E-Business

Data viewed by visitors to a Web site is recorded via web logs. The data includes useful information such as the URL that referred the visitor as well as the operating system and Web browser they use. One line of information is recorded for each piece of data viewed from the Web site. This piece of information can consist of either an image, HTML page, or something else. Highly viewed Web sites may generate thousands of lines in its Web log daily.

These web longs provide clues on how to improve the performance of your e-commerce Web site. The Web logs recorded by most Web servers contain a mother lode of valuable information. Web logs can tell you how visitors found your site, the search terms they use, and the days and times your site is most popular, along with other information. You can use this information to measure the performance of changes you make to your site, and to assess the impact of advertising and links from other sites.

There are many different log analysis applications that analyze measurements that are useful for e-commerce sites. Log analysis applications display a wide array of information. A Web site traffic report summarizes visits by day and month, showing the number of visitors, visits, pages, and hits, and the bandwidth used. Numeric data is graphically displayed using simple bar charts that allow you to spot trends at a glance.

Counts of hits or pages aren't all that relevant for an e-commerce site. One can increase hits by adding more graphic images to a page. Adding pages to a site can also increase page views. For e-commerce sites, the number of visitors is key, because visitors are prospects for the products and services you offer online. If you increase visitors to your site, you display your wares to more potential buyers. Another key analysis shows how visitors connect to your site: direct entry of your URL, a bookmark, referral from an Internet search engine, or a link from another site.

Analyzing your Web log isn't the only way to get information about your site's visitors. Page counters and Web analysis services can also provide guidance. These services usually ask you to add an image or bit of JavaScript code to every page on your site. When a visitor's Web browser views the page, it reads the image or code, which then records data about your visitor at the service. This process can be time-consuming for a site with many pages and no automated way of inserting the code or image on all of them. Furthermore, if some visitors have JavaScript turned off, perhaps for security reasons, they will not be recorded.

However, Web analysis service may not be sufficiently flexible to provide all the information you want. These services do not analyze your Web log; rather, they analyze a proxy for it, as recorded by their code. While the results can be close, they're usually not identical.

Performance encompasses two broad categories that can be defined as Customer Experience Management and Service Level Management. What does performance mean to your e-business? If you are like most e-business executives, you immediately think about high-level performance metrics such as revenue, costs and customer satisfaction, with varying degrees of emphasis depending on whether your e-business Web site is focused on serving customers, partners or employees.

While these are popular indicators of success, the key to running an e-business is to identify the drivers behind these top-level measures and understand which ones you need to tune up in order to increase the effectiveness of your e-business performance.

Customer Experience Management (CEM) is aimed at enhancing site design, usability, content and brand impact. Successful CEM answers the following types of questions:

Ð'* How do I compare to the competition?

Ð'* What are the drivers for a more effective e-business?

Ð'* How do I measure the impact of my site on my brand?

Service Level Management (SLM) is designed to test and tune your site, define the business and IT objectives and deliver on the service level objectives. Successful SLM addresses the following types of questions:

Ð'* Are we ready to open the doors?

Ð'* How has business defined performance standards to measure IT?

Ð'* Are we delivering on service level expectations set by business?

What are the drivers that you should identify, measure and tune for your e-business? Let's take the metric of customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction is driven by many factors, including: the speed of the Web site, the content, the ease of use of the site, the navigation, design