Summary : The Internet bubble may have burst, but Internet marketing is stronger than ever. Paid search engine advertisement is growing at a stratospheric rate of 25% per quarter (not per year). Internet sales are growing at a rate much faster than overall retail sales. The Amazon stock has nearly tripled in a year.

The Internet bubble may have burst, but Internet marketing is stronger than ever. Paid search engine advertisement is growing at a stratospheric rate of 25% per quarter (not per year). Internet sales are growing at a rate much faster than overall retail sales. The Amazon stock has nearly tripled in a year.

What is happening is that all organizations, even small ones, are realizing that Internet hype may have been overdone but the importance of Internet marketing is growing stronger every day. Internet marketing is all about bringing traffic to your web site, and then converting this traffic into achieving your strategic goals, be they selling goods, building awareness or delivering information.

In this context, understanding traffic to your website gains critical importance. Simple metrics such as counters or page views are totally inadequate in the marketing context. Marketing managers and small business owners need to know who is visiting, from where and when, why they are visiting and what they are doing when on the website. These are the 5Ws of Internet marketing.

Currently this type of analysis is being conducted in two ways: Weblog analysis and Tracking code analysis. The web logs are provided by Internet service providers, and there are both online and offline tools to conduct the analysis. Tracking code analyses are provided online by several providers such as Hit Box and Web Site Traffic Report.

Although both types of analyses are supposed to count the same thing (visitor actions on the website), there are technical differences that are subtle in scope, but significant in impact. Tracking code systems are generally more direct and more accurate. Further, tracking code systems are relatively so inexpensive (usually starting at $10/month) that every organization should investigate the value of their use. The cost of using inaccurate statistics far exceeds the minor cost of tracking code systems.