Web Analytics Understanding user behavior and ... - pace university

ABSTRACT
The information on the internet is acquired through surfing the web, searching on the web using
search engines. The keywords used by people are the vital link to the information they need. The
retrieval of the web pages by the search engines largely depends on various search technologies,
largely proprietary technologies. The returned page if it matches the users needs or not depends on
the user himself. As a result the search engines based on their generic search algorithms retrieve
the web pages based on the keywords used by the user, the occurrence of the key word on the web
page, meta tags, links pointing to that page etc. Many at times we often click on the page returned
by the search engine to find what we are looking for. But because of web pages becoming too
lengthy, complex, big, we often end up searching on the returned page itself.
Web sites have been developed using latest technologies, large amount of time, money and effort
has been invested by entities using them. As a result the knowledge about whether the site is user
friendly or search engine friendly is not being used to make the site more efficient and decrease the
time spent by the administrator in making it user friendly.
Corporate sites, online store web sites, and educational sites are information banks which need to
give value to the web site users at any given time. When an internet surfer searches for information
on the web and reaches a website, it means that he/she has spent considerable time and effort in
trying to find what is needed. Many web sites invest in personalization technologies where the user
takes the time and effort to personalize what he or she needs. But the personalization done by the
web sites for the user/users at their end is less. At any level, it's the user who himself has to tell the
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