Analyze This: 
Google Makes Web Analytics Free. Top 5 Ways Your Lead Gen Efforts Will Benefit

Google made its entrée into web analytics in March 2005 by acquiring Urchin, a software company that made a simple yet sophisticated website analytics tool. Urchin tracks visitor’s activity and behavior on your website, allowing you to better understand viewing behavior and therefore optimize marketing opportunities. Until last month, the Urchin web analytics tool was available from Google for $199 a month. Today, it’s free.

Within days of Google’s announcement its free service Google Analytics software, 234,725 people jumped onboard the free ship before Google pulled up the plank. Too many people in the boat are causing processing delays to service all of the new free accounts. Google has responded by suspending signup of Google Analytics until it can get its processing power and capacity up to speed with demand.

Why Free?

Why not? It makes perfect logical sense for Google to offer customers a free tool that actually enriches its own Search Engine and pay-per-click products. Google can make a lot more money by integrating analytics with their Adwords advertising programs than they can by selling it as a separate service. 

What Can You Gain From Google Analytics?

Frankly, a lot. That’s why everyone is rushing to get their website onboard. Website Analytics can help you convert more of your website traffic into leads and, ultimately, sales.  How? By utilizing sophisticated, valuable data on what visitors do once they go to your website, what pages they view, what content they read, how long they spend on your site and on specific pages, and more. The Google Analytics software also integrates with Google Adwords, automatically providing ROI statistics of your Google Adword campaigns.

If you aren’t already using Google Analytics, Urchin, WebTrends, or another website analytics tool, you should be. Why? Website analytics touch just about every e-marketing initiative you have. By better understanding how potential prospects got to your website, what they do when they get there, what content they are most interested in, and why they leave, you can design more effective, more targeted web content. You can also leverage what you learn into other direct marketing campaigns, including opt-in email, e-newsletters, pay-per-click ads, search engine optimization and website optimization. 

Top 5 Ways Website Analytics can improve your lead generation efforts:

1. Easily track the effectiveness of all your online marketing campaigns
2. Optimize content on your website, based on content popularity and effectiveness
3. Identify navigational bottlenecks that can cost you conversions
4. Design and test highly-targeted offers based on content interest
5. Redesign your website to convert more visitors into prospects

Overcoming Analysis Paralysis

Like any other analytics tool, website metrics are only useful if you act on them. It’s not what information you have… it’s what you do with it. Free web analytics have, in some respects, leveled the playing field by allowing any size or type of company to pinpoint potential for more sophisticated, targeted lead generation efforts. You can be sure that every marketer that has not incorporated web analytics into their marketing strategies will be doing so in 2006.

Google Free Web Analytics tool will raise the bar for every marketer in 2006 and beyond. Smart marketers will need a way to move beyond analysis to improved marketing initiatives. Nowspeed Marketing helps companies leverage web analytics tools to create comprehensive, integrated lead generation initiatives that improve ROI and help you get the most from your marketing dollars. Learn more about Nowspeed’s web analytics services now. 

Have any comments or suggestions regarding this topic? We’d love to hear them! 

Email your comments to info@nowspeed.com.