SmallBusinessNewz

The key: plan out what you want to see

Used properly, web analytics provide tremendous insight into one's visitors. As a small business person, it's important to avoid the time wasters in the logfiles.

Knowledge is power, as much now as it always has been. The real utility of knowledge comes from having time to absorb and consider it for best results.

Web analytics service providers offer to do this for website owners. Their analytics products have the ability to dive in, churn through thousands of bytes of log data, and present information back to the interested person.

As Manoj Jasra pointed out on Web Analytics World, not everything dripping from the maw of that voracious analytics program needs one's attention.

For starters, excitement about the number of leads in response to a promotion will be dimmed once you cull the obviously bogus email addresses gained from response forms.

Jasra advocates keeping a focus on segmenting data. "Not segmenting your data is similar to closing your eyes and randomly throwing money at various advertising mediums," said Jasra. "I can’t stress the importance of taking your leads, downloads, revenue and information requests and segmenting by medium, search engines and keywords."

While there is an investment of time to doing this, it offers a great potential of repayment in the future, thanks to the improved market targeting careful segmenting permits. A high volume of requests for information may be nice to see, but being able to determine which ones come from more qualified leads pays off every time.