Web Analytics Management

Google Analytics Effect Revisited

When I've asked folks who work at Web analytics vendors if Google Analytics threatens their business, they generally say that Google has actually driven them business because companies start with Google, then need to "graduate" to a more robust product.

However, I also hear from people who have dropped their web analytics solution and moved to Google Analytics because they realize they aren't getting the return on investment from their analytics vendors.

So I'm curious...

Have you dropped your web analytics vendor for Google Analytics?

Have you "graduated" from Google Analytics to another web analytics vendor?

In light of the last month's events, does Google Analytics seem like a better choice, simply due to the stability of the company?

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts...

WebTrends will not be acquired by Omniture

I just read Eric Peterson's post this morning about Tim Kopp's departure from WebTrends.

While there's no way to predict what will happen with WebTrends, I would certainly not bet my money on an acquisition from Omniture.

Most of WebTrends' customers are still in the SMB market...clearly not a match for where Omniture is going with their product development.

If WebTrends were to be acquired by any web analytics vendors, I'd say there's more potential to be taken over by Coremetrics' or Lyris, formerly J.L. Halsey, owner of ClickTracks. Coremetrics' created an SMB offering in September and considers 35% of their customer base to be in the SMB market. Part of their motivation for creating this offering was to compete against WebTrends. Lyris' historical focus is the SMB market. In fact, they just announced their name change and new Lyris platform yesterday. Seems like the sophistication they are bringing in combining analytics, PPC and email marketing could be quite attractive to SMB companies.

While I have no basis to say whether the change in management at WebTrends is either good or bad, the anecdotal evidence I've gathered indicates that take up of their enterprise offering Marketing Warehouse, has been extremely slow. If the management team was banking their company's success on this offering, and it wasn't successful, maybe it was time for a change.

From my perspective, WebTrends has spent a lot of time transitioning customers from its licensed solution to its On Demand solution,yet it still has had to support its licensed and log file-centric customer base. I imagine that's had to be a drain on resources.

In short, the company has tried to be all things to all people - log files, page tags, licensed,subscription, SMB and enterprise all rolled into one...there isn't a vendor on the market today that is spread so broadly.

If WebTrends does stay in the game, new management will need to refocus what the company is selling and to whom...and hope that enough of its customer base is willing to stick with them.

cmf2007 - Web analytics meets web content management

Last week I was in Aarhus, Denmark for cmf2007, a great web conference put on by Janus Boye and his firm.

Janus was kind enough to invite me to give a tutorial about maximizing ROI from web analytics and present about Web 2.0 and web analytics.

This is the third year Janus and his team have put this conference on, and I'd have to say it's one of the best conferences I've ever attended...maybe second to our X Change conference. The reasons are easy to cite: smaller sessions, presentations that focused on creating an interaction with the audience, and great parties after each day that gave plenty of chance to talk, network, and relax.

Most of the 250 attendees were web content managers and web managers, with a number of Intranet managers thrown in. Analytics comprises only a part of their roles, which primarily center around content management activities.

Although there were many folks from Denmark, Finland and Sweden, there was also good representation from the UK and Germany.

While it makes a nice topic to discuss whether Europeans are ahead of North Americans in web analytics sophistication or vice versa, I found that people whom I spoke to have the same challenges as do web content managers and web site managers in the US: having the time and resources to figure out how to best use web analytics tools, trying to come up with metrics that help the business, and finding ways to show senior management that web analytics has a tactical and strategic business value.

The one difference I noted: a greater understanding and use of qualitative research, such as usability testing, surveys and focus groups by the Europeans.

WebTrends loses out in bid to be bought by Omniture, and CEO is history

Well that was the news out of Portland late yesterday from a piece in the Portland Business Journal. Also gone are Jason Palmer, vice president of product management; Tore Steen, vice president of business and corporate development; and Hamid Bahadori, vice president of product development and hosted operations.

There's not a lot of details coming out just at this time. However, if you have anything to share, please post a comment.

WebTrends has seemingly been on the come back trail with features such as Score and Visitor Intelligence. On the other hand, their WebTrends Marketing Warehouse has been slow to catch on with customers, and it's probable that their highly publicized effort to scoop up HBX customers hasn't paid off.