How a CMS Can Help Your Web AnalyticsHow a CMS Can Help Your Web Analytics

We continue to look closely at the intersection between Web content management and Web analytics. There are several important issues here, but one keeps reappearing. It revolves around the growing tendency to use page tags in lieu of (or in addition to) log files for data collection.Distributed Web publishing operations frequently face challenges getting business units to put the appropriate JavaScript "bug" or metatag on all pages, let alone pass the right variables to the collection system. Here's where a content management system (CMS) can help, by allowing administrators to embed page-tag code directly into templates.

In theory, your CMS can also dynamically generate conditional variables for that tag. That will require customization, but if you believe that management requires measurement, it should be well worth it. Support for nested templating seems very helpful here, and CMS Report readers know that not all packages natively bring that kind of template flexibility (c.f., MOSS 2007), but even with the simplest tool, you should be able to at least get started. Please let me know how you fare...Take a closer look at the intersection between Web content management and Web analytics. There are several important issues, but one revolves around the growing tendency to use page tags in lieu of (or in addition to) log files for data collection... A content management system can help by letting administrators embed page-tag code directly into templates.