Well, it's certainly very pretty

Companies are failing to adopt a coherent strategy that ties web analytics data in with business objectives.

Just 18 percent of surveyed firms do so, according to the Online Measurement and Strategy Report from E-consultancy and Lynchpin, MarketingCharts reports.

Over half (56 percent) of responding organizations — 434 client-side and 229 supplier-side companies — said they are still "working on this." 22 percent say they don't have such a strategy.

Just a quarter of company respondents (25 percent) say their web analytics "definitely" provide actionable insights; 56 percent say web analytics only sometimes provides such insight:

Spending on technology accounts for 45 percent of company spending on web analytics, compared with 18 percent for consulting and services and 36 percent on internal staff.

"Our research shows that many organizations are under-investing in internal analytics staff and failing to implement a coherent measurement strategy which can help them turn their data into something of real value to their business," said Linus Gregoriadis, head of research at E-consultancy.

Other key findings:

• The majority of company respondents (58 percent) say half or less of their web analytics data is useful for driving decision-making; more than a third (38 percent) say 30 percent or less of their data is useful:

• The most widespread use of web analytics tools is for reporting traffic figures: 88 percent of all organizations said this is an "important use" of web analytics:

• The next most important function is to help understand customer behavior - deemed an important use by 70 percent of company respondents.
• The vast majority of both company and agency respondents say a common currency is needed for web metrics: 75 percent of company respondents and 69 percent of agency respondents say so.
• From the perspective of client-side respondents, lack of budget and resources is seen as the most widespread barrier to an effective online measurement strategy, with 41 percent of organizations saying so.
• Some 43 percent of organizations do not have any dedicated web analysts.
• About one-third of responding organizations are spending less than £5,000 a year on web analytics. A fifth (21 percent) of companies are spending at least £50,000 a year.
• Two-thirds of those organizations surveyed (66 percent) are using the free Google Analytics tool, which makes it far and away the most widely used web analytics tool.

About the study: Some 700 companies took part in the survey including 434 "client-side" respondents and 229 supplier-side companies (including agencies, consultancies and analytics vendors).

Some 77 percent of company respondents and 74 percent of agency respondents are based in the UK. The rest are split between Europe (non-UK), North America (US or Canada) and other countries, including Australia, South Korea, India and Israel.