Website owners most often have a vested interest in how many visitors their sites attract, whether for business purposes or otherwise. The vastness of the Internet and its millions of users can make this measurement process seem overwhelming at first glance. Luckily, computer scientists from various backgrounds have developed the systematic science of Web analytics. Using mathematical algorithms, webmasters with any type of Internet presence are able to track several different types of website statistics on a daily, hourly, or even real-time basis.
Why Use Web Analytics?
The ultimate purpose behind using web analytics is improvement. Webmasters and business owners who make the worthwhile investments of time and other resources in examining their site statistics are the ones who can formulate methods to increase their site traffic. Understanding patterns of visitors’ web usage is the first step to creating optimal marketing that will keep them on a certain website for longer average time periods. Once web statistics are collected, they can be analysed and reported.
Web analytics have become a mainstay for Internet advertising, and they are required for any type of business with a website to remain competitive. This is especially true in cases of e-commerce sites of any size. Understanding the business aspects of drawing in significant amounts of online customers can make a big difference in profits. While business owners may not need to understand every underlying technical component of implementing web statistic software, they do need to keep in mind how much the resulting data can be useful in terms of staying on top of popular Internet trends.
Concerns with Web Privacy
The introduction of cookies to applications of web analytics has also created some concern for visitors’ privacy. Many are concerned that having their activities tracked from visiting a certain website can compromise their overall computer security. Much of this concern is around third party cookies, which can track user activity across many different areas of the Internet and capture any provided personal information. Many web analytics vendors have switched over to using first party cookies instead, since these types of cookies originate from the subdomain of the client machine that connects to the web server. First party cookies are sent back only to the website’s server, without any potentially sensitive formation being exposed to any types of third parties. The use of cookies has been one of the main driving forces behind continued development of security for gathering web statistics, including those in real time.
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