Six Steps to Elevating Web Analytics in Your Organization September 3, 2008

A website exists to further the organizational objectives of its owners.  Those objectives are directly related to the nature and purpose of the organization. For example, the challenges for pure online companes like Amazon.com, Overstock.com, eBay and others are quite different from bricks-and-mortar businesses with online presence, which in turn is completely different from government agencies, universities or non-profit organizations.

Large organizations, particularly those with online/offline operations, have many competing interests and stakeholders. It is imperative for the organization to know whether their website is pointed in the right direction, whether it is structurally sound and able to deliver on its objectives, and whether landing and conversion event pages are being optimized over time.  To the extent a site does this, it is in turn contributing to the organization’s larger goals and objectives – their true KPIs – increase leads, increase revenue, decrease cost per customer, improve self-serve rates, decrease complaint rates, increase inventory turn rate, etc.

Visitor measurement enables organizations to determine the effectiveness of their online presence.  Online web analytics has received, and continues to receive, significant attention. A whole new discipline and career choice has emerged. Articles and blogs are written about it.  It has its own industry association. Events have evolved that are devoted to it. All these things have cemented the term “web analytics” firmly in the online dictionary, and linked it at the hip with “visitor traffic”.

The downside is that online metrics have taken on a life of their own, as if the website is separate from the organization.  The development of web-specific KPIs for example, puts the focus on short-term goals, not organization goals.  While measuring web analyics data points that contribute to the organization’s overall success metrics is valid, those measurements are only a piece of the puzzle.

Management is bombarded everyday by people who claim to have the one thing to cure all ills.  Managers may not understand the web environment well enough to ask for analysis that goes deeper than conversion rate or page views or any of the other basic measurements, and frankly, they shouldn’t be expected to.   What they want is the “big picture” information, and what they need are people that understand these dynamics and that can be proactive in putting the web analytics information into the broader perspective.

In the recent “Where in the Organization is the Web Analyst” Survey, when asked “How do you feel about your web analytics activities”, 41% responded that they are frustrated because the organization does not act on the information, and 30% indicated they are overwhelmed with the amount of information they have to deal with.  I believe this is a symptom of the internal disconnect between online and offline objectives.

And in the face of chaos lies great opportunity

With that framework, here are six things I believe savvy web analysts can to to raise their profile within their organizations.

1. Understand the total business. Are you in an organization where inventory is important?   Are you in an organization where supplying information or support after the sale is vital? Are you in an industry where the website drives leads for sales that occur offline?  Are you a non-profit whose goal is to educate people and secure donations?  Are you in a government agency, providing information and services to citizens? Are you in the news business, where despite falling subscription rates, lots of people still get their news from the daily paper?  Even if you are in a business that “grew up” on the web, offline activities such as fulfillment, customer service and returns come into play.
2. Understand how your organization measures itself against its strategic goals. If you don’t know what the overall organization goals are, ask. If you don’t get an answer, keep asking.
3. Identify the “goal gaps”. Think about how the website contributes to – or gets in the way of – those goals, and identify how the information you see every day sheds light on where the two are aligned and where they are in conflict with each other.
4. Apply the 80/20 rule. With enormous volumes of data, it can be difficult to know what to focus on – another issue pointed out in the Survey results.  As you gain more clarity around the organization’s goals, and how the strategy for the website supports them, focus on the 20% of the visitor data that supports overall organization goals, and disregard the rest.
5. Frame your conversations with management in the broader context. Even if you don’t get it exactly right, at a minimum, you’ll make your boss aware that you are interested in the success of the business as a whole and you’ll create an opportunity to expand the conversation.
6. Widen your circle. Seek out and network with the people in your organization that are responsible for web standards, search optimization, search marketing, overall site quality, responding to customer comments about the site, responding to customer inquiries that come in through the site.  Encourage them to share their insights with you and share yours with them.

Web analysts that can get outside the box, look at the nature of the organization they are part of, think about why it is there and what its goals are, how the website fits into the picture and what other moving parts impact decisions, and present their data in that context will elevate web analytics – and themselves – in the organization. Those that focus on short term goals based on web-specific KPIs risk being sidelined.

Do you agree? Disgree? Let me know your thoughts.