Why This Matters
Web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic, it can be used as a tool for business, market research, and to assess and improve the effectiveness of a website. Web analytics applications can also help companies measure the results of traditional print or broadcast advertising campaigns. It can be used to estimate how traffic to a website changes after the launch of a new advertising campaign. Web analytics provides information about the number of visitors to a website and the number of page views. It helps gauge traffic and popularity trends, which is useful for market research.
Resources
Google Analytics for Beginners – An introduction to Google Analytics.
Leveraging Google Analytics for the Small Business – Understanding how Google Analytics can inform your business.
How Google Analytics Help Small Business Owners to Make Better Business Decisions – How to read Google Analytics reports.
Recommendations
Google Analytics – A powerful and free product. You can go deep with this product and it can give you a lot of powerful information. Even if you stay surface – understanding where your visitors are coming from, how long they spend on your website and what pages are the most popular – is important data in understanding how and what to improve on your website.
GoSquared Analytics – Strong integrations with products such as SalesForce, Slack, Shopify and more. Data privacy assured. Free for small websites.
Matomo Analytics – This platform gives you 100% data ownership. Advertised as an ethical choice.