Web analytics must be based around an initiative of logic and priority, it has been claimed.

According to Adam Canissario, an analyst for Razorfish blogging at Headlight, this is essential for a site that has to achieve opposing goals.

For example, web publishers are often faced with the dilemma of providing quality content while at the same time trying to direct their target audience to a product site.

Mr Canissario explained: "Successfully delivering on the first goal, which will be measured in part by pages visited and time spent on the site, effectively negates the latter one."

What the web analyst must do, he claimed, is measure site engagement along with site referrals to report back to the business owner so that he might get an idea of what needs to be done to improve the portal's success.

To ensure that logical steps are taken and that measures are prioritised to achieve effectiveness on a commercial site, any form of frustration should be eliminated to achieve a balanced solution, Mr Canissario added.

Businesses planning to adopt web analytics for their site should take heed of a recent report which claimed that Yahoo!'s analytics service is better than Google's.

Independent analyst firm CMS Watch found that Yahoo! outshines Google in a number of areas, including its access control options and multi-site analytics.