August
14
2007
If you don’t understand the context of your web data then all you can do is report the data – you can’t interpret it correctly.
If we think of web analytics as this overly-simplified equation: people(motivations) + website = actions(data), as analysts, we are trying to solve for people(motivations).
So if you’re the analyst, you’ve got the data and I am sure you are crazy-familiar with it, but that’s only half of it. Knowing your website(s) – how it operates, what changes are made and when, how changes are made – is the other half. If you don’t understand your website and how it works, how can you properly interpret the data to understand how your audience is reacting to your site? How can you proactively recommend changes or tests on the site if you don’t understand how it works?
photo credit: threed – some rights reserved.
You Can’t
So, if you can, do a tour in web production – this will give the best chance of understanding the website context.
If you don’t understand the website context, your analysis (if you’re trying to do it) is just a W.A.G.
