analyzing the data of clients that visit a company website can be important in order to remain competitive. this analysis can be used to generate two findings for the company, the first being an analysis of a user's clickstream while using a website to reveal usage patterns, which in turn gives a heightened understanding of customer behaviour. this use of the analysis creates a user profile that aids in understanding the types of people that visit a company's website. as discussed in van den poel & buckinx (2005), clickstream analysis can be used to predict whether a customer is likely to purchase from an e-commerce website. clickstream analysis can also be used to improve customer satisfaction with the website and with the company itself. this can generate a business advantage, and be used to assess the effectiveness of advertising on a web page or site.