Blog - Business Intelligence

It is my intention to write a number of blogs on this topic and so this is really just an introduction.

Business Intelligence is a specialist aspect of the TWS service. It is the natural extension to the primary objective of an actual website, but is mostly overlooked and underestimated by regular web design companies.

Whilst most web design companies puport to offer 'business intelligence' at its fundemental level, ie getting them to the top of Google, they usually cant. In generall, 99% of web design agencies, at best, offer Google Analytics for traffic analysis. The topic of Google Analytics is one that deserves its own blog but in short, Google Analytics is arguably a terrible system that only leads the blind. Google Analytics essentiall is a tool used by web design companies to baffle their customers. True analytics is a different matter, and one that TWS specialise in.

The term Business Intelligence is obvious and generic but from the point of view of TWS and the services it offers the term was picked up from reading old Times Newspapers from 1840-1900 of which TWS have a lot of. Its interesting to read these old newspapers and reflect on how we do things today. My first observation was that he content was far more 'Technical' or 'truthful' back them. And many of the sections and titles went along the line of 'Business Intelligence from..' or rather titles such as 'Foreign Intelligence from Naples' or 'Underwater Cable Intelligence' or 'Market Intelligence from the Stock Excahnge'. Essentially the term 'Intelligence' simply related to 'news' or 'Information'.

Its with this background in mind that TWS offers 'Business Intelligence', or rather news and information about your business in relation to the web site and its performance.

Essentially the leverage of 'Business Intelligence' is incredibly simple. There is nothing particularly complex about it. Essentially it offers a simple subset of information that allows thinking and decisions to be carried out. In practice this involves monitoring unique hits into a site. The basic analysis simply states x number of hits for a particular day. From there you can start to work on more involved and insightful considerations. However, the principle foundation is as simple as that.

In the first blog thumb below you can see a very simple chart that shows a current live website's traffic month on month. You can clearly see that the most recent months have a much larger total volume of traffic. This is a very simple presentation of one of the simplest facets of web site traffic analysis and communicates clearly a recent growth.

Whilst this is important the discipline of Business Intelligence goes a lot further. It allows us to demonstrate that web sites grow and change. In a more detailed blog I will cover considerations for that type of information, such as spam assaults etc and search engine changes, but in essence we have the most fundemental building blocks to developing useful Business Intelligence from a web site.

However, next we really want to know, what is happening with that traffic. Who is it? Why were they there?

This is an interesting part for me as I just recieved a telephone call from a man enquiring about getting a web site. However, I was a little suspicious because I dont get too many calls like that and I am aware that people often have other reasons for calling, for example, finding out my rates or gauging whether im still in business etc. Essentially I was a little suspicious as I spent 20 minutes awnsering questions and didnt really feel that he was that serious. Many of his questions suggested that he already knew what TWS did and already had a web design company in hand that had fed him information. However, after the call I looked at the COUNTA for my site and saw that at that exact time I had a hit from Google for Web Design Heathrow. See second image thumb.

That changed everything. I asked him how he had found me and he said he had just used Google and thats exactly what my 'Business Intelligence' demonstrated. He suddenly went from being a suspect tyre kicking call to a serious prospect. It doesnt chnge anything prcatically but from a business development perspective I know that my site works for the term 'web design Heathrow' and that this prospect is probably legitimate.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. 'Business Intelligence' offers much more than that and each component is worthy of a blog in its own account. As such i'll skim through a couple of the other major fatures of the premise behind TWS's apprioach to Business Intelligence as a light level introduction with no particualr direction. These features are Company Intelligence and Keyword Performance.

An almost unique feature of the TWS managed service is its company intelligence component. The section for this is actually entitled 'Business Intelligence' and comprised what is called the Business Intelligence Portfolio. The Business Intelligence Portfolio is essentially a list of all the companies that have visited a web site. To start off with you need to have a site that operates at that level. A good example might be a paint sprayer. They might have a BT broadband connection themselves making themselves a 'small business' but their customers could be large companies such as London Transport, British Aerospace, or Rathyeon etc. These comapnaie all have one thing in common, they have a network that propogates their domain in the IP footprint. This means that when a person in that company visits a web site they leave a footprint. This means that if you are targetting a clearly defined market sector you can leverage strong 'Business Intelligence' from the basic web traffic data. Thumb 3 shows a typical snapshot from a live BIP.

