Web Analytics: An Hour a Day

Book Description

Web Analytics: An Hour A Day is the first book by an in-the-trenches practitioner of web analytics. It provides a unique insider’s perspective of the challenges and opportunities that web analytics presents to each person who touches the Web in your organization. Rather than spamming you with metrics and definitions, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day will enhance your mindset and teach you how to fish for yourself.

Avinash Kaushik is a expert in web analytics and author of the top-rated blog Occam’s Razor (http://www.kaushik.net/avinash). In this book, he goes beyond web analytics concepts and definitions to provide a step-by-step guide to implementing a successful web analytics strategy. His revolutionary approach to web analytics challenges prevalent thinking about the field and guides readers to a solution that will provide truly informed and actionable insights.

In Part I, Avinash explains why traditional web analytics is dead and introduces the Trinity mindset and strategic approach for web analytics. He then details the data collection options at your disposal for robust analytics and the pros and cons of each methodology (such as clickstream, outcomes, research, and competitive data). He concludes Part I with a deep dive into qualitative data and its critical role in any web analytics program.

In Part II, Avinash provides insights that will challenge your knowledge of what it takes to create a successful web analytics program. He covers customer centricity, optimal organizational structure, how to identify great analysts, and his (now famous) 10/90 rule of web analytics. From his experience, he outlines radical strategies for how you should select the right tool for your company (while saving money and peace of mind) and identify truly valuable metrics with his "three layers of So What?" test. He concludes Part II by providing a fresh perspective on some of the most common web analytics reports that you'll never look at in the same way again.

In Part III, Avinash guides readers to a successful web analytics strategy and implementation month by month, day by day, and hour by hour. A customized quick-start guide for different businesses (including blogs) is followed by increasingly advanced and crucial analytics topics, such as search analytics (SEO, SEM/PPC and internal site search) and multi-channel marketing analytics. That's followed by the revelation of the key ingredients of a great experimentation and testing platform, performing competitive intelligence analysis, and Web 2.0 analytics.

Avinash then discusses the three secrets behind making web analytics actionable and, in his clever, engaging, and thought-provoking style, debunks leading myths—about path analysis, conversion analysis, and real-time data, for example.

Finally, Avinash highlights seven specific steps you can take to create a data-driven decision-making culture in your company and then discusses such advanced analytics concepts as statistical significance, SEM and PPC analysis, the power of segmentation, complex yet insightful pan-session metrics, and conversion rate best practices.

Sprinkled throughout the book are real-world examples drawn from Avinash’s experiences as an analytics professional at Intuit, DirecTV, Silicon Graphics Inc., and DHL. 

The book includes an innovative CD that includes more than five hours of insightful audio podcasts, a 45-minute video, PowerPoint presentations, and other useful web analytics resources. Web Analytics: An Hour a Day is the ultimate resource for anyone needing a step-by-step, task-based guide to creating and maintaining a modern web analytics strategy and framework.