The five ‘Whs’ of web analytics

The most basic use of web analytics generates information that can be used by experts in the industry to determine how customers perceive a business’ website. Since this process aims to yield information that a business can use to improve its services and change more leads into sales, all the data gathered from analysing a website is related to the customer and his activities, in one way or the other.

To explain the process of analytics and give readers a basic idea about its usage, we will divide it into five main elements. Each of these is an important link in the analytics chain, as those elements combine together to provide information about website’s overall performance and influence.

1) Who

The ‘Who’ in web analytics will tell you about the visitors to your website or page. It informs you regarding who lands on your website; or in other words, what kind of traffic your webpage attracts. This information is highly meaningful because it tells the business owner or analyst the markets in which the website is most used. Some of the most important data generated in this category is the location of the visitors, the ISP they use and the authentication that the visitors are humans.

2) What

This category tells you what the customer did on the website. Knowing the aspects of your online presence that attract the most attention is important for making improvements to the website. Data generated regarding the ‘What’, includes; how long the customer stayed on your website, what images and files he viewed, the links he opened and the browser used to navigate your website.

3) Where

The ‘Where’ element tells you from which source the visitor landed on your page. For instance, did he use Google or Bing? Was he referred by an affiliate marketing campaign or link partners? All these sources are collectively called Site Referrers. Data gathered in this category is strategic, because it helps a business point out sources that are the most effective in generating traffic.

4) Why

Information about ‘Why’ the visitors landed on your page includes the cues that drew them to your website. Was it a keyword or key phrase? Or was it a particular backlink that led them to your page? This data helps businesses understand what customers are looking for on the World Wide Web.

5) When

‘When’ tells you at what time most visitors arrived to your page. This data is broken down into the actual number of new visitors, the pages they viewed, and how long they stayed on each page. Information right down to the exact month, day, hour and time can be recorded. This data is especially important because it guides marketers and business owners while putting up advertisement campaigns.