About Web Analytics
Web analytics technology has been around since about the mid-1990's. But, it's become more important and sophisticated in the early years of this new millennium, as the ever-growing multitude of Web sites must increasingly compete for eyeballs. In November of 2004, Forrester Research reported that the market totaled $292 million worldwide and estimated that it will grow close to $371 million in 2005.
In a nutshell, Web analytics is the collection, reporting and analysis of site-visitor behavior data, through specialized software applications. It essentially merges marketing research with information technology, to improve user experience while increasing return on investment (ROI). For example, sites ranging from simple "mom and pop" to complex e-commerce operations use Web analytics to measure some to all of the following.
- How many visitors browse a site per day
- Which pages they viewed most
- On which ads they clicked most
- How many returned to a site within a period of time
- On average, how many pages each viewed and for how long
- How they arrived at pages (e.g., via search engines or site links)
- On which keywords and keyphrases they searched to arrive at pages
- How Web analytics data compare among similar, competing Web sites
However, Web analytics measurements are far more ranging than this. Techniques have gone well beyond Web sites simply attempting to plant cookies on visitors' computers.
Web Analytics Career Growth
Consequently, Web analytics is a growing career field and professionals who have the skills are in demand. If you're an experienced or emerging business, marketing or technical Web professional, you might be wise to add relevant Web analytics skills to your resume. Specializing in Web analytics as a career might not be a bad idea either.
To get an idea of the skills employers are currently requiring, try a search for Web analytics jobs and read the job descriptions. More information about searching for Web analytics jobs follows.
Web Analytics Jobs
Titles for specialized Web analytics jobs vary, ranging from Analytics Engineer to Web Analyst. The same goes for other job types for which some level of Web analytics knowledge is required or a plus. Examples include Senior Java Engineer, Information Security Officer and Systems Analyst.
Regardless of titles, ample Web analytics job opportunities pop up at relevant job banks for the search term. For example, at this writing, a simple keyphrase search on Web analytics at Dice, a popular techie job bank, retuned 1,962 jobs. Technical Web analytics jobs included those at mega companies, such as Google, Home Depot, Blue Shield, General Motors and Lockheed Martin.
To search for Web analytics jobs at similar job banks, start here at Job Searching: Technical. See also the Web analytics jobs listed by the Web Analytics Association (WAA).
Web analytics is called just analytics for short. Simple Web analytics are commonly called Web site statistics, Web statistics or just site stats. Terms for more-complex Web analytics include predictive analytics, which is associated with metrics and data mining. Metrics are standards of data measurement. Data mining means searching for correlations in databases, such as to predict future consumer behavior.
Subsequently, when performing keyword searches for Web analytics jobs, you might also try those terms.
Web Analytics Education
The WAA indicates that Web analytics education and certification are lacking at colleges, universities and technical schools. But, at least Web analytics software vendors, such as Accrue, SPSS, Omniture, WebTrends and WebSideStory, offer some sort of training on how to use their products.
Meanwhile, the WAA is encouraging the development of educational and certification programs. To set the example, it offers an online, Web Analytics educational program—what it calls the only educational program of it's kind—in partnership with the University of British Columbia.