It always amazes me how many companies have a website and expect sales or enquiries from their site but have no form of tracking on their site to tell them how their website is performing on a usability basis as well as a using the data as a part of their search engine marketing strategy.

As well as this, it never fails to surprise me how many medium to large companies build a website to gain new business, but do nothing to promote their website, instead, go with the idea that build it and they will come.

It is not only important to have a website that is optimised and promoted well, it is also important that if you want your site to do well, that you use the analytical data provided by your website visitors to allow you to see whether or not your website is performing to your level of expectation.

It has been reported that companies investing in web analytics software is on the rise. We could assume that this is because companies are becoming more aware that analysing data produced by your site visitors is a big step forward when creating a website that performs well and enables the company to gain new business from their site.

However, it has also been reported that the global recession has played a part in this.

It is becoming more important for companies to tighten the purse strings and spend more efficiently as well as concentrate more on their ROI.

Therefore, it seems that companies are now beginning to understand that spending a fortune on analytical data without having someone who can interpret that data is about as useful as a plastic frying pan, so there is now a growth in organizations who are looking to invest more in human capital rather than technology.

There are many resources available when it comes to analysing data on the net, and this doesn’t stop at your own website. As well as website tracking software, there are also competitive and search intelligent companies offering indepth information across all industry sectors to give you insight on how you should be marketing your products online as well as discovering more about your target market.

If you are fortunate enough to afford access to these global information services, then it is cruicial you are able to interpret and measure the information as well as apply it to your own website and marketing strategy to ensure your ROI and business growth.

When I first started to work in SEO, I was fortunate enough to be working for a company who allowed me to learn my roll rather than expect me to produce immediate results from a skill that at first I didn’t fully understand. Allowing me to first learn the skill, I was then able to apply what I learnt and the company benefitted from the results.

Being faced with alot of information and not knowing what it means is daunting enough, but being expected to spot areas of improvement as well as creating reports based on data you cannot interpret is a near on impossible task and will hold you back from the benefits of your investment.

So to summarise – it is not only important that you have a platform which enables you to see what is happening around your site, it is possibly even more important that you are able to interpret the data presented to you so you can utilize it and apply it to your own marketing strategy.