Web Analytics Methods

Problems with Cookies

Historically, vendors of page-tagging analytics solutions have used a third-party cookie that is cookies sent from the vendor's domain instead of the domain of the website being browsed. Third-party cookies can handle visitors who cross multiple unrelated domains within the company's site, since the cookie is always handled by the vendor's servers.

However, third-party cookies in principle allow tracking an individual user across the sites of different companies, allowing the analytics vendor to collate the user's activity on sites where he provided personal information with his activity on other sites where he thought he was anonymous. Although web analytics companies deny doing this, other companies such as companies supplying banner ads have done so. Privacy concerns about cookies have therefore led a noticeable minority of users to block or delete third-party cookies. In 2005, some reports showed that about 28% of Internet users blocked third-party cookies and 22% deleted them at least once a month [3].


Most vendors of page tagging solutions have now moved to provide at least the option of using first-party cookies (cookies assigned from the client subdomain).

Another problem is cookie deletion. When web analytics depend on cookies to identify unique visitors, the statistics are dependent on a persistent cookie to hold a unique visitor ID. When users delete cookies, they usually delete both first- and third-party cookies. If this is done between interactions with the site, the user will appear as a first-time visitor at their next interaction point. Without a persistent and unique visitor id, conversions, click-stream analysis, and other metrics dependent on the activities of a unique visitor over time, cannot be accurate.


Cookies are used because IP addresses are not always unique to users and may be shared by large groups or proxies. Other methods of uniquely identifying a user are technically challenging and would limit the trackable audience or would be considered suspicious. Cookies are the selected option because they reach the lowest common denominator without using technologies regarded as spyware.

Unique Landing Pages vs. Referrals for CampaignTracking 

Tracking the amount of activity generated through advertising relationships with external web sites through the referrals reports available in most web analytics packages is significantly less accurate than using unique landing pages.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

• Why are referring URLs unreliable? 

CONCLUSION

Being able to study online behaviour of customers will continually bring about improvements in all forms of Internet marketing and online shopping. A good understanding through web analytics make the business owner to know what attracts clients to their site as well as what puts them off. With this idea, businesses can now design better sites to meet the need of their customers.

SUMMARY

1. Web analytics is the study of online behaviour in order to improve it. There are two categories; off-site and on-site web analytics.
2. There are no globally agreed definitions within web analytics as the industry bodies have been trying to agree definitions that are useful and definitive for some time.
3. Many different vendors provide on-site web analytics software and services. There are two main technological approaches to collecting the data.
4. Both logfile analysis programs and page tagging solutions are readily available to companies that wish to perform web analytics
5. The hotel problem is generally the first problem encountered by a user of web analytics.
6. Historically, vendors of page-tagging analytics solutions have used a third-party cookie that is cookies sent from the vendor's domain instead of the domain of the website being browsed.
7. Tracking the amount of activity generated through advertising relationships with external web sites through the referrals reports available in most web analytics packages is significantly less accurate than using unique landing pages.