Web Analytics – On-site and Off-site

Web analytics basically refers to the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data. This is carried out for the purpose of understanding and optimizing web usage and trends. But this does not mean that web analytics is limited to only telling you the number of people who visited your site and where they came from.

This tool can be used for an extensive and powerful market research and can tell you a lot about your consumers. Likewise, it can gather a great deal of information regarding your web site and your product. On-site and off-site analytics are the two main categories of web analytics.

• On-site Web analytics: In this type, the journey of a visitor through your web site is thoroughly monitored and mapped. This is done right from the page that the visitor first clicked, that is the landing page to all the pages visited after that. You can even find the amount of time the visitor spends on each page. Likewise, the total amount of time spent on the web site can be monitored. If your web site has been created purely for commercial purposes, you can use online web analytics to figure out which pages generate more income for you.

• Off-site Web analytics: As the name indicates, this type is all about measuring how much your brand or company is being discussed across the web. In this kind of web analytics, you need to monitor all the blogs, social media forums etc. This helps knowing and understanding what is being said about your company. You can figure out if there is an opportunity to improve on some front or whether your web site is actually causing a stir in the market. Many online tools are available in the market to carry out social media keyword research. There are other tools also that have been released to meet specific needs of various users.