We get it: for most people, reviewing their analytics is about as much fun as a trip to the dentist. Building a conversion funnel is probably low on your priority list (below, say, building your email list, conducting A/B tests and increasing your keyword rankings). We’re all busy, and there are only so many hours in the day.
Guess who does have time to dive deep into their site’s analytics? Everyone else who is vying for your customers’ attention, that’s who.
It’s time to take a good, honest look at what you’re doing, analytics-wise, and decide whether or not it’s working for you.
You’re So Vain
Aah, vanity metrics. It’s fun to compare page views, keyword rankings, social media followers and email open rates, but what do these numbers really tell you? Do they necessarily affect your bottom line? What about tracking conversion rates, conversions per keyword, active social media users, and email click-through rates instead?
Focusing on what’s easy to track means you may be missing some major issues with your sites — and some huge opportunities.
Calculate the ROI on your analytics time
Still need some convincing before you buckle down and track the numbers? Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity has some great tips on calculating the ROI of time spent on analytics.
With the huge availability of data from so many sources (Google, Facebook, email campaigns and now even Pinterest), it’s worth learning how to find the information that will propel your sites to the next level.
What about you?
Which metrics do you track? Do you care about Facebook fans, or are you more concerned with conversions and traffic sources? We’d love to hear more about it in the comments.