RADirect is a networking, storage and security products reseller. The company lists 30 different product lines on its 200-plus page Web site, the majority of which are highly technical in nature. Until the end of 2007, those product lines were supported by data sheets and white papers. When the company did its latest redesign, however, it decided to add video and other Web 2.0 elements such as a blog and JavaScript, hoping to increase conversion and raise the number of page views and site visits per month. At the time, the company got about 50,000 page views and 20,000 unique visitors per month.

Video, in particular, was an exciting challenge for the company, said Orit Levi, RADirect's senior marketing manager. “We really wanted to come off [as] less stiff and less stuffy [in highlighting our] engineers and the products on our "About Us' page,” she said. “But video, for a b2b audience, is a challenge.”

Specifically, RADirect wasn't sure what video format to use—an embedded YouTube application on another embedded video player. The company, in conjunction with Boston-based Web site optimization provider SiteSpect, used Google Analytics to evaluate which video distribution was best.

“We looked at conversions, where traffic came from, how many visitors looked at the video and how long they stayed on the site,” Levi said. “We tested each video we posted, looking at overall conversions as one of the key metrics.”

The key difference between the two formats was what Levi called “bounce rate”—the number of people who landed on a page with video and abandoned it without loading the application. The hosted video had a bounce rate that was quadruple the rate of the on-page YouTube application.

Levi also used analytics to test the video's placement on the Web page, she said. “When the video was the first thing on the page and other content [was] pushed below the fold, conversion to form [people filling out an information request] increased 50%, time spent on the site tripled and all metrics including bounce rate improved,” she said.

Video isn't the only Web 2.0 site feature RADirect tracked using analytics. Levi also keeps track of the site's blog, using the analytics to direct content and posts. At one point, she said, the company was getting too much traffic from unrelated keywords. For instance, in one blog post, RADirect's president, Uri Zilberman, talked about the rampant price discrimination he'd seen during a recent trip to Argentina. As a result, Levi said, “We were ranking high for the phrase, "Don't cry for me, Argentina.' That's not traffic we want.”

Looking at such analytics, she can tell bloggers to include specific search terms and phrases to boost the site's visibility on search engines, she said.

Starting this month, Levi will expand her Web 2.0 analytics efforts, tracking, for example, how well the site's various implementations of JavaScript work, she said. One of the first tests will assess a JavaScript customer navigation element. Levi hopes to determine, for instance, if a scrollable list of existing customer logos works better than one testimonial and links to a full list. M