Archive for 'Web Analytics Blogs'

Those of you who have been following the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo! groups will no doubt be as excited about this announcement as I am: I am delighted to let you know that Paul Holstein, co-founder, Vice President, and COO at CableOrganizer.com will be taking over for Daniel Shields here at the Web Analytics Demystified weblogs.  Paul has been a long-time contributor to the Forum, both in the conversation and behind the scenes, and despite the fact that he once told me that “web analytics was just a hobby” he has demonstrated his expertise time and time again.

What happened to Daniel?  Dan has taken a big step forward in his career, co-founding Wicked Business Sciences with Paul, and Nicolas Dubus and getting into the consulting game.  Given the list of service offerings these guys have already I have little doubt they’ll be hugely successful.

I will keep Dan’s posts up for the time being but they’ll be in Paul’s blog (although their original URLs should work just fine.)

Paul has indicated that his style will be short-and-sweet, touching on a relevant subjects as they creep up in his business, in the Forum, and at great conferences like the X Change (where you can meet Paul in person!)

Paul’s “welcome, Demystified” post is up and I would encourage you to check it out if for no other reason to add Paul’s blog to your RSS feeds.  (I have already added Paul to the “All Web Analytics Demystified Weblogs” super-feed, just in case you want to subscribe to our writing en masse … http://feeds.feedburner.com/AllWebAnalyticsDemystifiedBlogs)

If you’re considering coming to San Francisco for the X Change conference on August 17, 18, and 19 but are still wondering what the conference has to offer you may want to check out these interviews I did with Lars Johannson last week and Larry Freed this week.

Both guys asked good questions — my favorites were Lars asking “If someone only has the money and time to attend one conference, how should she choose between industry “default” event eMetrics and challenger X Change?” and Larry’s “With a “total absence of sales messaging and sponsored talks”, who will pick up the bar tab?”  Larry’s question reminded me that June, David, and I should probably start planning some kind of conference-associated Web Analytics Wednesday event since we had such a great turnout last time we were in San Francisco!

Check both posts out when you have a chance:

• Eric T. Peterson Answers Questions About X Change
• An X Change with Eric Peterson

If you’re interested in the conference, check out the official web site at Semphonic.

Matt Belkin of Omniture recently posted on a few of the pitfalls companies fall into when deploying web analytics. I was pretty surprised to see Matt, someone who was worked in this field nearly as long as I have, make the following statement:

“Analytics success is all about building a baseline for performance (your KPI trend), and trying new things to improve on this baseline. That’s it! That’s why I think it’s easy. I know other bloggers have argued that analytics is hard, but I’ve done this for a living and I can tell you that it’s not.”

Ironically enough I have been meeting many of Omniture’s largest customers recently, none of whom seem to think web analytics is easy. They universally have some difficulty associated with technology, people, or process—the triumvirate that is truly “web analytics”—and I suspect many of them had the same response I did when I read Matt’s statement above.

I quickly scribbled out the following response late last night but for some odd reason it has not been approved yet. I figured I’d post my comment here so that Matt and his customers would have a chance to read an opposing point of view.

“Hysterical! I talk to Omniture customers constantly who complain about how hard it is to do the most basic things like calculate bounce rate, integrate data using your Genesis platform, make sense of your reports, and even just get the data they need when they need it.

Perhaps the problem that you and people like Stephane Hammel are having with my statement is something called the echo chamber effect. You say something for so long, and your buddies all repeat it, that eventually you ignore the reality of the situation and begin to believe something that is clearly not true. Seth Godin accused me of doing this once (he was wrong, it turned out, people are deleting cookies … you’ve said so yourself!)

But you’re wrong, Matt. Web analytics is hard. Ask your customers, they’ll tell you.

It’s not just hard to improve your baselines, it’s hard to implement code properly, it’s hard to understand reports and definitions, it’s hard to find qualified staff to run these applications, it’s hard for HR to stomach the salaries we are asking for, it’s hard to train newbies, it’s hard to produce quality analysis based on only quantitative data, it’s hard to get management to listen, it’s hard to make management understand, it’s hard to select a good vendor when so many are failing, it’s hard to know if and when to migrate off of HBX, it’s hard to know which low hanging fruit to pick, …

You get the picture.

You make my point yourself in your post. If there are multiple versions of the truth, it’s hard to know who to trust. If there are multiple systems, it’s hard to know which system’s “click” is the right click to count. If you yourself have had to spend “countless hours trying to reconcile differences” in data, how is that “easy?”

In a way I’m happy you wrote this post because it reinforces everything I say when I travel the globe and meet with your biggest customers. They say “Our vendor says this is easy … there must be something we’re not getting.” I say, “Why would you expect your vendor to tell you that web analytics is hard? Would that make the sales process move forward more quickly? Would that make you more likely to buy their ever-expanding series of offerings? Would it make you think you won’t end up spending more money counting events, creating custom reports, or adding ad hoc segmentation tools?”

No. If you told the truth about web analytics, your prospects and customers would think twice about their investment. But that is exactly what companies need to do to be successful, really successful, with web analytics — take the science of audience measurement seriously!

When I say “web analytics is hard” I’m not saying that it is impossible, I’m not saying it’s not complex, I’m not saying that it is best left to the experts, and I’m not saying that companies should give up and go home. I’m saying that vendors, consultants, and customers should set their expectations regarding web analytics appropriately.

