Facebook & it's New Metric Demystification

Do you  ever wondered why you can have 500 odd friends on Facebook friends list, yet only 15-20 show up in your news feed..? It’s not that those other friends have stopped using Facebook; chances are they’re still there. It’s just that they aren’t showing up in your news feed.

If you haven’t noticed, there are now two settings on your Facebook news feed: “Most Recent” which shows most of the content published by your Facebook friends in chronological order and “Top News” which filters content based on EdgeRank.

Edge Rank is the new metrics which Facebook has recently unveiled that allows us to monitor Shares and Clicks. Shares are a very important aspect of EdgeRank. You may not realize it, but News Feed only displays a subset of the stories generated by your friends — if it displayed everything, there’s a good chance you’d be overwhelmed. Developers are always trying to make sure their sites and apps are publishing stories that make the cut, which has led to the concept of “News Feed Optimization”, and their success is dictated by EdgeRank.

Facebook looks at everything published as “objects.” These can be status updates, links, photos, video or anything else that can be shared on Facebook. Every object receives a ranking (EdgeRank), which determines if it will show in your personal newsfeed. Objects with a high EdgeRank appear in your “Top News” feed. Objects with a low EdgeRank will not.

Let’s take a closer look at the three factors that determine EdgeRank.

News Feed Optimization (NFO),

EdgeRank = ∑u_e w_e d_e

u_e = Affinity score between the Viewing User and the Edge Creator.

w_e = Weight of this Edge type (Likes, Comments, tag etc..,)

d_e = Time Decay Factor based on how long ago the edge was created.

Affinity is dependent on a user’s relationship with an object in the news feed.

Weight is determined by the type of object, such as a photo/video/link/etc.

Time Decay, as an object gets older, the lower the value.

So how will you get High EdgeRank Score..????

Here we go the following lists factors that determine ranking of items in news feeds or could influence news feed ranking on Facebook.

ELEMENT	TOPIC	Description
Fresh news and activities	Recency	Recency of activity (news, tags, comments, likes, link clicks.
The type of content	Content	Status updates, photos, videos, comments
Who has published the content item	Author	It may be a person, a page, a group, an application. Each will have its own authority and affinity.
Comments from friends	Engagement (EDGE)	The greater the number of comments from friends, the more likely that a story will appear.
Likes	Engagement (EDGE)	Counts could be used, particularly those made recently, possibly calibrated on the basis of the authority of who has done the liking and / or the rate of liking.
Clicks on links, if present	Engagement (EDGE)	Facebook tracks all links to external sites. It is easy to imagine that this data is used as news feed item ranking signal.
Personal Behavior history	Engagement (EDGE)	A user has historically shown greater interest in news by a certain author or of a certain type.

Something else you should know about is the lifecycle of Facebook “news”. No piece of news will last forever. Unlike ranking on Google where you have an unlimited life span, Facebook news is sort of limiting. As users constantly update their profiles and post new content, it has to be seen. Pretty much all Facebook content is displayed in the news feed. There is just no way of keeping yourself “in the news”. However, you can definitely increase the life span of a certain piece of news which you would like to have by simply using the factors above and by Engagement especially which I explained above.

In my next post will dicuss few more on the stuff required to attain high EgdeRank and factors need to do in Optimizing our NFO (News Feed Optimization).

Your suggestions and feedback are most welcome...!!!!

Be an Expert @ Google Search...! - Contd.,

In my previous post http://webanalyticz.blogspot.com/2011/11/be-expert-google-search.html,, You have gone through some basic Google Search tips for the people who is limited to typing a few words in, and changing your query until you find what you’re looking for with the relevant detail. Here in this post let me go through with few more tips that would be useful in terms of Google search with the usage of Google Parameters.

Put one of these string in google search box.

1. Applications

                     “parent directory ” /appz/ -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

2. DVD Ripped Movies

                     “parent directory ” DVDRip -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

3. xVid Movies

                     “parent directory “Xvid -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

4. Games

                     “parent directory ” Gamez -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

5. Music in MP3 Format

                     “parent directory ” MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

6. Specific Song, Album, etc

                     “parent directory ” Name of Singer or album -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

Note : I am only changing the word after the parent directory, change it to what you want and you will get a lot of stuff.

7. + and  -  To search the website that contains both the information about open office and star office.

