienced these same issues with other O'reilly books ("Essential PHP Security" by Chris Shiflett for example) . The example code is not available on the O'reilly site and the authors either don't make the code available, as advertised in the books, or intentionally only allow readers to down load individual examples rather than a single zip file.
I am a bit confused as to why a publishing company with such a good reputation would state (page 4 of Web Site Measurement Hacks): "All of the files and code necessary to run the application described throughout the book are available at http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/byo/ and are freely available as open source code", if there is no intention of actually making the code available to the purchaser of the book.
I am very discouraged by this situation. I will think long and hard the next time I am presented with the decision to purchase another O'reilly book with associated example code.
8/31/2005
(0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
5.0
A Excellent Book
By Mojmiles
from Undisclosed
Comments about oreilly Web Site Measurement Hacks:
Excellent book THAT goes beyound basic click through and page views and business metrics. Great examples and hacks.
