Analytics
Web analytics is the collection, measurement, analysis, and reporting of website data to understand and optimize user behavior, marketing effectiveness, and business performance.
Web analytics transforms raw website data into actionable insights. Tools like Google Analytics, Plausible, Mixpanel, and Amplitude track how visitors find your site, what they do when they arrive, which pages they view, how long they stay, and whether they complete desired actions (conversions).
Beyond basic metrics, advanced analytics include funnel analysis (where users drop off in multi-step processes), cohort analysis (how different groups of users behave over time), attribution modeling (which marketing channels get credit for conversions), and predictive analytics (using historical data to forecast future trends).
In practice
- A SaaS company's analytics revealed their blog generated 3x more trial signups than paid ads at 1/10th the cost, they tripled content investment and reduced ad spend
- An e-commerce site's funnel analysis showed 40% of users abandoned at the payment step, adding Apple Pay and Google Pay reduced abandonment by 25%
- A B2B company discovered through attribution analysis that most enterprise deals involved 7+ touchpoints across 3 months, they restructured their nurture strategy around this multi-touch journey
- A landing page's heatmap revealed users were clicking on a non-clickable image, expecting it to be a demo video, adding the video increased conversions by 35%
Not sure how this applies to you?
A senior engineer walks your site, your search presence and the way enquiries reach you, then writes down the three things worth fixing first. You keep the document either way.