Type,

                     +open office -star office

8. Wild Card : We most often result in this case, we know the word but we don’t know the spelling. Here are the Operators which makes it easier. These operators are used for it : * and ?

                   * used for one or more than one letter.
                   ? used for only

Eg.   (I)   *Adobe
               >> Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Reader, Adobe AfterEffects,…
       (II)  ?ill
               >> Kill,Pill,fill,…

Note : In some search engines % is used instead of ?

These above listed are few more tips making yourself engaged with Google and to avoid frustration while searching for relevant data. You can make the most out of search engines if you can try some different search queries, especially for a giant like Google here I have mentioned some of the useful search queries to find what you will be looking for these days.

Your suggestions or feedback on this post or any other post you are most welcome...!!!!

Keep Looking for further Updates..

Be an Expert @ Google Search...!

Want to be an Expert @ Google Search...!!!

Go through the Below Post..!!!

Usage of Google has increased a alot it's almost 10.3 Billion searches have been made on Google last year. People used to type in the keyword query and search through but it will result with unrelevant searches along with the content you look for and we also will be keep on changing the query to extract the information we need. and this below post will especially feature to the people If your current use of Google is limited to typing a few words in, and changing your query until you find what you’re looking for, then go through the below post, telling you the a better way – and it’s not hard to learn. These below are 12 tips which will be useful in matching upto your relevant search to your expectation when search...!

1. Explicit Phrase:
   Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing.  Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase.  To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

   Example: "internet marketing"

2. Exclude Words:
   Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising.  To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

   Example Search: internet marketing -advertising

3. Site Specific Search:
   Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.  Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.

   Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

4. Similar Words and Synonyms:
   Let’s say you want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms.  To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.

   Example: "internet marketing" ~professional

5. Specific Document Types:
   If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:".  For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

   Example: "internet marketing" filetype:ppt

6. This OR That:
   By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search.  If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator.  (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).

   Example: internet marketing OR advertising

7. Phone Listing:
   Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know who it is.  If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

   Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).

8. Area Code Lookup:
   If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

   Example: 617

9. Numeric Ranges:
   This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip.  Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers.  You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods.)  This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices, or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.

   Example: president 1940..1950

10. Stock (Ticker Symbol):
    Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.

    Example: GOOG

11. Calculator:
    The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.

    Example: 48512 * 1.02

12. Word Definitions:
    If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.

    Example: define:plethora

There are few more tips as well with the usage of Converters, Using link in place of Site, Analysis of Site on google and lot more the above listed are few basic tips for your benefits...! If any suggestions or Information needed to be added you are most welcome...!!!!

Without Facebook..!

In the previous post we saw the impact of Social Media an overview. Here we see the Statistical image on the facebook impact without which the world...?????????

Source: http://www.singlegrain.com/

Social Media Marketing

Impact of Social Media Marketing

As social media has grown in functionality and reach over the years, it has changed the ways brands interact with their audience of current and potential consumers.

Impact of Social Media




Go through the below Presentation to have a brief on the Transformation that Social Media has produced as the Generation Goes on...

Transformational Impact of Social Media

View more presentations from Steve MacLaughlin

The Evolution of Social Media

A dozen or so years ago when the internet was just beginning to gain a foothold in our culture, forward-thinking businesses established their online presence in a world where they had a high degree of control over their message. Interactivity and conversations were limited to putting an email link or a contact form on your website;  comments systems, feedback, and reviews were nearly nonexistent, and “going viral” meant emails with subject lines like “Fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: You have to see this!”  Early forums and BBS were used by only a tiny fraction of the internet-connected population and search engines were slow and inefficient, so there was very little interference in business-to-consumer communications.

MetaFilter was probably the first true social media site, but with the very small demographic of sophisticated early adopters, getting a marketing message on the site was nearly impossible. There was a very low tolerance for any type of promotional activity, and the community would ruthlessly go after any appearance of commercial intent. This is still true on many strictly social media sites; content must pass a fairly stringent test of ‘interestingness’ in order to rise to the top. Social media marketing takes place in a democratic environment that has shifted the power over last decade from the company to the individual, and smart businesses have adapted to this model and learned to take advantage of the system without relying too much on ‘gaming the system’ which often has very negative results. To prosper in the social media universe, a brand must find ways to offer value along with their message in order to gain the number of up-votes, likes, or shares it takes to rise to the top.

