Sunday, February 10, 2008
Every one’s favorite analyst, Dylan Lewis, started a Web Analytics Wiki back in June 2007. When it launched I thought it was a great idea. A community around web analytics that was a living breathing Wiki. Well then I got busy again and forgot about it. A couple of weeks ago I remembered the web analytics wiki, so I thought I would check it out and see how the community was coming. I jumped to the “recent changes” page and to my delight there were updates from that day.
I jumped to one of the pages to see what the community had developed, and lo and behold this is what met my eye.
Needless to say I was horrified. I made a couple of edits to try to get rid of some spam pages, but if this wiki is ever going to get going again it will take the community to get in there and fix it. So what do you say, let’s all get our iShovels out and get rid of a few pages of spam and help get this wiki back on track again.
Two of my favorite web analytics stars are at it again. It wasn’t difficult to see before that the divergence in their thinking centered around Eric Peterson stating that Web Analytics is hard, and Avinash Kaushik stating that web analytics is complex, and now it is out in the open.
But what is truly at issue here? Is this really the throw down between complexity and hardness?
When I got involved in web analytics back in 2004, I was surprised at how easy it was get good reports out of the tools. But I was also amazed at all the little details I needed to know to make sure my reports were as accurate as possible. Things like whether or not my PDF downloads were throwing off multiple 206 return codes and giving me way too many download counts, or trying to figure out why 80% of my visitors came from Reston, VA. and other stuff like that. Because of this I started saying, “Web analytics isn’t rocket science it is just a lot of information.” In other words, Web analytics is complex.
As I progressed in this field I started to realize that producing the world’s most accurate reports was one thing, getting someone to do something about it was quite another. The actionability crisis was on. And this is where things got difficult. To make an organization that was unaccustomed to paying attention to web metrics to make decisions on this new data set was a monumental task that required not only a strong understanding of their business but also enlisting the participation of executives who could effect change within their organization and bring about a metrics revolution. This is where web analytics is hard. Really really hard. That is why many organizations today still struggle with what most web analytics experts think is commonplace; picking a KPI and then doing something about it. It is hard to get organizations in the habit of doing that. Especially organizations that don’t reward risk taking. In this way, web analytics is hard.
When the Giants beat the Patriots in the SuperBowl, they used the same combination. It was hard to beat the patriots, and to do it they utilized complex schemes of attacking the QB with different guys coming free at Brady. And on the offensive side of the ball they used complex patterns and routes for their receivers and tight ends. Beating the Patriots was hard and to do it they had to implement a complex strategy.
So, at the end of the day web analytics is hard and complex. As excellent web analysts we must be comfortable with both the complexity and the hardship of web analytics.
Eric Peterson and Avinash Kaushik are both right.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
You know you have arrived when you get a reciprocal linking request. This arrived in my inbox today:
Hello,
We visited your site [name] and are interested to swap links
with your site.
We would add your link at the home page of
[URL removed] which will actually
help to increase the search engine rank of your site and give you some
targeted traffic too.
We’d appreciate a link back from the home/internal page of your site for
the mutual benefit.
If you are interested please reply to this email with your link details.
We look forward for your positive response.
Best regards,
Well, it must still work, I guess. There is only one problem, the URL they sent me where my link would go was to a domain that expired five days ago. 
Woops. I mean seriously, get it together. You are going to ask for a reciprocal link, but then tack on a domain that is not there. Maybe the barrier to entry is too low online.
Accenture announced today that they are acquiring Maxamine and Memetrics.
Maxamine is a company that audits a web site with a very specialized crawler, identifying where tags are missing and much more.
Memetrics is a Multi-Variate Testing vendor that has some pretty big name clients.
Overall a really good move for Accenture, if they can leverage the potential of these two companies.
To me, it is a good sign that these acquisitions continue to happen. The space has so many “little” players, and with these consolidations the web analytics industry is “growing up” so to speak. Doesn’t it make you wish you had launched a web analytics solution six or seven years ago?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
If your feed reader is anything like mine, you have no problem getting up to the second SEO info, but my fellow web analytics bloggers are usually a little more taciturn. There are good reasons for this. A good web analytics post takes time to write. It is not some quick rant on why Google’s latest announcement is lame or awesome; it must be carefully considered and thought through. With that in mind here is my list of five Web Analytics Bloggers that I think need to put their spreadsheets down and let the world know what they are up to.
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Eric Butler of
Inside Analytics – Eric always has some interesting news about some cool widget or technical item, and usally WebTrends related. There just isn’t enough of that these days.
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Dylan Lewis of
Passionate Analyst – Seriously good posts always. His thoughtful posts are always enjoyable to read.
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Ian Houston of
Visioactive – Just because you were shortsighted and joined Visual Sciences right before they got acquired, doesn’t mean you should retire from the blogosphere in shame. A real authority on cookie issues and measurement of web 2.0.
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Wendi of
Coremark Analytics – Since I don’t have a statistics background, I rely on the internet to get me educated in this area. Wendi has some posts that are really great, but I need more.
-
So that’s my list, if you know one of these people send an IM or an email and let them know that while writing a blog about web analytics may not make you famous, there are still people who read and enjoy it.
Now, who else has been silent for too long?
Matt Cutts has boldly gone and painted with a broad brush. In a blog post he insinuates a connection between using Google-unapproved SEO techniques and criminal behavior.
