Over the years of web analysis there have been a lot of different terms for what has now come to be known as “Web Analytics”. This has caused some degree of confusion for many, as I personally have been confused by it myself. There have been many terms: Log Analysis, Web Logging, Site Tagging, Web Statistics, and Web Analytics being some of them. “Web Statistics” and “Web Analytics” seem to be the two more commonly terms used now, but do they refer to the same thing? A lot of services have used them interchangeably, but I believe there is a difference.

When it comes to services on the web, there have been a lot of innovators, and a lot of followers. Of all services available it seems that every one of them falls into two basic categories: Statistics and Analytics.

A service that falls under the “Statistics” category involves an application which collects and assembles your data into useful reports that you can browse at your leisure. The reports are nearly instant, because the data is aggregated as it is collected into the report’s format. Most services offer the ability to go back to previous days and view the data for custom date ranges as well. The reports are usually pretty standard from service to service, although there may be some slight differences in a definition here and there. Generally the reports are pretty static and standard, giving a one dimensional view of the collected data.

Software that falls under the “Analytics” category takes reporting a step further by allowing the user to filter or “dig down” into the data. The reports available are merely the top view with the ability to ask the reports questions. By defining the details of the visitor type you are interested in (e.g. a min/max number of pages they viewed, time they spent, or even which campaign they came through), you can target a portion of your audience that you are interested in to see how they are interracting with your site.

When selecting a package for your business, it is important to determine which kind of service your company needs. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of the data, ask questions, and use the program as a marketing troubleshooting tool, you would do better getting an analytical package that will allow for this kind of flexibility. If used appropriately, an analytics package can provide hugely beneficial insight into your visitors, what they are thinking, and even ways to increase sales and revenue. If you are more curious about measuring total visitors, visits, or pageviews then a statistical package might be better.

Regardless of the package you end up choosing, no site should be without at least a basic ability to measure visitor interraction. The data is too critical to miss if the site plays an important role at all in your company.