The result of Yahoo's acquisition of IndexTools earlier this year, Yahoo Web Analytics will provide the company's advertisers, publishers, partners and developers with data and customer insights they can use to maximize their online marketing.

This first release of Yahoo Web Analytics will include integrated reporting and analytics for Yahoo Small Business' 13,000 hosted e-commerce customers. That means that Web shop owners can see in real-time how shoppers are behaving at their Web sites, which in return will help them employ strategies aimed at converting more browsers into buyers.

The service is also available to brand advertisers, delivering enhanced analytics for custom-built and hosted micro-sites. Additional phases of the rollout will happen throughout 2008 and 2009.

Yahoo Web Analytics is being released to stores on a server-by-server basis. As each server is updated, the Yahoo stores assigned to that particular server will be provided access to the analytics tools. There are no specific selection criteria for a store's access date, according to the company.

E-tailers can enable Yahoo Web Analytics when a new "Yahoo Web Analytics" section and "Get Started" link become visible in Store Manager, at the bottom of the Promote column.

The analytics data is aimed at showing online sellers what draws visitors to their sites, how they navigate the site, on which pages they immediately exit (or "bounce" from), what leads to conversions and what causes shopping cart abandonment.

Yahoo Web Analytics standard tracking will capture and report data for almost every scenario a merchant needs to track, according to the company, including:

• Site visits, site referrals, navigation paths, page views, most requested pages, entry pages, exit pages, and bounce rate of all visits .

• Visitor information, including visitor demographics, time spent per page visited, average visit duration, page views per visit, first-time vs. returning visitors, unique visitors, and system information (browsers, operating systems, and screen resolution).

• Conversions, including conversion by search phrases and by entry page URL.

• Product sales performance, including product views, add-to-cart actions, product conversion (includes SKU information, the number of units sold, and revenue per product).

• Products sold together in a cart, for cross-sell analysis.

• Referrals, including search engines, search phrases, referring domains and referring URLs.

• Keyword conversion rates.

• Internal site searches (store pages built with Store Editor only).

• Site actions, including signups, subscriptions, contact forms and canceled sales.

The Yahoo Web analytics site states, "With standard tracking enabled for your site, you can also use the scenario analysis feature, create ad-hoc scenarios, track campaigns, and set up fallback campaigns as a 'catch-all' for campaign tracking. Standard tracking allows you to compare reports and segment data, as well as create custom reports."

Other key features of Yahoo Web Analytics include:

• A browser-based tracking system that uses first-party cookies to collect important visitor data.

• Automated set up of standard tracking for checkout pages and store pages built in Store Editor.

• Tracking code for store pages built with Web Hosting tools, and for merchants who wish to use customized tracking variables.

• Real-time reporting of visitor information and site activity.

• Over 100 reports, with the ability to create custom reports based on your business needs.

• A default executive dashboard that provides a snapshot overview of your site, and the ability to create additional dashboards customized with the key performance indicators (KPIs) and reports you choose to add.

• Custom scenario analysis and ad-hoc scenario reporting.

• Campaign tracking.

• Internal site search tracking (available for stores built using Store Editor only).

• Report segmentation.

• Custom e-mail alerts, event management, color-coding and more.

For an introduction to the Yahoo Web Analytics interface and an overview of key features, you can download the Reporting Interface section of the Yahoo Web Analytics User Guide. (This document is in PDF format and requires Adobe Reader to view.) You can also read more at the analytics blog.

Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.