Web Site Measurement Hacks

Hacks 91–100: Introduction

Now that you’ve read a seemingly endless number of hacks describing the data and what you should do with it, all that is left is to communicate the value of that data to your organization. Should be a piece of cake, right?

Then why do so few organizations actually share their web data throughout the company?

Data collected by JupiterResearch indicates that most companies don’t share the data they collect about their successes online broadly or frequently enough. By broadly, I mean with enough people in the company; it’s not enough to have a small group of webmasters look at the data; you have to get everyone thinking about how the web site is being used to drive business success. In terms of frequency, only 32 percent of companies look at their web data on a daily or weekly basis, while half that number look at the data on an ad hoc basis.

You will be successful with your investment in web site measurement only if you’re able to get people throughout your company to care about the data. To do this, you have to massage the data into a format they’ll understand, present it in a way that speaks directly to their interest in the Internet, and support it with training and higher-order analysis.

Sometimes It’s How You Say It

In terms of translating the data into a format that people will understand, perhaps the best analogy is the stock market. Anyone who is interested in playing the market has access to vast volumes of information about every publicly held company ...