E-consultancy web measurement and analytics showcase

Web Measurement and Analytics Suppliers' Showcase - Portland Place, London W1 - 8th December 2005

This fascinating showcase for suppliers of web analytics and measurement was held in Portland Place, London on 8th December 2005. It was hosted by e-consultancy and each supplier was given the podium to extol the virtues of their individual products in thirty minutes including answering questions from the audience. The showcase was well attended demonstrating that online marketing is maturing and webmasters are becoming more aware of the need for effective and reliable web site monitoring or, as someone present suggested, we are now seeing 'the second wave of a maturing market'. The suppliers present were:

Site Intelligence

Foviance Scientific

Computers Nedstat

Speed-Trap

E Visit Analyst

Web Analytics is Alive and Well in the UK!

Some of the suppliers' names may not be so familiar to you but it was certainly good to discover that web analytics is alive and well in the UK with some of the suppliers not just being UK based but UK companies actively developing their own analytics products over here. As you might expect, each supplier had their own unique selling points, particularly surrounding their choice of terminology. One supplier suggested that what they were offering wasn't web analytics at all and stated that you might contact them 'if you've moved beyond web analytics'. Another supplier suggested they provided 'web analytics' as opposed to 'web reporting' whereas another preferred 'e-business intelligence' to 'web analytics'. This variance in the terminology used I noted with mild amusement. I think all agreed that, whatever you choose to call it, the statistics are only valuable if the webmaster is prepared to take action upon the information provided. I am sure that many search engine optimisation experts dealing with clients and/or web developers will have experienced the frustration of the 'getting the horse to drink' syndrome! To extend the metaphor, there is no doubt that there is a multiplicity of analytics software available that will fit the bill; you just need to decide upon your own preferred tipple.

The Importance of 'why' over 'what'

Again, there was concurrence on the important factor that when dealing with web statistics it is imperative to understand 'why' as opposed to 'what'. In other words, it is one thing to observe what your visitors are doing when they land on your web site and quite another thing to really understand why they are doing what they are doing. In this way, not only can you measure what is happening now but then get to grips with what improvements are needed in order to enhance the usability of your web site for your visitors. On our own web analytics training events, we always emphasise the importance of setting clear objectives. This can be as simplistic as asking oneself the question: 'what is the purpose of my web site?' If you actually don't know the purpose (and believe me there are still people out there who have a web site simply because they thought they ought to have one!) then you will never be able to establish your goals. If you don't know what your goals are, then you won't know how or what to measure. Simple really as is web analytics in the main though it can be made to seem to be much more complex!

What Will be the Impact of Google Analytics over Competitive Products?

The CEO of E-Consultancy, Ashley Friedlein, asked the question many of us were probably dying to ask along the lines of: 'What effect will the launch of Google Analytics have on the supply of your products?' The answer 'that it will help grow the market' may have been expected but I feel that there was more than a grain of truth in it in that Google has given everyone involved in the web measurement industry a huge boost by introducing it into the public domain. Whether a free web analytics tool will provide sufficient answers to all but the uninitiated is unlikely but it will at least introduce Joe Public to the importance of web reporting and, before we know it, Joe Public won't be satisfied with anything less than e-business intelligence! Finally, if you're only now getting to grips with web site metrics or analytics either for your own purpose of those of your clients then you would have been very encouraged to have heard it stated at the showcase that 'there is a desperate shortage of skills at all levels' in this most important subject. If you are up to speed with web analytics, then you probably know this already!