Complete Web Monitoring

Analyzing Data Properly

Before we look at how to answer these four questions in more detail, we need to talk about data analysis. Many of the monitoring technologies we’ll cover rely on statistics to analyze millions of pieces of data about thousands of visitors quickly and easily. If you don’t look at that data with an analytical eye, you can easily be misled.

Web analytics, EUEM, VOC, and WIA provide a tremendous amount of raw information about your website. You need to analyze and communicate it properly if it’s going to have an impact on your organization. That means comparing metrics to other things, segmenting measurements into useful groups, and using the right math for the job.

Always Compare

Data analysis is all about comparisons. You should always talk about data with words that end in “er”: better, faster, stickier, heavier, weaker, later. You can compare groups of visitors, periods of time, or versions of content. You can also compare yourself against your competitors.

To compare, you need a sense of what “normal” is—a baseline or control group. The “always compare” rule means your first job will be to establish baselines for key metrics like conversion rate, visitor traffic, web page performance, visitor satisfaction, email inquiries, and call center volume. Only then can you make useful comparisons in future reports.

Segment Everything

Whether you’re trying to judge the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, the cause of a problem, the usability of a page, or the importance ...