Web Analytics- Watch visitors on your web site·
- Find out how they got there, what they are concerned about, and if they are satisfied with your information·
- Modify your pages to test messages or increase newsletter sign ups.·
- Define and track success·
- Use the information to create messages and learn about your public
One of the amazing differences between getting your message out on the web vs. virtually any other type of message delivery system is that you can actually monitor if your message gets read, and what choices people make when they are looking for information. You can know exactly how someone got to your web site. Was it a link from another site? Entering your URL? If they came from a search engine, you can know which one, and even which keywords they used. This information can tell you a lot about their intentions and what information they are seeking. Next, you can track how they move through your website. Which sections do they look at? What, specifically about an issue were they concerned about? If you have a FAQ page, which questions are people most interested in? Finally, which pages do people leave from. Are they leaving because they decided your site was not credible, or are they leaving because they are satisfied with the information they obtained? Most web management systems have the ability to incorporate surveys. This is also a very powerful tool to learn the nature of people’s feelings towards an issue, get to know your visitor and incorporate that information back into your message, either on a personal level or a grand scale. Once you have defined the purpose of your web site, you can track your success in getting the visitor to do what you want, whether that is to sign up for an e-newsletter, fill out a poll, read certain pages, or join or donate to a cause. Did they read your key messages? You can test formats and messages against each other, and constantly choose the better ones. You can measure your success and change unsuccessful pages. Some of the most web savvy commercial operations have become expert at guiding the shopper through the purchase process, and the same can be done to some degree in the persuasion business. Most sites have a very basic stats package that will tell you the number of hits and visitors you have had, and maybe which pages were visited, but real analytics goes far beyond this. Some programs can incorporate click-stream information into direct email. A search box on a larger site can also be very informative. You can see specifically what people search for when they come to your site and modify the content to satisfy “no results” queries. A search box may also give you insight into the terminology used by visitors to your site. | 
