Today, Web analytics industry experts, leading vendors and organizations that utilize Web analytics announced the formation of the Web Analytics Association (WAA). The mission of the not-for-profit organization is to unite and foster the interests of end-users, vendors, consultants and educators involved in measuring the success of their online business initiatives.

"More than ever before, marketers are required to justify expenses based on metrics. Since the Web is a great medium for measurability and optimization, its no wonder that marketers are drawn to the online world," said Jim Sterne, president of the Web Analytics Association and president of Target Marketing. "But many organizations still don't realize the value of Web analytics or aren't empowered to take action. The WAA sets out to promote issues like education, advocacy and standards to strengthen and stabilize the growing Web analytics industry."

Founding corporate members of the WAA include Coremetrics, IBM, Nedstat, Omniture, Visual Sciences, WebSideStory and WebTrends. Premiere Corporate Members to-date include ClickTracks, Harvest Solutions, HP, Site Intelligence and ZAAZ.

Founding members of the WAA Board of Directors are, chairman Bryan Isenberg, co-founder, Future Now; president Jim Sterne, president, Target Marketing; vice president Seth Romanow, director, worldwide customer knowledge management and analytics, Hewlett-Packard; secretary Andrea Hadley, president, NetSetGo Marketing; and treasurer Andrew Edwards, managing partner, Technology Leaders.

Members of the WAA have the opportunity to participate in many key initiatives through committees. Some of the committees already identified are advocacy to build consensus, promote and advance an understanding of the variety of legislative issues facing Web analytics today; further, the organization will focus on educating the marketplace by developing focused and expert-level education programs.

The WAA intends to be an international organization, and as such, will look to promote an understanding of regional issues throughout the world. Further, they will provide relevant and useful data into trends, best practices and issues facing the Web analytics industry. Once markets are identified that can benefit from Web analytics, the organization will offer technical expertise and recommendations.

"The market for Web analytic products and services is growing but it is still constrained by issues such as awareness, common terminology, and best practices," said Bill Gassman, industry analyst at Gartner. "An association of vendors, consultants, and end-users focused on these issues offers hope that businesses will achieve a better and a faster return on its Web analytic investments."

Added Seth Romanow, vice president of WAA, said, "One of the challenges end-users face is not having a common language for measuring and reporting on key metrics, such as conversions, unique visitors and abandonment. As one of our first tasks, WAA members will review and refine these definitions to provide a better understanding of key metrics and industry benchmarking."