Remember back in the day when you could proudly show your boss or client how many page views or visitors your site was getting? And the boss would pat you on the back, possibly giving you a bonus for a job well done?
Guess what, the bubble bursted, many years ago. Like many things in life, it all about the bottom line, the almighty dollar. Businesses don’t thrive on lookie-loos. Would Macy’s stay in business if people only window shopped, or if they came into the store, just browsed the counters and racks, then left?
I run into people all the time with a “hit counter” mentality. So many site & business owners proclaim “Our website receives thousands of hits.” Yet, whether they currently know it or not, their online business is failing. It’s failing because they are unaware of what is really happening on their sites; what their site visitors are actually doing.
I have a client who, in the past, would exude a mood based on the number of inquiries that were coming from the website. Some days, when several inquiries came in, life would be good. On others when, no inquiries were received, a fire alarm was raised, questioning whether the web-based form was working. When I looked into the situation further, I discovered that we were losing 95% of inquiries as part of the form submission process. Through tweaks to the form, we’ve made positive progress. However, without this type of business knowledge, how can you possibly know the level of success you are obtaining?
To remain relevant, whether you have a business to support, or just a personal blog, you must have access to the intelligence to understand what is happening on your website, what people are doing, are interested in. The only way to do this is via a web analytics program. Continue reading
Smatterings 