Whether or Not Use Social Media, it has changed your Business

Social media, and social networking, have changed the business landscape, both for companies that have adopted them and for those who have not.  By definition, social media is where members share content with a wide audience, with the focus on the content, while social networking is more centered on conversations and groups with shared interests.  Facebook, which straddles the line dividing the two types of interactions, has 600,000 regular users worldwide and welcomes companies, organizations, and brands to utilize its platform to connect with their audience.

Almost all social networks have incorporated a measure of social media, allowing users to become curators of the interesting content they find, sharing links, images, and short personal stories. Businesses who have learned to create content and engage in conversations are already ‘in the stream’ – and more and more, internet users have the expectation they will be able to interact with their favorite brands. Companies that have embraced this have an ever-growing advantage over those who have not.

Why Social Media..???

The Internet users now visit a social network site at least once a month. Lets see some stats how necesserily Socila media is turned out. Social networking and media sites accounted for 12% of all time spent online in 2010 with the average user spending 4.5 hours on these sites. Globally, social networking accounts for 15.6 percent of online time among those age 15 and older.  

Web-based email usage has decreased in every age group except those 55 and older, as more and more communication takes place on the various social websites. The sharp increases in web email usage in the over 55 demographic is accompanied by a similar increase in their usage of social sites; the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is women 55 and older. Social media is here to stay, and chances are, your customer or client base is already spending a significant amount of time there.

Processing of Data in Web Analytics

The concept important to learn after grasping the basic Web Analytics fundamentals is how do the Analytics software capture data. The basic thing required to track data on a Webpage is the Web Analytics code or tag. For e.g. if you want to find whether a page has the Google Analytics code, go to View -> Source and Ctrl+F for urchin.js or ga.js. This is a JavaScript code that can be pasted on a Webpage to track Analytics data. Similarily there is a different technology of a .gif Image call to the Server to track Web analytics data. Similarily, to find an image call code you can go to www.msn.com and www.yahoo.com and search for c.gif and p.gif respectively. Below is my understanding of the various steps that take place before the data shows up in the Analytics tools. I have summed them up in a seven step hierarchy and call it the Web Analytics Data Lifecycle.

Webpage -> JavaScript Tag/Image Call -> Web Server -> Log Files -> Processing -> Databases -> Web Analytics Tool

1) Webpage - Web pages are the most pivotal part of this hierarchy. These can be HTML, ASP, ASP.NET etc or any other page hosted on a Web Server.

2) JavaScript/Image call – Omniture, Google Analytics, Web Trends etc use the JavaScript tag. This code needs to be placed on the client’s Webpage so that it can track the required parameters that can be used to make important business decisions. This JavaScript is then rendered when a person lands on a page and it sends parameters like Page Name, I.P, and resolution etc to the appropriate datacenters. The other widely used technology is the Image call technology which is a simple (img src) tag that calls the .gif image on the appropriate Server. Again, once the page is rendered, it calls the image and a hit is registered. Usually it is recommended that you place these tags on the top of your page so that they get called even if the page is not fully loaded.

3) Web Server – This is the datacenter/Web Server that is responsible for storing the parameters captured by the page tag. These Servers are usually very powerful and can store TBs of data and are also responsible for dropping cookies in the client’s machine. These cookies are the crux of Web Analytics and are crucial for calculating user behavior.

4) Log Files – The parameters captured by the Analytics Tag are stored in the Server Logs which are systemically designed to store data in the form of text files which can be in TXT or CSV format. Again these log files are huge and it is recommended to store them as compressed Archives.

5) Processing – The Log Files then need to be processed by the Operations/Database team which makes sure that the data land in the Servers hosting the databases. This is a very complex step and a team having strong technical expertise can do the job. This team is also responsible for filtering out the so called Bot traffic.

6) Databases – These databases/data warehouses store the filtered data that will be fed into the Web Analytics Tool. These databases are mostly used by Web Analysts who want to create custom reports usually not possible with the help of Web Analytics tools. They can write their own custom queries and create a report not present in the WA tool.

7) Web Analytics Tool – This is the final step of the Web Analytics Data Life Cycle and is the GUI form of data. Tools like Omniture, Google Analytics etc are the backbone for all the Analytics that take place nowadays. Anything like exporting data to creating graphs, charts are the basic features of these tools. They help organizations make the business decisions that generate revenue and make the appropriate changes to the Web Pages to retain users and also entice them to come back.

