3/16/2010
Are You Reviewing Your Web Stats?
Would it surprise you that a lot of strategic discussions about SEO and web marketing include little or no reference to web stats? Talking theory is fine … but those pesky facts frequently get in the way of theories and for that reason should not be disregarded. Sometimes I wonder if marketers avoid scrutinizing their stats because they don’t want to put their strategies to the test. Among other things, your web stats tell you -
- Where your site traffic comes from
- What keywords visitors use to find you
- How long visitors stay on your site
- How popular each web page is
- Whether your traffic and other key metrics are moving up, down, or sideways
This is not bad information to know if you are investing thousands of dollars in SEO, paid search, content development, or social media.
The Best Laid Plans …
Keyword phrases that look good “on paper” don’t always generate the traffic they’re supposed to. Sometimes, blockbuster keyword phrases you would never think of crop up in actual search results – phrases that you would see in a quick glance at your analytics. Brilliantly constructed landing pages can produce embarrassingly high bounce rates. Pages whipped together as an afterthought can turn out to be sticky as hell. Monitoring site performance allows you to spot the good and the bad. More important, it allows you to make adjustments quickly and with a high degree of confidence. There’s really no reason to stumble around in the dark when formulating or evaluating a web strategy, but organizations often do just that. Why does this happen?
Insufficient knowledge base. The staff is unsure of what analytical information is important and what the numbers mean.
Stovepiped internal structures. I’ve seen organizations where the IT departments knows exactly how sites are performing, and yet the sales and marketing departments are not clear on that at all. In other situations, the web development team doesn’t really understand the objectives of the sites they’re building, so it doesn’t know exactly what to monitor.
Lack of time. When organizations are running lean, devoting significant time to analytics can seem like a luxury. It isn’t, but so often happens, when staffing is thin, the urgent displaces the important.
2 Responses to Are You Reviewing Your Web Stats?
Brad, I keep thinking i should be thankful everyday for starting to blog! Stats started as a trend and as something cool to show off. Plus in my early days I had this cool app that showed the countries that brought visitors to my blog. In time I learned what actually matters when it comes to web stats. I’d dare say lack of time is a less important factor than lack of knowledge. A lot of sales and marketing people have heard of something called google analytics or some other stat monitoring service and think they know what needs monitoring. No one has ever trained them and they just caught up some words and tips, that is why they don’t know what to monitor, what to improve, what to ask from IT pros in their teams. As for IT departments, you are right, they often have a way better view on how a site works and performs, but unfortunately they are either never required or lack the time to share that knowledge.
Alina, It’s comforting (or in this case disconcerting?) to know that the two of us, far across the globe from each other, have many of the same professional experiences.
In the early days of web development, it seemed to me that there was a huge gulf between the techies who did the programming and the creative types who dreamed up site designs. Do you think the role of SEO, which involves technical and creative techniques, is in part to bridge the gap?