 Welcome to SEO Analytics. This learning activity is for anyone interested in understanding what web analytics are and how to use them for site optimization. If you think of SEO as a three-layer cake, the layers would be site organization and structure, then site optimization, then analytics. Finally, the finishing touch, or the frosting, would be promotion that includes, among other things, social media, blogging, and paid ads. Web analytics answer two main questions. What are visitors doing and how do they interact with the site's content? What website owners really want to know is, how am I doing? Or rather, how is my site doing? Web analytics gathers data about the how and the what of visitor behavior, so that as a developer, you can make decisions that will optimize content and lead to more or better visitor interaction. What are the content needs and user goals? By understanding how people interact with your content, you can tell what is working and what isn't. Then you can tweak content for better results. Web analytics lets you try different things and see what's working. There are all kinds of websites. Some are informational, others sell stuff. But they all have a purpose or a goal. An informational site might have a goal of attracting a certain number of visitors. While a different site, like mousetraps.com, might want to sell more goods, like mousetraps or services. You can look at visitor behavior in terms of levels of engagement. The lowest is a visit. This is called a hit. Then, if the person stays on the site and takes an action, this is called a microconversion. Some examples of these might be request information, print a page, or fill out a survey. Finally, there are macroconversions. This is when the visitor is converted into a buyer. This can happen in one step, or maybe the result of a series of microconversions. The great news is that with web analytics, you'll have the data to figure this out. Real numbers help to make a case for change. Does one page have a high abandonment rate? You may need to change it. Does another page have a long dwell rate that leads to conversion? Maybe you should have more pages like it. Companies can turn data into dollars by using analytics. A simple internet search will provide you with many options, both free and paid, of web analytics tools. A great place to start is with any of the free tools. These tools will help you to see if you are on track to reach your sites and your company's goals. If you change content or add it, these same tools will help you see the effect of those tweaks and help you track your progress. Once you get a good handle on how you'd like to use data to support your site, you may want to invest in a more robust analytics tool. Gathering and studying your website's analytics is a low-cost way to identify ways to improve your site, ensure that you are presenting engaging content to attract visitors, and convert them to paying customers. You have completed SEO Analytics.