These tips just touch the surface of Web analytics, and a great deal more can be and has been said. If you want to delve deeper there are a lot of resources, including:
- Google Analytics, 3rd Edition. The first portion of this update to an earlier book by Jerri Leford and Mary Tyler gives good general information about the Web measurement process and ways to understand it. There’s a “Search Inside” option on Amazon.com.
- Web Analytics Demystified. The title of both a book and a website by analytics guru Eric Peterson. Be warned: Eric often is speaking to his own community, and can get pretty deep pretty fast. When not speaking to technologists, he often gears his remarks to business managers. A preview of his book is available at Google.
- The Wikipedia explanation of Web analytics.
Once you start gathering data and using Web metrics intelligently, you can have a lot of fun, and may be inspired to find that the new material on your site and the way it’s displayed can have real effects.