The ever growing importance of web analytics was seen again earlier this week when Google announced the purchase of the Urchin web analytics company. There is a lot of speculation as to how Google is going to use its new acquisition, but one rumour is that it will be offered as a freebie, or at low cost, in some form or another to
add value to their advertising products.

Urchin may or may not be your first choice in web analytics software but Google's interest in it is further proof of the growing need to quantify the return on investment in search engine marketing.

You can read more on this here:

http://www.urchin.com/company/news/03282005.html

A new generation of algorithm is in development from Become.com that takes a much more sophisticated look at how a site interrelates with other sites than those currently used by search engines. One factor that looks as though it will become important for the first time is outgoing links. Incoming links will of course continue to be vital for good rankings.

The new algo AIR (Affinity Index Ranking) is very much geared towards vertical search, specifically the shopping market but claims it will be relevant to all verticals. AIR is still very much in the development stage but a patent is pending and progress on the new algo has been exceptionally fast. Yeogirl Yun, Chairman and founder of Become.com has gone as far to suggest that "AIR is the first ground-breaking advancement in search engine technology since Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)introduced PageRank(TM) in the late 1990s".

An official announcement is expected very shortly (in the next day or so!) that MSN is going to launch its own pay per click program which will be similar to those currently on offer by Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions (formerly known as Overture) and Google.

As you will know, MSN currently displays paid listings via Overture/Yahoo's program but there has clearly been a clash of interest since Yahoo's acquisition of Overture.

It is anticipated that the new program will be tested in France and Singapore over the next six months. Although MSN's agreement with Overture is not due to expire until June 2006 there is no real reason why they will not roll out the new (as yet unnamed) program worldwide long before then.

This news appears to have been widely greeted as positive with advertisers welcoming the extra competition this brings to the paid advertising market.

Danny Sullivan has a lot more to say on this subject which you can read at:

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3490346

Our last snippet advised on the necessity to focus on web analytics in order to be able to monitor your visitors' behaviour on your web site. Search Engine Workshops is shortly to announce a new training program for the Award winning suite of web analytical software,ClickTracks, and we will be letting you have further details of this new exciting opportunity very shortly. We'll keep you posted!

Running a website without Web Analytics is like painting a picture with your eyes shut!

Monitoring the traffic to your site gives the chance to profile your visitors – to understand where they have come from and how they behave once they have arrived. The result? The ability to identify problems as, or even before they develop and to identify which advertising strategies are working and which aren’t paying their way. What other ad medium gives that sort of feedback?

There are lots of different analytics packages available. Which one is right for you and how much you want to spend will depend on the type of site you are running, but whatever your site is designed to do, you won’t know if it’s succeeding without some way measuring it and without knowing that, you have no way to improve a situation!

We will certainly be coming back to this important subject in future snippets as online marketers become more focused on driving targeted traffic to their web sites and less obsessed with rankings!

* There is one place up for grabs on our Search Engine Workshop next week at Rosedale House in Richmond upon Thames on 8th, 9th and 10th March. For your last chance to reserve your place you need to register by tomorrow (Friday, 4th March) latest! *

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm