10 signs you don't understand web analytics

Great article! Some of the points are so on the button they made me laugh! How many times have I watched ineffective design stay because someone "likes it."!!!!!
To those who criticised this - remember the title! It's not trying to tell you what you should do - that's too complex for any article. But this is a fairly comprehensive list of symptoms that something ain't right. All anyone needs to take from this article is that if one or two of these points hit home - you need to do something about it. Most companies are paralyzed with ignorance or apathy regarding web analytics - they need a wake up call before anything else.
If none of this applies to you, congrads! you're in the top 2%.

Loved your post! So many of your points ring so true! I think the last one is my favorite though. Just came from a place like that (notice the past tense ;P).

Came across your article now at the end of 2009 since your article was included in the top 10 for 2009

Over the past two weeks of the holiday season I've read the two leading "pop culture" books on web analytics (Kaushik, Clifton). While any digital marketer worth a dime already knows most of that content, there were some real gems and I recommend you read them.

Key gems (in my opinion):

1. KIA vs. KPI - KPIs are like grade school. KIAs are like university degrees. KIAs are Key Insights Analysis - focusing 100% of the effort on asking questions that can be partially or completely answered through web analytics--and NOT focusing on the KPIs themselves. Ask questions like "how much more could we earn if we changed the results of X by Y percent?" and less "what is my conversion rate?"

2. Importance of ongoing and repeat surveys and heuristic/expert analysis to shift the balance to incorporate the voice of the customer rather than focus on pure web analytics.

3. The fact that being an A player in analytics is actually far more about interpreting the data and voice-of-consumer properly to gain those key insights.

4. 90/10 model - spend 90% of your analytics budget on people and 10% on tools. If you buy into the goal of key insights rather than key indicators, then you need people rather than more technology.

Thanks again for the great contribution!

Awesome Nicole. I laughed (knowingly) as I read #4 and it's referral back to #2.

Unfortuantely, "some people" need to be reminded again (and again) which numbers are important and why. This will likely continue for some time.

However, as you note, if you keep telling them and keep showing results, eventually they'll know what you're talking about and trust the numbers (and you).

You don't say it specifically but hit on it several times - a big part of gaining understanding and enabling changes based on analytics comes from the "presentation" of the numbers.

It's similar the old refrain - Tell them what you're going to do for them, do it, tell them you've done it, then tell them again. Reframe. Reframe. Reframe.

Leading others in your organization to understand analytics makes you and your imput more valuable.

Hi Nicole,

Interesting post. Lots of good tips in there!
I've always found that the use of the Internet for finding information shows, at least partially, demand for a companies' products.
Putting unique views of product pages next to sales for example gives an indication of possible lost opportunities, on which then can be tweaked upon through multiple ways.
Just as setting-up a basic report where unique visitors to your website are put next to callers to your call-center & people coming to your point of sales allows you to add perspective to your marketing reflection.

What we're seeing today is that Web Analytics is certainly not an island. It's often used in conjunction with other data sources or even integrated more and more into BI.

However it's being used, the important thing to remember is that great tools such as Omniture, webtrends, Coremetrics, Google Analytics, Yahoo! Web Analytics, etc. are just that: tools. Just as Word will never right your prose or poetry, WA tools alone will never provide you insight without human resources.
You mentioned Avinash Kaushik's HiPPO rule but I missed the 10/90 rule: for every 10$ spent on a tool, spend 90$ on brains.
Of the different industry reports I read, we're not there yet but the shift is slowly but surely taking place in order to put back the Analytics in Web Analytics and move beyond (monkey) reporting.

Nicole:

Great points on how to use analytics to inform marketing decisions, and I like the way you organized it by "signs."

Later this month, a colleague and I will be speaking on using Google Analytics to drive marketing and our presentation covers many of these same points. As we see it, the most important concept is to get beyond meaningless metrics (like hits) that aren't tied to business goals or KPIs and find information that can lead to Avinash Kaushik's holy grail of "actionable insights."

To put it another way, who's coming to your site and buying stuff and how can you get more of those people?

Good information. I believe it is important to remember that ultimately, your web analytics strategy and implementation must accommodate the necessary fluidity of business. Objectives change, paradigms shift, and healthy business strategies are usually in an evolution of flux. The immediacy of web measurement can be either a blessing or a curse depending on how well you define the objectives and interpret the data. The key in my opinion - set well defined performance indicators that map to the higher business goals, but be open to the possibility that the results may very well challenge both your tactics, your knowledge of the customer, and even the fundamentals of your strategy.

Well written!

Those of you that need to chime in a negative way. Where are you coming from?? PLUTO!!

For all of you that obviously Nicole wasn't talking to… those folks that already know everything. She was not talking to YOU she was talking to me…Yeah the person that sometimes gets a little complacent and sometimes need to take a step back or those that just don't know yet.
These people that criticize need to realize what the big picture is. It is not about you!!
It is so funny… All those that speak they need more information that is "NEW” "more informative" are probably the same people, I am sure, that a decade ago used to ask me "how much money you got” in terms of a SEO budget. In retrospect we now know it was just a matter of a few days of keyword stuffing and that is how they justified their 30K, all about money.
What are the words I am trying to think of… Hmmm f**k y*u maybe works…. Naahhh… It is more like YOU ARE READING THE WRONG F**kin article. Go away. I hate people that shoot snipes to make them self fell good.

Thank you for the valuable and insightful responses to my article today. I have learned a lot from those who have chosen to comment.

Jack, like Rick says, maybe my follow-up article will be able to provide more 'valuable information.'

Amman, You are right, every business does have different goals. I apologize if I was not able to convey more specifics in this article. I'll try to next time.

Michael, thanks for the support and great analogy :)

Rick, thanks for understanding my intentions with the article's layout

Barbara, I appreciate your kind words and reference

This is a really good article: comprehensive, organized, relevant and succinct. The time spent in preparation is obvious. I intend so share w/clients and colleagues.

Barbara

Nicole, I thought you presented a lot of good information in this post -- and by pointing out what others don't know, you're really showing them what they need to learn. Explaining all the nuances to Web analytics and the proper techniques would probably take many more words than you were alotted for this post. Maybe you get into the "valuable information" in a follow up?

This is a great post Nicole. It seems like people don't really want to learn how this stuff works, but they still want to control how others use it.

Either learn how it works, or trust the advice of the folks looking at the numbers- isn't that what you pay them for?

I don't tell my mechanic what to inspect on my car because I am clueless in that area. As long as I trust him, I make the repairs he suggests.

Jack, I agree with you.

Nicole, It is easier to point out what others don't know. How about you providing solutions to what people don't understand about web analytics. Every business is different and has different goals and unless you know the true path that the company is on, you can't really say that if a company is not doing something it means the people working there don't know much about analytics.

It might be useful if you would share some of the "valuable Information" that you refer to.
Analytics undoubtedly is here to stay and a wise decision maker knows what they mean to his or her company. Your tone is both annoying and uninformed. You sound like those 80's computer guys(my mother complained about) before everybody caught up with the jargon. That is a weak thread to hang your future on!