Web Analytics Software

As a business, it’s necessary to measure the performance of your website. How many daily visitors do you get? How many of those visitors convert into customers? How much revenue is your website generating?

You can’t have answers to these and related questions unless you track your website’s metrics, such as the number of page views, average time on page, and overall session duration. Web analytics software lets you track these metrics and provides real-time insights to optimize your website content according to the needs of visitors.

There are different types of website analytics tools available on the market, but one size doesn’t fit all. To help you, we’ve created a buyers guide that has all the information you’ll need to make the right software choice for your business.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is web analytics software?
• Common features of web analytics software
• What type of buyer are you?
• Benefits of web analytics software
• Key considerations when selecting web analytics software
• Market trends to understand

What is web analytics software?

Web analytics software is a software tool that helps measure, collect, analyze, and report website traffic and usage data. It lets you track visitor activity, including their location, how they found your site, the time they spend on your site, and the actions they take on your website. It also tracks metrics such as the web traffic source, pages per session, bounce rate, conversion rate, and number of social media shares.

Web analytics tools can help you understand potential traffic opportunities through keyword tracking. They can collect data from search engines, third-party websites, and other sources to predict what type of content is likely to generate more click-through rates, social shares, and on-page clicks.

Common features of web analytics software

Here are some common features to look out for when choosing web analytics software.

What type of buyer are you?

While web analytics tools help all kinds of businesses, some firms tend to use them more than others to ensure sales and competitive advantage. Most buyers belong to one of the following categories:

• Online or digital businesses: Internet-based companies and ecommerce firms need web analytics tools to not only measure website traffic but also track shopping cart abandonments, visits to “pay-per-click” pages, and failed online payments, all of which directly affect revenue. They also need to track visitors for lead generation and sales growth. These buyers should invest in a web analytics tool that helps track and report multiple metrics and can integrate with their existing tools such as customer relationship management (CRM) or marketing software. Attribution management, tag management, and reporting are the key features these buyers should look for in the software they purchase.
• Nondigital businesses: For businesses that maintain a website purely for informational purposes, tracking metrics such as cart abandonment or failed payments isn’t an absolute necessity. These buyers need a web analytics solution to track customer engagement (e.g., time spent on a page, number of social media shares) and lead collection. They should opt for a basic version of web analytics software or choose a software tool such as landing page or CRM software with embedded web analytics features. Clickstream analytics to track metrics such as page views, time on site, and repeat sessions is a key feature they should consider.

Benefits of web analytics software

Let’s discuss some of the key benefits of using a website analytics tool.

• Understand your audience better: Web analytics software helps you understand your customers better—what type of content they find engaging, what topics they search for, which channels they use frequently, etc. This can help you build more accurate buyer personas and create content that helps increase your web conversion rate.
• Define and track key performance indicators of your website: Without the right web analytics tool, you’ll not be able to understand if your website is bringing in more revenue. Website analytics software helps track key website performance indicators such as page sessions and the bounce rate over a period of time as well as benchmark these against competitor data. This lets you measure profitability by comparing your ROI against the investment required for creating and maintaining your website.
• Refine your content marketing goals and strategy: Website analytics tools provide insights that can help create specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (SMART) content marketing goals and refine your strategy to better achieve those goals. For example, if you want to double the number of leads generated from your web content, web analytics software can help identify where within your webpage you should embed a lead form to have a better chance of capturing customer data.

Key considerations when selecting web analytics software

With plenty of software solutions available on the market, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming. Let’s talk about the key factors you should consider when selecting a website analytic tool.

• Cloud vs. on-premise software: The choice between a cloud-based web analytics platform or an on-premise solution is a key decision you should make early on in the purchase process. On-premise tools allow you to customize the product and offer more control over the website data you collect, but they can be difficult to maintain and update if you don’t have an IT team. Cloud-based solutions, on the other hand, are easier to set up and scale but often don’t allow you a choice regarding data control, storage, or processing (e.g., where your data warehouse or center will be located).
• Stand-alone vs. embedded web analytics tools: You can choose between a dedicated web analytics tool or a software solution such as CRM, content management, or business intelligence (BI) that offers built-in web analytics capabilities. Stand-alone tools offer a broader range of features and are a good option for businesses that extensively use web analytics metrics to drive their digital marketing strategies. Embedded web analytics tools are a good option for small businesses that are looking for software to explore various functions including how website traffic metrics can help their marketing processes. Also, embedded tools track basic web metrics such as the number of page sessions, whereas stand-alone platforms support advanced functions such as tracking traffic sources, repeat sessions, and clicks on the website.
• Free vs. paid web analytics solutions: Free tools or free plans are a great way to get started, but they have limitations in their features and capabilities. Free software plans can limit web tracking to a certain number of pages and metrics. Paid plans, on the other hand, offer better integrations, customer support, and reporting and data visualization capabilities. If you’re opting for a paid tool or paid plan, ensure it is within your budget and offers good ROI. Research and compare the features of multiple paid tools to select one that balances your needs and budget.

Market trends to understand

Understanding website analytics software market trends can help you make a better purchase decision. Here are some recent trends you should be aware of.

• Emphasis on digital marketing efforts is driving demand for web analytics tools. With customers increasingly using online channels to interact with businesses, the emphasis on digital marketing and marketing automation has increased. Web analytics platforms can help measure digital marketing efforts and track how they assist with conversion. Ecommerce firms are using web analytics tools to track cart abandonment and get actionable insights into site visitors and traffic sources to improve sales.
• Demand for mobile analytics is expected to increase. Mobile analytics involves collecting user behavior data for mobile apps. With an increase in the number of customers using mobile devices to visit websites and make online purchases, demand for mobile analytics software and features is also increasing. Understanding the buying patterns of prospects and customers on mobile platforms is helping businesses improve their sales and conversion.
• Data privacy regulations are impacting the web analytics software market. Collecting user details from the web has raised a storm of questions around data privacy violations. Countries have enacted strict regulations such as GDPR to give customers more control over how their data is used, processed, and stored. With countries strengthening their online data privacy rules, companies are investing in web analytics tools that are compliant with international and local regulations. Accordingly, software vendors are ensuring their offerings are achieving compliance with privacy laws.

Note: The application selected in this article is an example to show a feature in context and is not intended as an endorsement or recommendation. It has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.