Yahoo Web Analytics goes FREE (Best web analytics tool so far for your Wordpress BLOG)

Yahoo Web Analytics is the result of Yahoo’s acquisition of IndexTools back in early April, a web analytics software provider geared toward online marketing. Yahoo Web Analytics boasts “near real time” data aggregation and visualization, which will be a significant leg up on Google Analytics’ typical 8 to 12 hour turnaround time.

Yahoo! currently intends to provide the IndexTools Web Analytics service FREE of charge to clients and partners who accept the standard Yahoo! agreement.

There are 2 main options when it comes to tracking using Yahoo Web Analytics -

First is the more traditional conversion tracking analytics. Or what Yahoo refers to as “Conversion Only Analytics”.

Just like we are all doing already, pay-per-click advertisers can place a java script tag (Conversion Tag) onto their confirmation page to help track form completions or shopping cart purchases. This conversion information can then be used to help avertsiers optimize the performance of their ads.

And the second option - is a newly released anaytics functionality called ‘Full Analytics’.

Full Analytics allows advertisers to take a deeper look into their online sales funnel by showing them the full path of their visitors from start to finish. Rather than simply relying on just a conversion tag to provide visitor data, advertisers can now place up to three different tags on their pages to help aid in visitor analysis.

The three new tags consists of a ‘Universal Tag’ and two Event tags. Event tags are broken down into a ‘Prospect Tag’ and a ‘Conversion Tag’.

The ‘Universal Tag’ is used to track your visitors from page to page (visitor path). It is used on each page that the advertiser wants tracked.

The Event tags are used to record events that happen on your web site (ex. form completions or purchases). With event tags, the advertiser has the option to track up to 5 different events.

The ‘Prospect Tag’ is used to indicate a visitor’s intent to transact. For example on a checkout or signup form page, a Prospect Tag would be used.

The ‘Conversion Tag’ is used to monitor that a visitor has completed a transaction. This tag of course is similar to the Conversion Only option that is mentioned above. The Conversion tag is placed on a purchase or form completion (confirmation/thank-you) page.

Once an advertiser tags their pages with these three pieces of code, they are now armed with the ability to view a full conversion funnel. The full funnel includes data on Leads, Browsers, Prospects, and Conversions.

Lead: A visitor who arrives at the advertier’s landing page after clicking on their ad (tracked with Universal Tag).
Browser: A visitor who views more than one page (also tracked with a Universal Tag)
Prospect: A visitor who reaches an “intent to buy” page (tracked with a Prospect Tag)
Conversion: A visitor who reaches a call to action page (tracked with a Conversion Tag)

Together with the data that is already tracked through the advertiser’s campaign, the advertiser can now view Impressions -> Clicks -> Leads -> Browsers -> Prospects -> Conversions

On a side note, the advertiser can also pass revenue and transaction IDs into their Conversion Tag. This information allows the advertiser to track data such as overall revenue, ‘return on ad spend’, and individual transactions within the same visitor session.

In conclusion, ‘Full Analytics’ is going to give an advertiser much more insight about their visitors beyond just plain old conversion tracking. With more insight about their visitors, advertisers can make better decisions about how they go about optimizing their ads.

The better advertisers optimize their ads, the more relevant those ads will be. The more relevant those ads are, the better the chance that those ads will be ranked in a higher position (based on Yahoo’s new ad ranking formulas). The higher those ads are ranked, the more traffic they will receive.

Yahoo - Full Analytics Overview