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Theresa Regli

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Which comes first: WCM or web analytics?

16-Nov-2006

Tags: Web Analytics, Web Content Management, Selecting Technology, , Dynamic Site Platform

Hosted solution vendors WebSideStory and Clickability are both touting recent new releases that highlight the integration of web content management and site analytics. WSS has refreshed its user interface, making it look more like the other products in the lineup, and introduced a new PHP-based templating system, which should allow interaction with databases and create more dynamic pages than WSS has allowed for in the past. Clickability, meanwhile, added ad management to their array of analytics data that can be browsed in the context of their WCMS, allowing content managers to track impressions and click-through rates. It's a common approach from many smaller CMS vendors as they head into 2007: WCMS, analytics, and search in one package, all sold to your friendly neighborhood marketing manager. Don't rush to buy it all at once: "integrated" is a loaded term and suites often aren't as out-of-the-box as you'd hope. Test the whole package with your own content first. Still, as we argued in the most recent edition of The CMS Report, analytics in the context of a Web CMS allows marketers and content managers ready access to relevant information to make smarter publishing decisions.