Not that long ago web analytics weren’t considered a necessity.  With the advent of the internet driving more and more business successes web analytics have found their place. Today they need to provide more than just an insight into how successful a campaign s or how healthy a website is.

When web analytics first hit the market they were aimed at tracking visitor behaviour.  They used metrics to track page views, clicks and how many people visited a webpage. Sites that showed most interest in web analytics were adult websites or online gambling sites.  Perhaps this is the reason that it has taken so long for web analytics to gain popularity.

Web analytics since their inception

As business began relying on the internet to generate more and more business web analytics were slowly incorporated more and more frequently.  They evolved and began including more tools that were inline with technology and trends.  Users began demanding current data and vendors began supplying tools that were able to support their infrastructure.  It wasn’t long before the early generation of web analytics became obsolete.  One example is HitBox Professional which was terminated early in 2009.

In the industry the success of a web analytics tools is measured in terms of how it is able to provide qualitative numbers and how it can keep up with trends.  Unless the industry merges their knowledge and technology web analytic tools will continue to have a very short lifespan.  The consequences for business owners are that they need to constantly upgrade their tools with the latest and newest offerings.  What is needed is a solution that can satisfy most clients.

Barriers to web analytics

Currently web analytics is up against the need to offer a product that is able to satisfy marketing goals both online and offline.  Web analytics is not able to bridge the gap between an action that originates online and culminated offline.  However technology is addressing these issues and as clients become more sophisticated there will be packages that are able to tie everything together in one offering.

The future of Web Analytics

Because of the need for online marketers to study trends that relate to their business or market niche they are looking for technical tools that can help accomplish this.  Web analysts too are looking for ways to learn marketing strategies and are in need of tools that can generate traffic flow statistics as well as those that provide future forecasts based on visitor behaviour.

Web analytics has moved away from a simple tracking tool. It is now a tool that can provide marketing solutions.  Is a tool that can help determine the viability of a business as well as offering in-depth information on the status of a websites health. It is able to help marketers address multiple marketing initiatives.

It is more than an extension to business.  It is becoming the driving force behind business success.  As technology progresses it will offer business the means to gain full access to visitor’s behaviour and in doing so provide invaluable information that will help make crucial business decisions.

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