Websites Without Analytics

WebTrends recently published a 34-page report on analytics (which you can get here.) This finding really amazed me:

In our own 2005 Web Marketing Confidence Report, we surveyed over 250 marketing professionals and learned that only 5% are currently “very confident” in the measurement of their results. In fact, 26% admitted to “flying blind”. Why? Because less than one out of four had a complete view of their performance metrics, “including conversion, revenue, ROI”to gauge the success or failure of their marketing initiatives. The majority, a combined 52%, are still relying on clickthrough rates or have no campaign metrics at all.

For those of you who aren’t looking at your metrics every single day — don’t you wonder if you are shouting into the wind? (No one can hear you?) And if you respond, “Well, we have e-commerce so we can see that people are purchasing,” you are leaving lots of money on the table by not having analytics.

When I first got this blog, I was sure there was web analytics attached, and I just couldn’t find the right button. It drove me slightly wild to blog and blog but not know — was anybody listening?

Eventually, I realized that there was no button, I just had to install my own analytics. I chose a small, free, client-side package because a) I only want to measure traffic and marketing referrals and b) I need a client-side package in order to be able to measure this particular site.

Analytics are magical. They are instant feedback. When I installed analytics here, I learned that I wasn’t shouting into the wind. More interestingly, I learned that more of my audience wanted to hear about analytics, as opposed to just great ways to increase conversion rate, and so, I’ve started to concentrate on that topic a little more (as you see!)