Real time website analytics is an online tool that provides accurate, detailed, and reliable reports to webmasters and web site owners almost instantaneously. Real time website analytics answers questions related to visitor behavior, site performance, and retention of customers. Vendors of this technology claim that it is up to 60% more accurate than the traditional log-file analysis. The service can be purchased online from a host of providers. With real time analytics, you can obtain page views, visits, visitors, navigation, entry and exit pages, time spent on site, countries, languages, continents, search engines, and keywords used online within no time.

Real time web analytics keeps you informed about visitors to your site in real time. It also tracks where the visit originated from and visitors are navigating through the website. This valuable information can be used to sell more products and improve advertising campaigns. Firms can utilize analytical tools and successfully monitor scenario conversion to segment their visitors by behavior type.

To improve scenario success rates, firms use real time analytics to track site visitors at key stages like user registration or checkout and learn why they abandon shopping carts full of products or stop navigating through a site before reaching the company’s goal. Real time web analytics also provides live traffic statistics and provides answers to questions such as which advertising campaigns are helping sales conversions.

Most real time website analytics applications are web browser based. This mean you can easily set up the tracking without the requirement of an expert and access reports online using a web browser. No hardware is required since the tracking and analysis is handled by the servers of the analytics service provider. Reports can also be filed as Microsoft Excel files for further analysis.

For any website, it is crucial that the visitors feel good about using the site and locate the information or products they are looking for quickly and efficiently. Most companies employ sophisticated, commercial website measurement and analysis solutions to study user behavior. Unfortunately these solutions are often very expensive when the cost of licensing as well as implementation is considered. Often, implementing IT solutions for websites internally is a Herculean task. Businesses without specialized IT departments take time in understanding the installed software’s functionality and installation leading to mistakes that can often be very expensive.

Outsourcing website analytics can be a cost-effective and reliable solution. Several service providers have created state of the art website analytic solutions and offer services at reasonable prices. Usually they charge a fixed monthly fee that is based on the size of the website and the details to be tracked. The installation of tracking code is usually a simple process in most cases. Some companies may be able to handle this task themselves while some call in external technical consultants.

Another advantage of outsourced web analytics is that companies do not have to invest in additional hardware. The tracking information is transmitted directly to the servers of the service providers and the number crunching is also handled at their data centers. Customers are provided analysis reports usually every week or at predefined intervals. The analytics service providers are responsible for upgrading their software and keeping track of the latest technological developments sparing the customer the time and expense of doing so.

It is also easy for a company to terminate the analytics services or shift from one provider to another in case they are not happy with the performance of the service provider. It seems that outsourcing web analytics makes a lot of business sense as it allows to company ample time to study the analytics reports and look into new strategies to increase traffic and sales.

Web analytics information by Jared Lansky.