The New Face of Web Analytics - The Advantages
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Path Analysis
With log file solutions, path analysis was at best not very good. It was in no way a proven science, but actually observed and applied trending techniques. This is because an analysis solution would have to process an enormous text log, try to identify a series of hits from the same IP address, and try to map them together.
If the user hit the back button, the path was thrown off. If the session timed out, the user was granted a different IP from their ISP (common with DSL), then the path all but disappeared. It’s also important to note that even if a true path could be obtained, it was by the filenames of the pages viewed, which are incredibly unreadable and useless in a large, managed website!
With on-demand analytics, the path analysis is incredibly accurate. You can very easily see a snapshot of the top 10 most common paths by visitors, and plan your Web strategy and e-marketing based on that. For example, assume a common path is the following:
Home > Product > DVD Players > Orange DVD Player,
Now you have the insight that the Orange DVD Player should perhaps have some place on the home page, because it’s quite clearly the most popular and such a move will very easily increase conversion on you site. Also, if you have pages that you desire to get some attention, yet they’re buried in a 10-deep click-path, you’ll be able to see that and find some way to shorten the path -- and get more visitors to that page!
Next: Drop-Off Pages >>
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