Web analytics is the analysis, measurement, collection and reporting of internet data to understand and optimize web usage.
Yes! Web analytics is useful as it is not only a tool for measuring website traffic but it can also be used as a tool for market research and business research. These applications can also help organizations measure the results of traditional print advertising campaigns. It helps you to estimate how the traffic to the website changed after the launch of a new advertising campaign.
Web analytics provide data on various visitors, page views etc to gauge the popularity of the websites that will help you to do the market research.
There are two categories of web analytics:
On-site web analytics
Off-site web analytics
On-site web analytics measure a visitor’s spend time once on your website. This includes its conversions and drivers. On-site web analytics measures the performance of your site in a commercial context. This data is compared against key performance indicators for performance and is used to improve a marketing or campaign’s audience response.
Off-site web analytics refers to web measurement and analysis regardless of whether you own or maintain a website. It includes share of voice (visibility), the measurement of a website’s potential audience (opportunity) and buzz (comments) that is happening on the Internet as a whole.
So, for your business research, Web analytics tool is very useful.