Yahoo! Web Analytics (YWA) has been available for Yahoo! Merchants for nearly 9 months now. Many of the Yahoo! Merchants who activated the program in the fall are beginning to collect enough data to take full advantage of the system. Only after a year has passed will merchants be able to measure this year’s numbers vs. last years; but in the meantime, YWA still offers full service analytics that can help you greatly fine-tune the performance of your store. Studies have shown that Yahoo! Merchants utilizing YWA are making 30% more than those that are not using the YWA.

If you have not activated your YWA I suggest you do so immediately. Yahoo! Web Analytics will record virtually every click on your website starting from the day it’s activated. To activate your YWA, simply go to your store manager and click on the Analytics Link in the middle of the page. You will be taken to the startup page of YWA. Activation is as simple as the push of a button, no forms or information needed. Yahoo! Web Analytics is currently unavailable for Merchants with Starter accounts and Legacy stores. Anyone with a Standard or higher is free to join.

While YWA is said to be more robust than the commonly used Google Analytics, it is still important to measure this year vs. previous years. Because YWA has only been available since October 2008, this won’t be possible for another 6 months. In the meantime, I recommend using YWA in conjunction with your current Analytics program.