So you read how a simple Web Page forms the basis of such complex processes that are used to transform a simple http request into data that generates revenue. I hope you liked this article and would appreciate if you can critique it by commenting.

originally posted at : http://rkapoor.blogspot.com/search/label/Webanalytics%20Tools

Web Analytics & SEO - Go Hand-in-Hand

I this post I will be covering the correlation that SEO and Web Analytics seeeks and how important it is in the field of Business.

The World Wide Web is the home for millions of online businesses that compete against each other for top Search Engine Optimization (SEO) page renks. So What sets your businesses apart from your compettitors.? and what will attract the users to visit your website or Search engine to rank your site at the top.?. Before planning your SEO Campaign yu should have a fair idea of your targeted audience and how they navigate thrpugh the Web - i.e Web Analytics. By Aligining your web site to improve your user experience as a result of Web Analytics, you'll increase the SEO ranking.

If you want to see successful return from SEO, then you'll nedd to step back and consider the construction design of your website as the starting point. Web analytics is all about understanding the user behavior over a website, which gives the insight into how the further enhancement for your site to improve the user experience. Web Analytics keeps track of all the user actions over the web site. From this records a quantitative report is being compiled providing the Web site performance, which inturn your website can be improved, in turn a boost for SEO.

In short, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of constructing your site's architecture and using relevant keywords within your content to ensure that your site shows up high in search results for those keywords.

Web analytics is basically a collection of the statistics for your site, such as how many unique visitors, location of visitors, type of browsers they are using, etc. Interestingly, Web analytics can be used to view what keywords are being used by visitors to come to your site, so analytics are often used to determine which keywords you will be optimizing for.

 Most of them thinking that once website being listed at the top in the natural seach list the job is done no need analytics. But the foremost thing is that once you've optimized (SEOed) your website, you go back to analytics and look at what's working and what's there to optimize further.

You need to remember that SEO is a journey, not a destination. This means that you'll have to continuously use your web analytic tools to analyze your site and fine tune your SEO strategy. It's an ongoing task that you should turn into a structured process t ensure you get good results out of it.

Hope this post tells all about the hand-in-hand correlation of Web Analytics and SEO...

Web Analytics - Entire Flow of Business Process

In this post I will  be covering the steps involved in Web Analytics. Web Analytics in an organization should be just like a development cycle starting from Define phase to Reporting. Below is a visualization of an ideal Web Analytics process. This process is more suited for tech organizations which already have defined KPIs with regular weekly/monthly releases of new features on their website and also to the people who respond to the RFPs will find the below post much useful.

The First in the Web Analytics Business Process is the DEFINE Phase:

This phase includes Requirement Gathering, Design Business Requirement, Define Roles & Responsibilities, Preparing Solution design documents.

1) Requirement Gathering: This is the start of the Web Analytics process and it deals with an Analyst collecting tracking requirements from stakeholders. Similarly this step will also involve review of feature specifications of new items that are part of a release cycle. An example of a new feature can be a new page being added on the website or a new outgoing/external link being added or even an A/B Test.
2) Design Business Requirement: Once all the requirements have been gauged, the Analyst will create a Tracking Plan/Analytics plan/ Design to define the variables for Web Analytics. All the business Key Performance Indicators and Goals/Objectives of the Websites will be defined in this phase. This is usually an excel document containing a matrix of all the variables and their corresponding values. This deliverable is the Requirements Specifications Document.
3) Roles & Responsibility: The roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders/analysts working on the project are defined in this stage. This defines the project team structure and their deliverables.

Assigning Responsibility Key Role

4) Design Document: A Solution Design Document is a main document of the web analytics implementation. The design phase begins with preparing solution design or reference document. This deliverable is Solution Design Document.


The Second is the DESIGN Phase

Designing the tags for data collection

Based on the Design Document the tags are generated and placed on to the Head or Body with the parameter need to be tracked. Using the page tagging of Web Analytics tool, the visitor browsing and activity data on our website is collected. The javascript tags are defined for all the parameters listed in the solution design document.

The Third Step is the DEPLOY Phase

Implementing the Tags for Data Collection
The Web Analytics tools use a special JavaScript tag that we place on our web pages to collect visitor activity data. When a visitor browses our website page, this JavaScript tag initiates interactions between the visitor’s browser and Web Analytics tool. The tag collects data about the visitor’s browsing behavior and sends this information to the web analytics tool.

