Twitter announces web analytics tool

Twitter unveiled Twitter Web Analytics at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The new free tool will give website owners detailed information regarding Twitter-driven traffic, something that hasn’t been available from the popular microblogging service up to now.

Twitter’s Christopher Golda wrote in a post on the company’s developer blog : “…people have struggled to accurately measure the amount of traffic Twitter is sending to their websites, in part because web analytics software hasn’t evolved as quickly as online sharing and social signals.” Twitter Web Analytics should change that.

Besides giving website owners data about how much traffic they are getting from Twitter, they will also be able to receive useful information about the effectiveness of Twitter integrations on their websites, Golda wrote.

Technology from Backtype has been utilized in the development of the new product, a company which the microblogging service acquired back in July.

According to Golda, the tool offers three main benefits. Websites owners will be able to, for example, understand how much their website content is being shared across the Twitter network. On top of that, they’ll be able to easily see how much traffic Twitter sends to their site. They’ll also be able to use the data they receive to help discover the most effective position on their website for the Tweet button.

At first, the new product will be made available to a select few, with plans to open it up to everyone later this month or early next.