Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

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Here are some more details about each option.

Advanced Tracking Systems

Major providers of advanced tracking systems include Omniture, Web Side Story, Web-

Trends, ClickTracks, and Coremetrics. Free or inexpensive options for smaller busi-

nesses are Google Analytics (see the sidebar “You’ve Gotta Love Google Analytics”),

measuremap for bloggers, and GoDaddy, a website hosting provider that bundles a

tracking service with its hosting options. Consult their websites for more information,

or see our companion site at

www.yourseoplan.com

for links to reviews.

How it works

Advanced tracking systems come in two flavors:

client-side tracking

(also called

hosted

tag-based

, or

on-demand

tracking) and

server-side tracking

. Client-

side tracking generally works like this: You add a tiny piece of code or a tiny image to

every page of your site. This little code communicates with a tracking system located

on the vendor’s server and the information is used to build detailed reports about activ-

ity on your site—for a monthly fee. Server-side systems provide similar capabilities but

stay on your own servers, are purchased like software, and must be set up by your IT

team. See Figure 8.2 for an example of an advanced tracking system.

You don’t need to know the details of how these systems work. You just need to know

how much they cost, what reporting options they provide, and whether your webmas-

ter will let you add the little scripts to the page (you may meet some resistance based

on security concerns).

Figure 8.2

WebTrends data example

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