The designed JavaScript tag will be inserted on each page of the website. Once the tags are deployed on the website, we can begin viewing reports of our visitor browsing activity on our website. Reports are generally available 24 hours after the tags are deployed. 

Preparing validation checklist

The validation checklist document has the current list of tags, the potential issues and their resolution methodology in place. This is done to ensure that the analyst is reporting on the correct data to stakeholders or business heads.

The validation of Web Analytics tool installation can be done by:

• Checking the tags accuracy: We can check the tags accuracy by using debugging tools. There are many free web analytics debugging tools available like Firebug etc… In the future, I will write a separate post on this.
• By reports/dashboards: We can review our reports and dashboards which can tell us whether our tags are correct or not. But better to follow the first method so that to have accuracy in place before the reporting starts.

Once the Validation checklist is over the Design Document is updated with the notes from Validation Document.

The Fourth step is AUDIT

Once the site goes live, the auditing is done every 2-3 weeks. At the end of every week, data is collected and audit is done. This step evaluates the website for proper implementation of tags. It identifies the Duplicate tags, Incorrect & Missing tags.

The Fifth and the Final step is REPORTING

After the data is found to be clean, it is the responsibility of the Analyst to report numbers resulting from the feature which went live during the previous release cycle. The Analyst will also provide analysis (explaining the data or conversion etc) and possible recommendations/next steps to improve the website even more.

This, according to me is an ideal end to end process which organizations should be following to manage Web Analytics. It is vital for a big organization to incorporate these steps in their overall plan for Web Analytics to ensure smooth functioning.

Steering Clear with Common Terminologies...

The rise of technologies has made dramatic changes on how people live especially in the area of communications. As the technology rapidly grows, the way we interact with people also rapidly changes.

Any idea....?????


These are the most predominant terminologies and the metrics involved in the Web Analytics. After going through the below post it will be clear...

A metric can apply to three different Universe...

Aggregate - Total Site Traffic for a defined period of time.

Segmented - A Subset of the site traffic for a defined period of time, filtered in some way to gain greater analytical insight.  e.g., by campaign (e-mail, banner, PPC, affiliate), by visitor type (new vs. returning, repeat buyers, high value), by referrer.

Individual - Activity if a Single Web Visitor for a defined period of time.

There are three types of Web analytics metrics – counts, ratios, and KPIs:

• Count — the most basic unit of measure; a single number, not a ratio. Often a whole number

 (Visits = 12,398), but not necessarily (Total Sales= $52,126.37.).

• Ratio — typically, a count divided by a count, although a ratio can use either a count or a ratio in the numerator or denominator. (An example of a ratio fabricated from ratios is “Stickiness.”) Usually, it is not a whole number. Because it’s a ratio, “per” is typically in the name, such as “Page Views per Visit.” A ratio’s definition defines the ratio itself, as well as any underlying metrics.

• KPI (Key Performance Indicator) — while a KPI can be either a count or a ratio, it is frequently a ratio. While basic counts and ratios can be used by all Website types, a KPI is infused with business strategy — hence the term, “Key” — and therefore the set of appropriate KPIs typically differs between site and process types.

A fourth type of definition is included for terms that describe concepts instead of numbers...

• Dimension - A general source of data that can be used to define various types of segments or counts and represents a fundamental dimension of visitor behavior or site dynamics. Some examples are event and referrer. They can be  interpreted the same as counts above, but typically they must be further qualified or segmented to be of actual interest. Therefore these define a more general class of metrics and represent a dimension of data that can be associated with each individual visitor.

List of Basic Terminologies and Metrics

 

Page

A web page is a document that is created in html that shows up on the Internet when you type in, or go to the web page’s address.

 

Page Views

 

The units of measurement for usage of the service. A page view is used when the UTM is executed on a web page accessed by a visitor, and processed as part of a profile. A view will be incurred for each instance of the UTM on the web page, and for each profile receiving information from the UTM for such web page.

 

Page View per Visit

Calculated by the number of Page Views / Visits in the same reporting period.

