Web analytics is the art of using traffic and sales statistics to understand user behavior and improve the performance of your site. In the best of all possible worlds, analytics is part of a continuous spiral of feedback and quality improvement.
Before getting mired in the details of Web analytics, think about your most critical statistics your financial! If you have a business site, the most important number to know is whether the site is providing a return on your investment. If you aren’t making a profit, it doesn’t matter whether you have fantastic traffic, a soaring conversion rate, or revenues through the roof. As part of the planning of your site, talk to your bookkeeper or accountant. While this conversation is obviously critical for a site that sells online, it’s equally important for tracking costs on a non sales site. Unless you have a tiny, brochure-ware site, ask your accountant to.
Set up your Web site as a separate job in your accounting software:- This will enable you to track costs (and revenue, if appropriate) attributable to the site. In other words, operate your site financially as if you’re opening up a new, brick-and-mortar location and need to know how it performs. Your Web site is, indeed, a new cost center and with some.
Segregate online advertising expenses from other marketing and advertising costs in a unique cost category:- If you sell online, separate online shipping and handling costs from offline shipping. You need to track whether you’re losing money on shipping, one of the most common problems e-tailers have.
Decide how you’ll allocate labor, benefits, and overhead costs to your Web site:- While cost of goods might be obvious, cost of sales is not.
Figure out how development costs will be amortized over how long a time frame:- Having trouble figuring out return on investment (ROI)? Bookkeepers and accountants compute this for entertainment.
Become familiar with your site goals and objectives, help measure financial results, and prepare a custom report monthly or quarterly:-
Review your Web and store statistics software to see what data should be fed into the accounting system:- If you already have an integrated inventory, point of sales (POS), and accounting system, this might be semiautomatic.
Your financials are worth the effort only if you use them. Watch that profit number like a hawk to ensure that your projections are on track or as an early-warning sign that revenues and expenses are getting out of whack. Act as soon as you identify a problem because it won’t solve itself. Now, and only now, are you ready to use Web analytics to improve your marketing and your Web site.
