To answer the question, What Are Data Analytics? It’s critical to say that Analytics data can be found in a wide array of sources, such as social media networks stats, mobile devices, and email reports, not only through your favorite analytics package. Data analytics involve humans at their core because examining datasets is needed to provide conclusions related to the information they possess.
You can expect actionable results from this process, which is why it’s’ part of business as much as academia. Today I will explore important terminology, which is the first step to understanding and familiarizing yourself with this internet marketing pillar.
What is Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an online software package that allows you, through the inclusion of a small snippet of code inside your website, to measure everything that happens in it, such as how many visitors you’re having, the country they come from, which device they use, how they behave, how many conversions you’ve’ gotten, etc. You would think that because it’s’ a free tool, it’s’ not a complete package.
In this case, Google provides an outstanding product that fulfills (at the very least) 80% of most blogs’ needs and most websites’ requirements. I have used it in most websites I’ve’ created, and it’s the industry standard for online analytics packages.
What is a count?
A count is the building block of data analysis. It’s’ the raw data captured by software systems. It’s’ simple; a count is an observation. Today, modern systems gather lots and lots of data. Sometimes this information is analyzed by humans, and nowadays, other software systems are responsible for making sense of data, often with human input. A fashionable term is big data, which means a large amount of information gathered with more velocity. Many tools you use are probably benefiting from utilizing these technologies. These complex data sets are often formed with a collection of counts.
What is an event?
Many blogs and businesses often have a conversion process. Often, these processes are simple, maybe fill out a form or click a button. The building blocks of these processes are called events. An event is a step each visitor takes on their journey to become a customer and hopefully a repeat customer and brand ambassador. Many platforms track their success by measuring how many conversions you have achieved.
Maybe a prospect sent a message or a phone call through their platform. This is the primary way to measure the effectiveness of the tools you’ve been given. In addition, a set of events may become key performance indicators that let you know how your blog or business is doing.
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is a programming language known for its popularity and ubiquity. It’s’ often found on many websites used by web analytics packages for page tagging. But that’s not all. JavaScript is found on most websites, and modern web design and development libraries control the behavior of websites. For example, a text animation you enjoyed while surfing the web was probably created in JavaScript. A great skill to have is being able to embed JavaScript snippets into web pages. This allows you to increase flexibility and add features to a website relatively easily.
What is a log file?
There are many analytics packages on the market. Some of them are free, and some of them are paid. However, most of them share something in common: They keep their data in log files. So, when a user visits a website or clicks somewhere, where is all this activity recorded? The answer is a log file, it captures most or all of the action on a website in text form. So, you may be wondering why I would use server software that captures information? One answer is that no cookies or JavaScript are needed, which can improve the speed of a website.
What is a metric?
A Metric is a defined measurement unit. They are part of a quantifiable method to track the performance of marketing actions. By understanding the effectiveness of your campaigns, you can understand what is happening, what works, and what doesn’t. It also allows you to optimize future campaigns based on your gathered information. With key performance indicators, metrics can provide you with an overview of your marketing efforts.
Examples of metrics are website traffic, new visitors vs. recurring visitors, average session duration, number of sessions, most visited pages, page views, etc. As you can see, you can measure the health of your blog and business and detect patterns to use this information best.
What is a page tag?
Technically, it’s a piece of a programming language, such as JavaScript, embedded on each blog or website page. This piece of code is executed by the browser. Page tags are usually required for analytics packages; you’ll also find other online software focused on remarketing, reporting, optimization, conversion tracking, and page functionalities such as live chat. So how do you see page tags? After you’ve installed them, you can see the pages’ source code. Next, you right-click with your mouse, then cl”ck “View Page Sou”ce,” and then you can explore if your tag appears appropriately.
What is segmentation?
In a data analytics scenario, segmentation means you filter your visitors into different groups, using characteristics to analyze each visit. You usually take all your data and divide it into categories. Segmentation in this context is related to the broader segmentation meaning. This provides many benefits, such as fulfilling the needs of subgroups among your audience and visitors. In addition, segmentation allows you to focus your efforts where they matteIt’sIt’s also a fantastic way to provide meaning to your data since you can observe possible opportunities and the challenges they bring. You can then mass-personalize your marketing communications, with the added benefit of reducing costs.
What counts as a visitor?
A visitor is a person who visits a blog or website, not an automated program, script or search engine bot. It differs from sessions because sessions could mean an individual has visited the website more than once. Measuring visitors is crucial to understanding how well a project or campaign is doing. Although you need more context than the raw number of visitors, having more visitors is usually positive. For many experts, a high number of visitors is a vanity metric.
A vanity metric that makes you look good doesn’t paint the whole picture. That being said, quality visitors are always welcomed.
Track, analyze, and optimize are critical to digital marketing activities. Today is possible to track almost everything you can imagine in the context of an internet campaign. You can ask important questions such as what keywords am I ranking for? What days are better for my email marketing campaigns? Are my paid media campaigns working? What is my return on investment? Are my social activities driving quality traffic to my website? How many users come from mobile devices?
Based on these answers, you now have a manageable to-do list. In addition, you’re now equipped with an updated vocabulary that will allow you to navigate the question What Are Data Analytics?
