Special Report: nothing for nothing in web analytics

Can you get something for nothing? Maybe not. Companies using free web analytics products like Google Analytics are in danger of missing the value of analytics due to a lack of in-house expertise, according to a new report from Web Analytics Demystified.

By Stuart Lauchlan, news and analysis editor

The report, "The Problem with Free Analytics," found businesses opting for free Web analytics tools are significantly more likely to treat the whole practice of Web analytics "as an ad hoc endeavour," instead of as a "series of processes that are well defined" and most valuable when they are managed and maintained by specialists with knowledge and experience.

In particular, few companies opting to use Google Analytics or other free applications are employing talented people, or otherwise devoting sufficient resources, to take advantage of the insights the tools can offer. The report says companies using free tools are "dramatically understaffed for Web analytics," noting that 42 percent of them reported having no dedicated resources. In contrast, only 18 percent of companies using licensed Web analytics tools lacked dedicated analytics experts.

Even if the companies using the free tools do have staffers dedicated to using the solutions, they are most likely relatively inexperienced. Some 64 percent of those using free tools reported having less than two years of experience.

The report found a “very strong correlation between a lack of investment in Web analytics technology and a sub-optimal use of this type of technology.”

"The recommendation is to have both the technology and the people," said Eric Peterson, one of the authors of the report. "Companies that are not able to invest in staff, and to spend the time and energy necessary, may be better off with a paid solution... the reason being that the paid vendors offer fairly robust customer support. Web analytics is still hard work,” he said. “Companies can have the tools but they need people to run them.”

Support teams at vendors can be an alternative to in-house spending on analytics and can also help "define goals for Web analytics projects, ensure quality deployments and drive the production of analysis, rather than simply settling for `pretty reports that nobody really ever looks at.'”

The report found that smaller companies are more likely to use free tools and that 52 percent of respondents using free tools are working for companies with fewer than 50 people.

But the report did not dismiss the use of free tools entirely. “Nothing in the report suggested that companies couldn’t be very successful with free tools,” Peterson said. “The findings indicate that its not the technology — it’s how companies are using it.”

Meanwhile Microsoft plans to launch a beta test program for its forthcoming "Gatineau" Web analytics tool as soon as this summer. Microsoft is designing Gatineau to compete with products from both licensed and unlicensed rivals such as Google and Omniture.