The last 9 months with Logan Tod has been very interesting.  Learning how to use HBX and Omniture SiteCatalyst and increasing my knowledge of Google Analytics.  Focusing my attention on looking for insights in the data which can be used to recommend improvements to websites or marketing.  Broading my experience with the range of websites that I have worked on and the nature of the work.

I still like to keep it simple though.  I think with the vast amount of web analytics data available for any website, it is easy to get lost in it.  And if you dive in too deep too quickly, it can be difficult to find anything as you are surrounded by too many pieces of data.  I think it is best to start simple, with the key actions or conversion points on the site, the top line metrics.  An understanding of these will generally lead to fairly basic questions about the performance of the website.

But answering these questions will lead to more and increasingly more complex detailed questions about performance and an understanding of the factors that truly are impacting on the performance and success or otherwise of your website and business.  The data itself and an exploration of it can lead you to map out what is important to know in order to make improvements.

One of the more frustrating parts of learning HBX and SiteCatalyst was the discovery of the basic reports that I feel are missing.  In particular, there is not a simple report that gives visits (or even responses) by traffic source.  Having to try and pull data from various sources into a single excel report (as the alternative) is painful with question marks over the accuracy.  SiteCatalyst has the option of Unified Sources via a Vista Rule, this needs to be mandatory for anyone using SiteCatalyst and I wish it came out of the box.  While I have various workaround for HBX, I finally came up with a version using multiple segments where I am satisfied with the accuracy, but no where near the ideal solution.  All tools that I have used need to work harder on getting the balance right between reporting performance and allowing analysis.  I know analysis leads to insights leads to recommendations leads to improvements leads to more money but simple performance reporting highlights where and when the analysis should occur.

Anyway, likely more on that in the future.  I might need to be careful or it could be too easy to write about the philosophy of web analytics ahead of the practicalities of it.  And I need to get a new simple WordPress theme.

The next Monday I started my new life as a Customer Insight Consultant with Logan Tod.  Over the past two months I have been using Omniture (including Discover), HBX, Google Analytics and Sitestat as well as other online data tools.  Whatever the tool, the intention is always the same, to use the data to make better decisions, decisions that will lead to a more successful performance for the company.

I am working across a range of clients performing a range of tasks.  While part of my time is spent running your typical weekly reports, I am also working on some interesting projects, using my knowledge of web analytics to make recommendations for actions to take that will improve the performance of these websites and businesses.

I have been exposed to more e-commerce clients than in the past and have definitely already improved my understanding of what elements can reduce the conversion rate for a website.  The same principles can be applied to non e-commerce websites, looking at the conversion rates for these sites however the conversion is defined.

It is also interesting using a range of tools and getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of each. While all tools are using a similar methodology and reporting on similar metrics, it is surprising just how different they can be.  Early signs is that there is no best tool, rather that they are all good (and all frustrating) for different reasons.

I have also been busy learning how to be the President of my local Australian Rules Football team in London.  Recently this somehow meant I had to learn how to create websites – a week and a half of work later and I had put together the new Putney Magpies website.  Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to work as intended across all browsers and screen resolutions but it is a starting point.

Anyway, they may only be intentions at this point, but they are to write a post on web analytics (not website development) each week – hopefully more interesting and useful now given the experiences I am having.

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