How Integrated is Your Web Analytics Package and is That a Good Thing?

According to BtoB Magazine the web analytics market is expected to hit US$ 953 mil by 2014, and suggesting that the pickings might be even juicier Adobe recently acquired Omniture for the tidy sum of about US$1.8 billion.

If you're on top of things Web, then you've probably noticed a growing hum of activity in the analytics space. Here's a quick scan around the field and a look at what all this Web CMS + analytics integration news we've been hearing about means.

Baby, We’ve Come a Long Way

Web analytics hasn’t always been front-page news. Excitement over the potential of basic click-stream analysis was prevalent during the dot-com boom (in 2000 the market reached US$ 400 million, doubling its numbers from 1999) but value fell significantly in the following recession.

Things started to pick back up around 2005, and feature parity began emerging among the vendors that survived the economic doldrums. By then the concept itself had matured as well — rather than simply assessing the Web on a technical front, analytics proved exceptionally useful for engagement-oriented marketers and advertisers as well.

Today, Web optimization and presence couldn’t be more important, and proof of that is seen in the growing trend towards the integration of analytics driven intelligence. After all, if something is as beneficial as Web analytics, why not make it native? It’s a direction that several big names are moving in, Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture being one strong example.

Where does that leave older solutions? They’re still around, and there are plenty of people out there fighting to keep it that way. Meaning? You’ve got options:

• Stand-alone analytics: These consist of analytics packages that are not natively integrated with the website’s content management system. They run on-demand (manually), with data fed electronically from the website into the package
• Connected analytics: You can think of this category as an in-between, cheater type. Google Analytics and Omniture included, these third-party packages can be connected to a website’s CMS and other applications via page tags
• Integrated analytics: Really and truly integrated analytics consist of a metrics tool that can get up close and personal with other Web applications because of a shared, common data set. Communication between website and analytics software is automatic, happens in real time and includes details about page author, publishing specifics, duplicate page use and hierarchical layout.

The Integration Station

Brett Zucker, Chief Technology Officer at Bridgeline Software (news, site) is just one of the many supporting the swing toward native systems in the enterprise. He claims that truly integrated analytics yield a host of benefits — and well he would since Bridgeline offers a SaaS WCM and commerce platform with integrated analytics (more here).

Zucker's favorite benefits include:

• driving persuasive content
• reducing the gap between metrics measurement, and report-driven decisions
• saving marketers time
• making companies more money

And, while he has some good points, it's important to consider other reasons that the solutions we’re used to (third-party) might not be living up to their full potential. After all, providers like Google and Omniture seem to be doing something right, right?

While difficulty using the tools certainly frustrates many marketers, the need for more resources and expertise is also recognized. In fact, a whopping 72% of respondents to the Unica survey "The Web Analytics War: Reader Survey" had no full-time worker devoted to analytics.

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Tags: adobe, analytics, bridgeline, google analytics, omniture, online marketing, web analytics, web development, web publishing, webtrends

According to BtoB Magazine the web analytics market is expected to hit US\$ 953 mil by 2014, and suggesting that the pickings might be even juicier Adobe recently acquired Omniture for the tidy sum of about US\$1.8 billion.

If you're on top of things Web, then you've probably noticed a growing hum of activity in the analytics space. Here's a quick scan around the field and a look at what all this Web CMS + analytics integration news we've been hearing about means.