If you look at the third thumb graphic you will clearly see a refined list of comapnies that have been on the site, companys such as Castle Engineering, Daisey Wholesale and Doughty Engineering. You can also see how active they are. A 0 indicates that the company has not visited the site in 12 months. This feature is combined with automated email reporting so that customers can bet the list of all the companies that have visited in the last month. This is clearly a very powerful feature, however, it achieves nothing. It is mearly 'Business Intelligence'. It merely informs. It reflects the health of the site and can offer insight into the potential. It can also give you food for thought. However, what you can gauge from this is whether your site is 'healthy' or not. If you expect thses sorts of companies and your not getting them then you know you need to do some work somplace. If your getting them but they dont call, then again you need do some work. And of course, if your getting them and your getting the calls then you know your performing well, and can also develop a reference for noticing change, such as a drop in that kind of traffic.

Once a company is in the Business Intelligence Portfolio when it hits the site it is also highlighted in the principle data display which means you get an instant heads up on an important prospect hitting your site. You can prepare for their potential business and if they dont call, consider why not, and maybe make chnages to target that prospect and make your site more condusive to converting that type of prospect. the company information sector is much larger, and I always like to point out that this service alone is often charged for at a rate of £150/month from companies that offer just that. With TWS is included free for all managed sites.

The other strong feature I wanted to cover breifly is the Keyword Perfomance section. Again, this is a huge component of the TWS approach to Business Intelligence and worthy of its own blog so I will only cover it briefly. Essentially the COUNTA offers advanced keyword perfornance analysis. A key feature which is virtually unique to the TWS Business Intelligence approach to web site management.

In the fourth thumb you will see a list of keywords that TWS has used. (It is worth noting that this is an almost embaressing screenshot as I have not worked this for myself at all). In essence the screenshot shows a table where keywords are entered and their rankings recorded. However, what I have also done is highlight the Google result for 'web design Brentford' with the mouse, which I have also just updated. You can see to the right it says 29 May 15, which is today. The very unique component here is the 'mouse over' which produces the additional bar chart you can see. Thats a mouseover and not part of the basic page and shows the change in keyword performance over the last 2 years. If you look very closely you will see that TWS ranked 12 for that term for virtually two years but upon refreshing it can be seen now to be position 2. Its worth noting that that change could have happened months ago or even a year ago. You can do that for all keywords and you'll see that keywords change constantly over time, sometimes dropoing right out.

The main thing to highlight here is that the TWS approach to Business Intelligence includes tracking each keyword and monitoring their performance over time. Its quite common for customers to point at google and say 'were not there'. It would be funny if it were not so true. You can ask, 'for what? What did you type in?' and they will just point and say 'were not there'. This tool helps to focus on the issues. Search engines are very mechanical. You enter a term and get a responce. That responce could change over time and platform and location, but its still virtually replicable. when the customer says 'we are not there' you can ask them what they typed in, for examples 'hotels' and then help them to explain that that is not an easy term to be number 1 for in google. Then you can suggest trying 'hotels Maidenhead' and bingo, you are there.

This puts us on a new level, the level where we can address a single term, such as 'web design Brentford' and make clear determinations regarding the sites performance and return. This can be updated at any time. An important note is that most web design companies dont get anywhere near this level of Business Intelligence and keyword performance analysis. If they do, it is generally reported externally via a spreadsheet or word document that is emailed or even communicated via a third party 'SEO' web site. A prime strength of the TWS Business Intelligence approach is its ease of communication. The system is integral with the web site and easily accessable. Most people can find their own website, although you cant take that for granted either. (hint, your email address is not your web site address).

I hope that gives the reader an insight into Business Intelligence from the point of view of web sites with a focus on how TWS approaches the matter. I hope it doesnt just sound like a narsistic sales rant. Its not. Business Intelligence is a key compont to any business whether they know it or not. You dont get a bank account and never look at the statments. The same should be true of web sites. It should be an embaressment to any organistion that cant make a postion statement regarding their web sites performance. However, most companies cant do exactly that, and if they do hazard a guess its usually from the top of their head without any proof or use of any facts. Many companies use Google Analytics, but as hinted at earlier, Google Analytics is not a good tool is actually pretty hard to use constructivly and certainly impossible to use with clients that dont have a clue about complicated computer stuff.

As said, TWS will write further blogs detailing the more minute aspects of Business Intelligence and other subjects over time. If you want to discuss the concept of 'Business Intelligence' though, please feel free to call. TWS specialise in serving companies that have a desire to understand how their website works and how they can best leverage the potential for their site. TWS is certain that there is virtually no other web design company that can hold a candle to TWS in this regard.