Executive-Level Web Analytics

Website analytics tools ranging from the elegant but pricey Websense to the cumbersome but free Google Analytics provide an exhaustive array of analytical statistics: how many visitors are finding your site, where they are finding it, how they are searching for it, what they do when they get there, how much time they spend, and on and on. But which statistics do C-level executives really care about?

If you are running a search marketing campaign, the measures that top the list for executives, not surprisingly, are leads, cost per lead, and associated trends. These three metrics tell executives how well search marketing efforts are working, how efficient those efforts are, and whether web marketing productivity is getting better or worse over time.

Next, they want to know the top search marketing keywords -- which phrases are drawing the highest number of clicks. Needless to say, your website should be naturally search optimized for these terms as well.

Third is reverse domains: what specific organizations are visiting your website frequently, and how many pages they are viewing. Separating ISPs from actual companies is a manual effort with most web analytics programs, but the information is crucial to knowing which B2B prospects are returning to your site frequently for more information.

Fourth, sources of website traffic and associated trends. How much of your traffic is generated by paid vs. organic search, and how much organic search traffic comes from searches on company name-related vs. generic industry search terms? These measures demonstrate the effectiveness of SEO efforts and the trend over time.

Closely related to the above are the top generic search terms used to find your site. This is sort of the reverse of the second measure above, as this reveals what natural search terms should be added to your paid search campaigns.

Finally, executives are interested in new visitor vs. returning visitor statistics. A healthy lead-generating B2B website should be drawing a high percentage of new visitors each week and month. If most of your traffic comes from customers looking for support, both your product and your marketing probably need improvement.

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Terms: web analytics for executives, WebSense, search marketing analytics

The website marketing information portal: WebMarketCentral.com

The B2B IT PR and lead generation experts: KC Associates

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com