Analytics Insider

The first-ever study of vendor compliance with Web Analytics Association (WAA) standards finds analytics vendors slowly moving towards standardized definitions of key metrics and reporting concepts, but not all vendors fully align with each standard, according to research released today by independent evaluation firm, CMS Watch.

These findings come from the latest version of the CMS Watch Web Analytics Report 2009, which evaluates twenty web analytics platforms against twelve potential use-cases. CMS Watch today made available its WAA Compatibility matrices available as a free download at http://www.cmswatch.com/Analytics/.

WAA standards define twenty-six key metrics and reporting concepts so that customers, vendors, and other analytics professionals can speak a common language. For example, WAA defines a Single-Page Visit as “Visits that consist of one page regardless of the number of times the page was viewed.”

CMS Watch asked all twenty vendors whom it evaluates to provide a point-by-point explanation of how their solution aligns with WAA standards. Only ten vendors responded: Amethon, Bango Analytics, Coremetrics, Google, Intellitracker, Lyris, Mobilytics, Nedstat, Unica, and WebTrends. “We were disappointed that not all vendors responded,” said CMS Watch contributing analyst Phil Kemelor, citing industry giant Omniture as a notable absentee.

In some cases, vendors do not comply when a particular standard defines functionality that simply does not exist in that tool. “For example,” notes Kemelor, “Repeat Visitors is not a metric you can get in Google Analytics, Lyris ClickTracks, or Nedstat.”

In other cases, according to Kemelor, “Vendors who indicate compliance with a particular WAA standard may choose wording that’s not entirely clear or complete.” For example, most vendors remain vague about what constitutes a “Page.”

“WAA standards are important for customers,” argues CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne, “because they give us a common way of talking about metrics and reports at a time when confusion about what a tool can or can’t do creates real barriers to enterprises obtaining the analysis they need.”

“CMS Watch consistently finds that vendor adherence to industry standards is always a relative thing,” adds Byrne, “so customers need to carefully investigate themselves.” He concludes, “We hope that by making this matrix freely available we can educate the marketplace and encourage further alignment with the WAA.”

The full Web Analytics Report 2009 – from which the WAA Compatibility matrix is extracted — is available for purchase online from CMS Watch (http://www.cmswatch.com/Analytics/).

On behalf of Jim Novo, the Web Analytics Association (WAA) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) Continuing Studies are pleased to announce and congratulate Bobby Hewitt, president, owner and director of conversion for Creative Thirst, on achieving the 2008 Jim Novo Award of Academic Excellence. Novo is the co-chair of the education committee for the WAA and a significant contributor to the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics program.

The annual Jim Novo Award of Academic Excellence, launched in 2007, is designed to honor the graduate with the highest grade average over all four courses of the UBC Web Analytics program. Hewitt is the second honoree to receive this award of recognition, acknowledging his hard work in the program. The UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics teaches participants how to create and manage a web analytics program, including how to optimize the effectiveness of site content, customer support initiatives, online marketing initiatives and the usability of the interface and navigational structure.

As the president, owner and director of conversion for Creative Thirst (www.creativethirst.com), an interactive design agency that specializes in driving website visitors to take action to improve clients’ conversion rates, Hewitt’s interest in enrolling in the UBC program was to support his background in web design and marketing. He also aimed to develop a deeper understanding of the numbers behind the clicks to leverage more effective web design solutions for clients.

“The UBC Web Analytics course work was both insightful and challenging on many levels,” said Hewitt of the program. “I was most impressed with the overall approach to web analytics that it provided. The lectures and instructors provided insight from a technical side, a marketing side and even from the point of view of how to create a data-driven company culture, which I hadn’t thought of before the course. I also met some great people in several classes that I still keep in touch with through Facebook and Twitter.”

For those considering enrolling in the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics program, Hewitt commented, “I highly recommend the program to all marketers and designers. In this day and age it’s becoming more and more important to produce measurable results. An understanding of how to interpret meaning from data is quickly becoming a necessary skill.”

The Jim Novo Award of Academic Excellence honors Jim Novo’s dedication, knowledge and volunteer time applied towards creation of the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics program. For more information on the program, visit: www.tech.ubc.ca/webanalytics/.
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Toronto has the analytics spotlight this week as the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Analytics Conference opens.

The SMX Analytics Conference is the first conference to focus on search analytics – the convergence of search marketing and analytics. This two-day conference programmed by search industry gurus Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman is unique in that it focuses on using analytics to leverage your investment in search marketing and emphasizes analytics best practices to get the most out of the search budget.

Online companies are turning to web analytics to better understand visitor behavior and to improve a web site’s organization, message, and user experience, according to KeyRelevance’s President Christine Churchill.

“Web Analytics gives a quantitative measurement of various aspects of visitor behavior. By analyzing how visitors use a web site (which pages they visit, how long they stay on the site, which areas interest them most, etc.) companies can adjust the content and presentation of information to better serve those visitors,” shes says.

“Analytics provide quantitative feedback on performance and allows us to quantify the value of search. By using analytics and tracking metrics of key relevance, we can help clients identify which campaigns are working best. This knowledge empowers clients to make better informed marketing decisions,” Churchill says.