For a while now, I’ve had a slight hunch that clients that embrace blackhat SEO on their site are willing to cut corners in other areas of business as well… Can I definitively claim that there’s a connection between a willingness to embrace blackhat SEO and a willingness to cut corners in other areas of business? No, of course not…
The problem with Matt Cutts’ statement is that there is a difference between people who employ blackhat SEO techniques and people who misrepresent themselves to clients in an attempt to defraud them out of money for services performed poorly. In reality the latter is what got TrafficPower in trouble. The SEO methods that they used were ancillary to the wrongdoing they were engaged in.
Mr. Cutts is placing Blackhat SEO usage on the same level as business ethics. That is a fallacy. I am sure Matt would like us to believe that using blackhat techniques somehow compromises your integrity. The imposition of morality is always a tricky thing. Google controls 65% of all searches today, is that a mandate to impose laws on web sites? Does “might make right” on the internet today? The reality is that Google does not have the right to impose morality on anyone.
I can understand the temptation to view blackhat SEO as somehow immoral, but it just isn’t so. Is it a good long term strategy for a site that wants to be around in six months? Absolutely not. However, that doesn’t make blackhat SEO itself a crime. Selling SEO services with a guarantee you knowingly cannot fulfill, that is wrong.
In fairness to Matt he did not make the argument definitively, but it is troubling when the person at Google who is in charge of detecting and defeating spam begins to see his job as the battle between right and wrong in the moral sense.
Like a small child quivering alone in his dark bedroom while mommy and daddy yell at each other in the den, I have marked with concern the recent blog posts coming from Eric Peterson and Avinash Kaushik.
To be fair, it would appear that the first blow was struck by Avinash in his post entitled “Web Analytics Demystified“, which is of course the name of not only Eric’s book but also his consulting business.
And then today I notice a post over one Eric’s blog entitled “Web Analytics: An Hour a Day” which of course is the title of Avinash’s book.
Well, what goes on here? is what I want to know. Here are some possibilities:
- We have seen the first rift in two distinctly different schools of thought as they relate in approach to web analytics. Making way for the inevitable fulfillment of Chris Grant’s prophecy.
- Eric and Avinash are experimenting with being a Fred?
- Eric and Avinash are pulling some sort of friendly joke on each other, and forgot to tell me, not knowing that my world collapses when people I look up to start fighting.
But seriously, I hope that this is all a cool web2.0 thing that we will all look back and laugh about in a month or two, but if it is really a fight, I put my money on…. Oh I don’t know. In the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”
Final Thoughts:
Dang you, Mike Keyes for beating me to the punch on this post!
Warning: This post has nothing to do with web analytics.
As Britney Spears’ life has seemed to spiral out of control, I have thought a lot about it. And while I don’t want this to come off as a sort of “shame on all of us” type of post, I am thinking that someway somehow we got a close up view of a person making consistently poor choices that eventually led to the loss of custody of her children, hospitalization in a psych ward, and the complete destruction of her reputation in the world media.
Although I have never been a fan of Britney’s music, I was intrigued by her fast rise to success. What is the impact on a person’s psyche of being a sex icon before you are even an adult? And as she became an adult, where do you take it from there? The Madonna kiss, etc…? Then the fairly rocky marriage to a guy leveraging his marriage into a career.
What happened? In my life, I have people who will grab me by the shoulders and say something if I am getting off track. Maybe that is what Britney was missing, or maybe she couldn’t trust those people because they were the same friends and family that had profited from her rise to fame. Obviosuly, all speculation.
At the end of the day, I feel bad for Britney Spears. She has to own her choices and live with them, but it is sad for us as a society to see someone go down in flames like that. It makes me thankful for the support structure that I have.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
It has been a very eventful past few months. And Like Mike Keyes I am trying to get up the gumption to post more. Here’s a run-down on my recent whatevers.
- Got a new job, and have begun the transition to Chicago. And while the switch was not fomented by money it is nice to see that I am now being compensated in a fashion that is in line with my 4 years of experience.
- I am expecting child number 2 with my wife, which is awesome. Could I hope for a girl? Either one would be awesome.
- Saw the fizzling of a very promising side project, on account of items one and two, but that’s tuff.
- After a brief review of the data for this blog, I have established with relative certainty that the more you post the more traffic you will get. In web analytics circles we could call that the Marshall Sponder rule.
- I have recently decided to become an Excel expert, and began by downloading every sample Excel spreadsheet I could find by Juice Analytics and Clint Ivy. (You guys make me look smart)
- I watched an amazing video on the TED web site of Hans Rosling explaining some world health and wealth statistics. I dream that web analytics data can be that engaging.
- I still read many many blogs each week, including you if you blog about web analytics, and now since it is officially 2008 I give myself permission to start being engaged with the upcoming presidential election.
Well, that’s the news from this Panera in Elmhurst. May you hit your conversion targets in ‘08.
Friday, September 28, 2007
There have been many discussions about what is the value of web analytics. In fact there is a very interesting Forrester report that shows a significant ROI on a full time web analyst.
But in reality implementing a web analytics tool, producing reports, and even looking at those reports with an analytical eye does not actually create bottom line value.
All of the value of web analytics comes from what you actually do with the data you have analyzed. If you increase spend on MSN because you see that it converts better, then you have started to achieve an ROI on your analytics investment. If you A/B test your landing pages and find a better landing page design that converts better then you have begun achieving an ROI. If you start suggesting product Y when people are buying product X because you have noticed that people frequently buy them together, and you increase your average order value then you have gone down the path towards ROI.
The point is that unless you have thought all the way through your analytics strategy to the point that you have a plan in place to actually apply the data to specific areas you will get nothing from your web analytics investment.
So, what actions are you planning to take with your data?