Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketer's Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business

by Eric T. Peterson

Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketers Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business is about the field of Web traffic data and how it can be leveraged to improve one's Web site. It... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974358428
• ISBN13: 9780974358420
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Bookrenter
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.8" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

A must have for any serious Internet Marketer

If you are doing Web Analytics already and use tools like Google Analytics, Web Trends, Web Position Pro, Clicktracks or similar products today, grab this book and get a deeper understanding of the various metrics you have already seen or ignored to this day, because you were not able to apply the results to your business. If you are not doing Web Analytics, but have an online business and even use methods like PPC Advertisement and/or Search Engine Optimization to promote your products or services, get a copy of the book today and a Web Analytics Solution implemented into you Website "tomorrow". You are throwing money out of the window every day you wait to get proper tracking and analytics in place. Read this book and you will understand why.

Expedited the Learning curve

I gained knowledge from reading "Web Analytics Demystified", which moved me from 'clueless' to fairly competent in regards to the basics of web analytics. My expectations were met and I am pleased with the purchase. The book balanced the technical details with a user friendly reading format.

One of the top books on the subject

I've read the 'classics' by Sterne and Inan, as well as some other good and bad books on web analytics, and this one is among the best.What I especially like is the way each approach to analytics is thoroughly examined, and the strengths and weaknesses objectively discussed. Some books are dogmatic in their approach, locking the reader into the author's view of analytics. This one differs by giving readers enough information with examples, clearly articulated factors, and other identified best practices to accept compromise solutions based on budget, level of in-house expertise and other considerations. Another aspect of this book is the way the author cuts through ambiguous terminology that is rampant in the web analytics discipline, which does demystify. The comprehensive discussion of tools, classified by type, is another area where this book shines. There is too much vendor hype that promotes fear, confusion and doubt, and this book cuts through the hype and uncovers what is and is not important, as well as sets realistic expectations.Using the same comprehensive approach as in other parts of this book, the author covers metrics in great detail. This is, afterall, the essence of web analytics, and the thoroughness and scope of metrics make this book an invaluable resource.If you need to learn web analytics, select tools to support it, or are a practicing web analytics analyst this book is one which should be on your desk - and given to other team members and stakeholders. It raises the bar in books on the subject and is destined to become a classic.

The Bible of Website Analytics

Eric does a fantastic job of making sense of a complex subject and providing real context for all the web data available for analysis. If you are serious about truly being successful online, Website Analytics Demystified demonstrates how to move away from "reporting on yesterdays results" to providing real insight into online consumer behavior. If you are going to buy only one book on website analytics, this is the must have bible on the topic.

Wonderful addition to the field of Web Metrics

I have been involved with numerous web analytics initiatives as a vendor, consultant and business user. Unfortunately, all too many deployed web analytics reporting projects have the following characteristics: sporadic insights separated by long periods of inactivity and inattention. Furthermore, the choice of tools and the size of the reporting budget often have little or no bearing on the likelihood of success. Eric Peterson's book goes right to the heart of how to make web analytics consistently actionable and profitable. In a remarkably straightforward manner he helps you determine the limited number of key metrics you must follow assiduously in order to track the performance of your web site based on the business model (Online Commerce, Advertising, Lead Generation, and Customer Support). This book offers immediate relief to anyone who has felt the pain of staring into yet another set of canned traffic reports overloaded with superfluous charts, tables and graphs, wondering just where they should begin.The literature on web analytics is sparse. There are only a handful of titles and they all belong on the bookshelf of anyone responsible for understanding and interpreting results on the Web. Web Analytics Demystified, however, is the one destined to sit open on your desk, become dog-eared from use and accumulate coffee stains, doughnut crumbs and margin notes. If your business involves making or saving money on the Web, then you need this book.