1. for Performance Analysts
An Introduction to
Web Analytics
for Performance Analysts
and Capacity Planners
Anna Long
Founder and Principal Analyst
Web AnalyticaSM

2. Agenda Introducing Web Analytics How Marketers Use Web Analytics
How You Can Use Web Analytics for Performance Management and Capacity Planning
1 - 2

3. Defining Web Analytics
“Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage.”
-- Web Analytics Association Standards Committee, 2008

4. Today’s Web Analytics Technologies
Web server logging
(Microsoft Internet Information Services,
Apache Web Server)
Page tagging
(Adobe SiteCatalyst,
Google Analytics)

5. 1. Web Server Logging – How Does it Work?
Web servers such as Apache or Microsoft IIS record activity as they receive and fulfill requests.
Web servers provide general-purpose logging at a very detailed level.
To prepare the data for analysis, the web team must clean and organize log records – a big job!

6. Web Server Logging – A Log Record Example
IP Address
Timestamp
[26/Feb/2001:15:34: ] "GET / HTTP/1.0" " "Mozilla/4.5 [en] (Win98; I)"
Request
Status and Bytes
Referring Page
Example log record from Sweiger2002

7. Web Server Logging – Processing Complexities
Web server log records are difficult to map accurately to user activity:
One page request generates multiple log records.
The server writes activity to the log as it transmits each webpage component.
The server interleaves records for different page component requests as it completes each one.
Hosting webpage components on multiple servers requires combining the logs from all servers.
Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) add further complexity.

8. Web Server Logging – Making Sense of It All
Several characteristics of web server logging limit its usefulness for analyzing website user activity:
The granularity of recorded activity is frequently non-optimal -- either too fine or too coarse.
IP addresses do not always map to unique visitors.
Server logs lack visibility into client-side activity and caching.

9. 2. Webpage Tagging – How Does It Work?
User clicks a link to request a webpage
The web analytics server stores data for subsequent analysis
Web server delivers requested webpage with imbedded tagging code (usually a JavaScript snippet)
JavaScript tag execution creates cookies and sends logging info to a web analytics server

10. Webpage Tagging – A JavaScript Tag Example
<script type="text/javascript">   var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA ']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);   (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = (' == document.location.protocol ? ' : ' + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })(); </script>
Account Number
Notes from
You'll notice a couple of things about the way we set things up. The first is that we check to see if there is already a variable _paq before we create it. This is a good practice so we don't accidentally remove events that were enqueued before our call. The other thing to note is that we add events by calling _paq.push just like you would add items to an array. In this case, we're setting the account we want to track and also calling the trackPageView method.
You call methods by specifying the method name and the arguments like so:
_paq.push(["method", "arg1", "arg2"]);
setAccount (accountId)
This method sets the account that we'll attribute all tracking events to and should be called before you start tracking events.
trackPageView
This method tracks this page as viewed by the visitor.
Example JavaScript Tag from Google2010e

11. Webpage Tagging – Implementation Complexities
Several characteristics of web page tagging complicate its successful application for analyzing website user activity:
Complex website architectures can be difficult to tag for accurate data collection.
Proper maintenance of high-volume tagging for a major online property is another big job!
May want multiple subdomains tracked as separate properties or as one property.

12. Webpage Tagging – Making Sense of It All
User activity can be difficult to map accurately with web page tagging records:
Tag execution can cause webpages to hang.
Users can disable cookies or JavaScript execution.
Users can delete cookies.

13. How Marketers Use Web Analytics
Leading marketing organizations have been very successful using web analytics for:
Developing visitor profiles
Managing online marketing campaigns
Improving conversion

14. Developing Visitor Profiles
Web analytics enables marketers to tailor offerings to particular visitor needs by:
Segmenting the visitor population
Developing personas
Analyzing RFM (Recency/Frequency/Monetary Value)

15. Managing Online Marketing Campaigns
Web analytics enables marketers to effectively track online campaign performance.
Web analytics allows marketers to tag not only webpages but also the in-bound links in online marketing material that send visitors to the website.
This in-bound link-tracking enables marketers to examine in detail what brings visitors to the website and what they do once they arrive.
Marketers evaluate the in-bound and conversion data to determine the effectiveness of their campaigns.

