What Is Web Analytics
by Eric T. Peterson
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Websites and Weblogs
As you get more and more interested in the subject of web analytics you may be interested in some of the voluminous content available on the internet.
Web Measurement Links at Web Analytics Demystified is a searchable list maintained by this article's author, Eric T. Peterson, with the help of the entire web analytics community. Anyone with interest in the subject is welcome to contribute to this list.
Ballardvale Research List of Web Analytics Vendors is maintained by Ballardvale's principal analyst, Guy Creese. Creese has a long history covering the analytics marketplace and is a great source of information on the subject.
Log Analysis Category at the Open Directory Project has a good hierarchical list of analytics-related subjects and over 250 different links.
Hurol Inan's Analytics Articles List is maintained by the author of Measuring the Success of Your Web Site and is a good companion to the list of web measurement links at Web Analytics Demystified.
In addition to these informative sites and lists, a few people have started blogging on the subject of web analytics:
Bob Page was a founder at Accrue software, an early analytics vendor, and is now a senior member of Yahoo's Strategic Data Services group.
Chris D'allesandro works with one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers and covers web analytics from both a technical and marketing perspective.
Eric T. Peterson (the author of this article) blogs on the subject of web analytics for JupiterResearch.
Xavier Casanova is a founder from the analytics vendor Fireclick and offers his unique perspective on the always-evolving vendor marketplace.
Associations, Groups, and Events
As you get more and more interested in the subject you may want to surround yourself with like-minded professionals.
The Web Analytics Association is the world's only formal web analytics group. Founded by authors Bryan Eisenberg and Jim Sterne, and supported by dozens of web analytics vendors, the W.A.A. promises to deliver the highest-quality education and events on the subject.
The Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo Groups was founded by Eric T. Peterson in 2004 and is the world's most active discussion on the subject of web measurement and analysis. Completely free to join, this group is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the subject regardless of experience.
If you're more of a people person and enjoy offline interaction, you should definitely consider attending Jim Sterne's Emetrics Summit in Santa Barbara, California or in London, England. This is the absolute "must attend" event for anyone truly interested in the subject and is always attended by the heaviest of heavy hitters in the analytics industry.
Tools, Tools, Tools
Once you've read the books, visited the sites, and joined the groups, the next logical step is to start experimenting with web analytics tools on your own. Fortunately, there are a number of freely available tools out there for you to experiment with.
Sane Solutions provides its NetTracker Lite application free of charge. Anyone who has access to his or her own log files and is interested in some pretty good analytics at a fantastic price should give this application a look.
If you're a Perl junkie, you might want to check out the "Build Your Own Web Analytics Application" at the end of each chapter of Web Site Measurement Hacks. These hacks, written by Dr. Stephen Turner--the original web analytics "hacker"--walk you through the process of building your own tag-based web analytics application.
Analog, the most popular log file analyzer in the world, is still available for free. While it's not quite as pretty as NetTracker Lite, Analog does quite a bit of analysis for the price.
Dozens of free and inexpensive web analytics applications are discussed in Hack #10, "Find a Free or Cheap Web Measurement Solution," of Web Site Measurement Hacks.
Jobs in Web Analytics
The final step for you, if you're really into this kind of thing, is to go out and get a job in web analytics. While there are a multitude of job sites on the internet, two have emerged as the best places to look for jobs in web analytics: the Web Analytics Association's (WAA) job board and Indeed.com. The association hosts a list at www.webanalyticsassociation.org/en/jobs/search.asp, made up of jobs posted by group members and provides direct contact information for hiring managers. While the list is not nearly as extensive as Indeed.com, because the WAA is a highly-targeted source of information about web measurement, this board is likely the best place to start looking, especially if you're OK with the idea of relocating.
If you're pretty well settled into a community and are hesitant about relocation, Indeed.com has a great job opening aggregator that allows you to search for "web analytics" jobs by geographical location. The city nonspecific search is at Indeed.com, and at the time this article was written the search matched over 700 openings worldwide. If you already have experience with one of the analytics packages, you might want to search for the vendor's name to find positions that are specific to the application you know best. A quick search for "Omniture" yielded 188 openings, "WebSideStory" yielded 40 openings, and "WebTrends" 1,129. Keep in mind that these company-specific searches always return openings at the vendors themselves, but you may want to consider working for a respected vendor--in a market as strong and competitive as web measurement, the vendors are always looking for talented, motivated people.
If you're new to the field, or just interested in getting into web data analysis as a profession (salaries approach $100,000 annually, adjusted for geography and by experience) you should consider trolling the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo Groups to familiarize yourself with common concerns and concepts. It's also not a bad idea to research vendor websites to better understand how applications are positioned to the companies that purchase them (and who would ultimately be hiring you!) If nothing else, buy a copy of Web Site Measurement Hacks and read the first chapter, focusing on Hack #1: "Talk the Talk", Hack #2: "Best Practices in Web Measurement" and Hack #4: "Staff for Web Measurement Success."
Summing Up
As companies continue to use web-data analysis to dramatically improve the success of their business online, interest in the subject continues to grow. As interest grows, so does the volume of information available, which is great news if you're newly interested in web analytics. Get a book, join a group, read a weblog, play with an application--all of these things will help you refine your understanding of the subject and get to the point where you can either improve your own business or command a relatively high salary in a rapidly-expanding market.