 

Visitors:

• Unique Visitors

Represents the number of unduplicated (counted only once) visitors to your website over the course of a specified time period. A unique visitor is determined using cookies; the first time someone visits your site, a first party persistent cookie is set in their browser. This cookie lasts any where from several months to several years. Each time that person visits your site that cookie identifies them as the same browser.

• New vs. Returning Visitors

When somebody visits your site for the first time, the visit is categorized as ‘visit from a new visitor.’ If this user has browsed your website before, the visit is categorized as ‘visit from a returning visitor.’ In other words, absolute unique visitors counts visitors, whereas new vs. returning counts by  visit type.

• Repeat Visitors

A repeat visitor is the number of unique visitors with activity consisting of two or more visits to a site during a reporting period.

             e.g., 655 visits – 520 visitors = 135 repeat visitors, or about 20%

 

 

Visit Duration

Visit duration is the length of time in a visit. Calculation is typically the time of the last activity in the session minus the time of the first activity of the session. When there is only one piece of activity in a session (a single-page or single event visit), no visit duration is typically reported.

 

Bounce Rate

The percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page is a bounce rate. You can use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages are not relevant to your visitors.

Entry Page

The first page in the visit or session is the entry page.

Landing Page

A page intended to identify the beginning of the user experience resulting from a defined marketing effort.

 

Exit Page

An exit page is the last page on a site accessed during a visit, signifying the end of a visit or session.

 

Visit Duration

The Length of time in a session. Calculation is typically the timestamp of the last activity in the session minus the timestamp of the first activity of the session.

Referrer

The referrer is the page URL that originally generated the request for the current page view or object.

Internal Referrer

The internal referrer is a page URL that is internal to the website or a web-property within the website as defined by the user.

External Referrer

The external referrer is a page URL where the traffic is external or outside of the website or a web-property defined by the user.

Search Referrer

The search referrer is an internal or external referrer for which the URL has been generated by a search function.

Visit Referrer

The visit referrer is the first referrer in a session, whether internal, external or null.

Original Referrer

The original referrer is the first referrer in a visitor's first session, whether internal, external or null.

Operating System (“OS”)

The software that communicates with computer hardware on the most basic level. The operating system is what allocates memory, processes tasks, accesses disks and peripherals, and serves as the user interface.

 

Web Browser

Or simply a browser, is a software program used to locate and display web pages. The most commonly used are Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, and Netscape Navigator.

 

Demographics

Demographics are the characteristics of human population and population segments, especially when used to identify consumer markets.

             e.g., age, sex, ethnicity, religion, and income.

Traffic:

• Referral Traffic

A report that allows you to see which domains (and pages in those domains) are referring traffic to your site, how much traffic they’re referring, which landing pages are the most popular referral destinations, and the extent to which those referred visitors interact with your site.

• Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is a report that allows you see which of your URLs are the most popular destinations for direct traffic: which URLs people can easily remember (google.com), which addresses appear most often in auto-completion, or which of your pages are bookmarked the most.

• Search Traffic

Search traffic: Organic traffic can come from an unpaid search engine results link, a referral from another website (such as a blog) and direct traffic. There is also paid traffic, which can come from AdWords, paid search engine keywords, or paid ad campaigns from non-AdWords providers.

Click-through Rate/Ratio

The number of click-through for a specific link divided by the number of times that link was viewed.

Page Views Per Visit

The number of page views in a reporting period divided by number of visits in the same reporting period.

Events

Any logged or recorded action that has a specific date and time assigned to it by either the browser or server.

Conversion

A visitor completing a target action. Conversions provide a general framework for segmenting visits or visitors and attributing various marketing activity and visitor actions to these segments.

These are of the most common terminologies & the metric terms used in Analyzing and optimizing a Website..

 

Purpose of Web Analytics

Most sites are not lucky enough to get explicit user feedback. The nature of the web makes it easy for visitors to find you, but also for them to find similar sites. If they get frustrated or cannot seem to make your site work the way they want to, get confused or feel their privacy is being invaded, they will likely move on to another site.

The web allows you to publish your business or content to a very large audience, very easily. But that does not change the need to make sure you understand your audience. By connecting with your visitors, you make them feel more comfortable. If your site “thinks” the way they do, it becomes natural and they will recommend it to friends. Web analytics can give you the power to know how your visitors use your site, to know how they react to your site (or changes on your site) and to improve the quality of the site. The better your visitors feel about using your site, the better your bottom line will be.