In my humble opinion, your customers need to know that web analytics is hard so they can:

1. Plan to spend a reasonable amount of time determining their needs
2. Allocate resources appropriately for implementation and deployment projects
3. Set expectations with management about when results will begin to appear and what will need to be done with those results
4. Make the case to management when they need additional resources, more software, or more time
5. Have an appropriate relationship with their vendor, based on clear expectations

When people are told that “web analytics is easy” they take their investment for granted. They expect that a “standard implementation” or something that comes from a cut-and-paste template will serve their needs, that a 0.25 FTE will be enough to produce analysis, that results will be available in a matter of days, that the software they have will solve all their problems, and that they won’t need their vendor’s support from time to time.

In a way it’s ironic that you say “web analytics is easy” given Omniture’s obvious commitment to their customer’s satisfaction — Larry Freed of ForeSee Results taught me that satisfaction is a function of expectation; when you say “I’ve done it, it’s easy brah” then as soon as they realize the truth, you’ve failed to set their expectation correctly and thusly they’re unsatisfied.

With the increasing numbers of your customers experimenting with less costly tools, I would think that customer satisfaction would be your #1 priority.

I doubt you’ll publish this comment and I suspect you’ll be pissed off at me (again) for voicing an alternative viewpoint but consider this: I’m not saying anything bad about Omniture or any of the companies you guys are buying. I think Omniture is a great organization full of incredible talent. I think the market position you’ve carved out is enviable. I think you guys have tremendous potential to advance the market, driving adoption of Web Analytics 2.0, Web Analytics 3.0, and beyond.

“Web analytics is hard” isn’t about any vendor technology or any one person. “Web analytics is hard” is about your customers and their ability to use your technology and your guidance to their greatest advantage.

When you say “web analytics is easy” you’re oversimplifying what is involved in being successful with web analytics. When you say “I’ve done [web analytics] for a living and I can tell you it’s not [hard]” you’re not paying attention to what your customers are going through. When you say “from your perspective, it’s just not that hard” you’re demonstrating your intelligence but not your wisdom. In fact, your statement “Analytics success is all about building a baseline for performance (your KPI trend), and trying new things to improve on this baseline. That’s it! That’s why I think it’s easy” really says it all.

Suffice to say I was bummed to see this hyperbole and tired rhetoric in an otherwise insightful post.

Sincerely,”

I think it’s one thing when people evangelize for free products as an easy-to-learn entry point into the market, and another entirely when one of the market leading vendors makes such bold and (in my opinion) unfortunately misleading statements.

Our collective ability to be successful depends on having clear expectations, not false ones, and our satisfaction is a function of our expectations. I think Matt is setting the wrong expectation with his comments. What do you think?

What does the future hold for web analytics, indeed? During my tenure at JupiterResearch I was more-or-less paid to predict the future, but at best I was right maybe 50% of the time. I think I predicted (correctly) that Google would give Urchin away, but I probably also predicted that Microsoft would acquire WebTrends (incorrectly) as a result. Such is life.

Fortunately I am smart enough to surround myself with really smart people, which is what I have done at the newest Web Analytics Demystified weblog: The Future of Web Analytics, Demystified.

What Joseph Carrabis (my partner) and I are doing at “The Future of” blog is creating an opportunity for some of the brightest voices in our community to wax philosophical about where we’re all going and what things will look like when we get there. In the last two months we’ve had excellent conversations started by the likes of Joseph Carrabis (NextStageEvolution), Rene Dechamps Otamendi (OX2), and most recently Mr. Ian Thomas of Microsoft fame.

The unique thing about this web analytics blog is that posts and comments are basically peer; we’re looking for long, well thought out comments that add something to the conversation. And as odd as it sounds we’re not approving navel gazing, fawning, and trackback/ping so that we can keep the conversation moving!

If you’re a long-time reader of my personal weblog I would strongly encourage you to subscribe to The Future of Web Analytics, Demystified. More importantly, if you’ve got a big brain and want to help us work collectively in an effort to figure the future out before we get there, we welcome your comments. Alternatively, if you have a prediction, see a problem, or want help resolving a problem that you struggle with, I’d love to hear from you about being an author in the Future Collective.

If you’ve been doing more than just reading my blog, you probably noticed that I massively updated the Web Analytics Demystified web site over the past week. Thanks to Jeff, Judah, and dozens of other kind folk who gently pushed me to build a site that was more reflective of the work I’m doing now.

Aside from an overhaul for the look-and-feel of the site, here are some of the things you may want to check out:

• A substantial overhaul of the Web Analytics Wednesday site including the addition of new sections letting participants share their experience, information about how my company is now sponsoring events around the world, and better navigation tools for folks looking for local events.
• An overhaul of the jobs section of the site, including an updated RSS feed for jobs, job content integrated into site search, better navigation for jobs, and an overall cleaner look.
• The addition of new charting and trending tools to the Vendor Discovery Tool, which I’m really excited about since it makes it much easier to explore market relationships between vendors.
• A much cleaner process for purchasing copies of my books, as well as the ability to purchase copies of Web Site Measurement Hacks and standalone copies of the key performance indicator worksheets that come with The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators.
• An exciting new blog with Joseph Carrabis and (hopefully) a bunch of really bright people from inside the measurement community and out, The Future of Web Analytics, Demystified.
• RSS feeds for all major content areas of the site including research, consulting, jobs, Web Analytics Wednesday, and a universal feed for my, Judah, Daniel, and the all new Future of Web Analytics, Demystified blog.

There is a lot more but it’s probably better if you just come back to the site and have a look rather than my trying to describe it all.

If you find any bugs please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email and let me know. I very much welcome your feedback on the new site and am open to suggestions. I have a handful of initiatives that I’m still working on, including some stuff around Web Analytics Wednesday, but welcome your ideas.