Web Analytics India

Web Analytics – Is it worth the trouble?

contributed by Francis Joseph

It has been almost four months since I was authenticated as a web analyst. The first few days of training and thereafter being on the job were tough. Not to say how confusing they were, considering all I could hear were these weird chants primarily focusing on visits and page views, coupled with visitors and other weird metrics.

I found these days and the man-hours spent during this time a complete waste. Not just to me, but to all those who were paying me, and, especially to those who were paying them. I could not, for once, see the point of how the numbers I was handling could help anyone, or push anything to the point of consideration based on what I was doing. It was all so redundant, the same figures. I was told that as long as the linearity of the graphs was maintained, both of us, pertaining to us analysts and the designers working with the content writers, were doing a good job.

Perfection was an obvious peak in traffic, when achieved by the site. The analysts had to get that on their monitors and present it to the people responsible, so that they could, maybe, get the line graphs embedded on a sheet of golden paper, and get diamonds stud in to mark the dates, and the date ranges I believed. Day-in and day-out I would work hours on, trying hard to cope with the numbers game, and to somehow get what was asked of me and more. But all the work I did never compensated for the inquisitiveness that had already set its roots deep inside me.

Then there was the revelation. Two months into the job and I was asked to take up this new project with one of our clients. The work was going to be limited but the experience that presented itself, promised a lot. This was my first time interacting directly with a client. A major project, invested money, invested expectations etc… I remember how there was an unexplainable frenzy in the office two days before the micro site was going live. There were people pointing to my cubicle, and in a way this presented me with a larger responsibility than what I was sure of having.

The micro site did go live and the log files were downloaded after 14hrs of hectic traffic (we presumed). The profiles were run, the data, keenly awaited. This turned out to be my first-hand experience to such amazing reactions. An accounts manager, responsible for the design of all the e-mail campaigns and the e-mail blasts was restless enough. A GTM who was curious enough, actually took the pain to come up and sit next to me for the final few seconds of the processing. But he was naïve in his attitude, assuring me that this session is again, going to be one of those involving staring at some numbers and then cautiously giving me a “uh-huh its ok”. But it was different this time. The chat was on, as the processing completed. 345 visits. “Not bad for the first day” said one, “Brilliant!” said another. The traffic source verification pointed out, how the mailing campaigns had all worked and managed to attract target customers for their first look on the site and examine its content. It even pin pointed which ones out of the targeted visitors had actually bothered to take a look.

With all the smiles around me, I felt as if I was the one who was directly responsible for these figures. With the thousands of dollars that was said to be invested in the whole project it was amazing to see that phase-1 was branded successful.

I could finally picture the power of Web-Analytics. I realized it is not just a tool wherein you get to know the performance of your web-site in terms of how many views, visits and visitors but if used properly it could act as the most comprehensive back end for your sales team. Which would now, other than just presume intent with interrelated Sudoku puzzles on demographics, have vital proof that distinguishes a visitor to a prospect customer. Data could help build future campaigns, and costs could be cut as focus could now shift to the ones who were surely believed to be interested in the product.

It provides the technology with the powers of converting a visit to your website which can be left unnoticed to a sale and a unique visitor to a Client. And as few believe, daily trends have no importance and trends need to be observed for longer periods of time, I found out how a situation as I found myself in, what was most important were daily trends(hourly if possible) as they were the only measure of success of massive campaigns.

Web-Analytics, for now may be a luxury to some, and for the more economically established companies due to the expenses related to setting up. But one thing for sure, at least in the retailing section, is that as the influence of the internet increases, and the attitude of the lackadaisical people, wanting work done with the click of a few buttons rather than wasting time on transit and encouraging physical or any psychological exertion, I am sure the now prevalent want for web-analytics will turn into a need for the same, as the site owners will want the knowledge of who wants what and how badly they would want it.