When it comes to figuring out where the problem areas of your website are from a usability perspective, analytics can give you very good clues (if not data-driven answers) as to which pages are the culprit.
With good website analytics you can:
- Compare user behavior from one design vs. a new design (A/B testing) by analyzing:
- Exit Rates
- Conversion Rate
- Where users go after they land on the page
- Optimize your top entry pages so that they make sense as an entry page to your users
- Analyze top exit pages for possible usability issues
I've had experience using several of the most expensive analytics suites out there (Web Trends Professional/Corporate, Omniture, etc...).
Thanks to Google Analytics, paying top dollar for your analytics is a waste of money and soon to be a thing of the past. Its completely free, offers everything (and more) that your pricey analytics suites offer, and its even easy to use! :)
Implementing google analytics is as easy as adding few lines of javascript to every page you want to track(similar to the way you do it using Web Trends, only easier).
If you use google adwords, its fully integrated into analytics and will show you the return on your keyword investment.
All in all, its a very good product and I would not make any major site decisions without it. Stop paying and go google :) Google analytics resources: