Google Analytics How-to

So, on a recent post to the Official Google Analytics Blog about the Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference and Expo, something interesting came up. It was a feature that NO analytics package in the world has–not even Google Analytics–yet it was the single MOST important feature that could possibly be added.

“What is that crucial thing? It’s analyzing and then taking action on your web analytics data. Knowing how to do that makes all the difference. To properly monitor and analyze your data, (they) suggested doing one of three things (or some combination of them): analyze and act on the data yourself; hire a professional services firm; or hire an in-house analyst.”

If you do a search for Google Analytics at Google, you’ll get lots of Adwords ads for services companies. Google itself will tell you about the partners you can hire–if you have scads of dough laying about. You could theoretically, hire your own in-house analyst–right after you win the PowerBall, right? Neither solution is all that realistic for the shoestring-conscious small business owner.

And that leaves DIY-ers to wander the free support boards asking “dumb questions” that don’t get, answered by people who sneer at you for being such an ID10t and say “RTFM.” So you to try Read the F-ing Manual, spending hours wading through technical documentation which has all the hallmarks of technical documentation:

1. Density approaching that of a wandering black hole.
2. As clear as the Pittsburgh sky (where it’s cloudy, on average, 338 days per year).
3. As easy to understand as wave motion calculus.
4. Has the entertainment value of Andy Warhol’s Sleep (great art, maybe, great entertainment–NOT)

And technical documentation is not exactly known for being timely, complete or even accurate. And there’s the whole problem of FINDING the question before you can even THINK of looking for the answer. Why is that that the FAQ never contains questions YOU frequently ask?

So what’s the point?

Exactly this:

1. You gotta measure.
2. You gotta understand what you’ve measured and why.
3. You gotta know what to do about it.
4. You gotta do something about it.

Stick with us. We’re a lot more entertaining and clear than technical documentation, but fair warning, we might encourage you to buy and read our non-f-ing book.

This entry was posted by dejah on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Google Analytics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.