E-metrics. Hmmm. "E-metrics" sounds like more Internet jargon. But hey, whatever it takes to compress the browser-to-buyer conversion event period, right?

Okay. Enough jargon. E-metrics is serious stuff. And in simplest terms, e-metrics translates as the scientific examination of your web site’s traffic data - all that information residue left behind by Internet users when they visit your online business. The point of e-metrics is to understand how your site visitors behave, to find out if you are getting the right visitors in the first place, and then to gauge how well your various business tactics are operating. The science breaks down into three distinct phases-- tracking your web traffic, analyzing your data, and (most importantly) drawing conclusions that can sharpen your online marketing strategy.

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So let’s approach it scientifically. The first step is to understand what kind of visitor data you can track and what, exactly, you should be measuring. When someone comes to your site, data is communicated between your server and your visitor’s own computer. The data is recorded in your server log file. When you access this file (via tracking analysis software), you can learn the computer identity of your site visitors, their IP addresses, what kind of platform they’re using, and which of your site pages they enter on and exit from. More importantly, you can determine the referring sites from which your visitors arrive.

With this data, you can ascertain which web sites generate the most traffic for you, which of your banner ads or links are getting the highest click-through rates, which search engines send the most customers (and which search keywords were used to find you), which of your own pages are the most popular, how long visitors stay on-site, and how many unique visitors you are getting on a per hour/day/week/month basis. You will also know which page your visitors land on when they arrive at your site. And with a bird’s eye view of your overall traffic volume, you will also be apprised of when you get your traffic spikes as well as your traffic lulls.

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Of course, there are more sophisticated approaches to e-metrics. Sending ‘cookies’, monitoring visitor activity (clicks, orders, search queries), and then building detailed customer profiles is one technique used by e-businesses that want to ‘personalize’ the online shopping experience. Once you have a customer profile databased - and that customer revisits your web site - automated scripts customize your site (page banners, promotions and product offers) to that individual’s recorded tastes and shopping proclivities.

Still, there are simpler, more straightforward ways to monitor activity. For one, you can simply get reports from your own internal product search feature to discover what products and services your customers are looking for.

Once you’ve mined this wealth of information, it’s time to analyze, evaluate, and draw conclusions. Of course, it will take a little critical thinking on your part to synthesize your data, make inferences, and build solutions. Deductive reasoning is key if you want to flush meaningful trends from the raw data - and the first order of business is to use your tracking stats to get inside the collective head of your target customers. Who are they (demographically speaking) and what are they focusing in on? What’s hot on your site and what’s not? Do you need to rotate, delete, or prioritize any part of your inventory - or perhaps run a promotion on a specific product line? Do you need to redesign some part of your storefront to eliminate a ‘dead-zone’ where customers suddenly lose interest and etherize? And how can you enhance navigation or scaffold content to streamline your site and optimize storefront impact?

Next, your tracking data should give you a fair estimation of how well your online marketing strategy is doing. With the info from your log file, you can compare the efficacy of different ad campaigns, rate your link and banner swap affiliates, and see which search engines are getting the job done for you. On that note, take the opportunity to review which search keywords are driving the customers you want, and consider optimizing your pages for improved search ranking (your log file will also tell you which search engines spiders have been crawling your site).

Most importantly, look closely at how discrete pieces of tracking data intersect. For example, correlate traffic volume with the launch date of an advertisement in an e-zine. Is the ad driving traffic? What’s the click-through rate? And based on your product search records and customer time-on-site stats, is the ad generating qualified leads or just dizzy looky-loos? If you approach your traffic data critically, you’ll find you have an impressive resource for helping you evaluate your business strategy.

At the same time, one thing to definitely avoid is becoming enamored of your naked data - and sometimes naked data can be pretty sexy. Just remember: 10,000 site hits or a spellbinding click-through rate on an ad mean nothing if you are not getting a serious, plastic-wielding clientele. The point of e-metrics is to provide a window into your web activity and refine your marketing machine. Without keen interpretation - and action - it’s just data for data’s sake.