16. Improving Conversion
Web analytics enables marketers to improve conversion.
Conversion is the event where the website visitor becomes a customer.
The multi-step process through which conversion takes place is a conversion funnel.
Conversion is a leaky funnel, meaning some people abandon the process – some leak out each step along the way.
Marketers attempt to improve conversion by reducing the leakage.

17. Sample Conversion Funnel

18. Sample Conversion Funnel (Part 1)

19. Sample Conversion Funnel (Part 2)

20. How You Can Apply Web Analytics for Performance Management and Capacity Planning (And Vice Versa)
Advising On Implementation
Enhancing Your Performance Techniques

21. Advising on Implementation
As a performance analyst or capacity planner, you may be asked to consult in areas such as:
Placing JavaScript snippets
Selecting sampling strategies
Bringing web analytics in-house

22. Placing JavaScript Snippets – No Optimal Solution
Snippet placement can cause problems:
Placement anywhere can slow page rendering if the analytics server is down.
Placement at the bottom can cause data to be lost when visitor leaves a page before the snippet executes.
Placement at the top can cause passing of custom variables to fail.

23. Selecting Sampling Strategies – Your Judgment Call
Performance, resource, or budget restrictions drive some organizations to data sampling. Several sampling approaches are:
Instrumenting a subset of the website
Collecting a subset of tracked events
Querying a subset during analysis

24. Bringing Web Analytics In-House – To SAAS or Not to SAAS?
Organizations may use a SAAS architecture or keep their web analytics in-house. An in-house solution creates performance and capacity issues:
Bringing data storage in-house: must plan for sufficient in-house storage of collected data.
Bringing data collection, storage, and processing in-house: must plan for sufficient servers and connectivity to support in-house collection and analysis.

25. Enhancing Your Performance Methods
“We’re From Web Analytics – We’re Here to Help!”
Seriously, web analytics can provide insights to enhance performance and capacity planning activities:
Diagnosing problems
Alerting for anomalies
Creating benchmark workloads
Developing forecasts

26. Diagnosing Problems
Web analytics data can provide insights not available from other tools:
When a performance problem cannot be reproduced in a testbed
When performance monitors do not have the granularity or reach to see into a web application
When a mix of configuration and user characteristics causes a performance problem that other tools cannot isolate

27. Alerting For Anomalies
Web analytics tools can support proactive performance management by alerting for situations that could grow into performance problems.
For example, managing demand when a video goes viral:
Start by setting up an alert ladder
When alerted, use web analytics data to take effective action

28. Creating Benchmark Workloads
Web analytics data can make simulated workloads a more accurate representation of operational demand.
Ecommerce system example: one million purchases per day don’t equal one million visitors per day.
Web analytics data can reveal conversion funnel patterns of ecommerce to help you produce a more realistic visitor pattern.
Web analytics data can also identify customer segments so each can be represented with its own unique characteristics.

29. Developing Forecasts
Historical perspectives from web analytics data and tools can help you develop better forecasts of future system demand.
Many of the features that make web analytics so useful for benchmark development also apply to forecasting.
Because page tagging undercounts the volume of activity, use it for revealing trends and identifying customer segments. Augment that trend analysis with evaluation of web server log data to estimate volumes.

30. Web Analytics -- they’re not just for marketing any more!
Conclusions
Web Analytics -- they’re not just for marketing any more!
These tools should play an important role in IT management for any organization with a major web presence.
While web analytics tools traditionally support marketing, they can also be applied much more widely to manage resources.
These tools can support the work of performance analysts and capacity planners, enhancing their work products and making their projects more successful.

31. Anna Long Founder and Principal Analyst Web AnalyticaSM
linkedin.com/in/annamlong
126 Colchis Court
Cary, NC