Give me information, not Data!

Just a quick note.

Increasingly the challenge is becoming how to make things simple when it comes to web analytics. Keep the data clean and readable. There are simply so many options and so many potential things to report on, what ends up happening is that information begins to get convoluted again. Sometimes I wonder why people don’t just read over their unabridged server logs. It seems like the data is just as good. Well, anyhoo, I have to prepare for my first fortune 500 meeting, things are moving briskly. They want me to be the technical mind at this meeting. Should be no sweat. The awesome thing about web analytics is that no one knows the lingo yet, so what ends up happening is I sound unduly impressive without even trying. I would rather my clients understand, so I will teach them.

Gotta crawl before you can analyze data. or something.

Yesterday, I had the distinct privilege of sitting across a table from the CEO of a fairly large corporation and explaining to him what he needed to understand about web analytics and search engine optimization and why it is such an important area for his company to be concerned about. Here are some highlights:

Coolest moment: When the VP of Marketing asked me with a certain amount of incredulity, “Do you mean to tell me that I should be able to tie my website performance to my revenue?” I answered, “You better. Even though there is not a 1 to 1 correlation the process should be designed to give you that kind of ability.”

Scariest Moment: When the CEO turned to me and said, “OK, this sounds good, but how long will it take to implement and how much will it cost?” At this point we were talking about SEO opportunities for his company. I had no idea, but I will in two weeks, and that’s what I told him.

Key thing Learned: Executives at every level are hungry for good solutions that will make their technology accountable. I think for too long they feel like they are being duped by their IT people because they can’t measure success or failure in a traditional business sense. That tide is turning, and I helped turn some of it yesterday. Boo yaaa.

My toughest Comment: “Unless you are prepared as an organization to follow through on a commitment to use the information web analytics provides you, you shouldn’t even attempt to implement this.” Yes, I actually said that.

Upshot: This company is getting it. They have an aggressive leadership team that is willing to risk, and I intend for them to win and win big in their market.

That’s enough. Sorry for not posting often, something about being a potential web analytics guru makes me very busy.

In one meeting where I took notes, the speaker said that good analytics come from using lots of good filters. It makes sense; however, constructing those filters is turning out to be something of a challenge. I have been running analysis on the same log files some 3 or 4 times trying to get the filtration how I want it. I think I have it figured out but I will have to wait until it gets done processing.

I was just introduced today to Microsoft’s Commerce Server 2002. This behemoth of a solution has some pretty sweet analytical tools tucked up into it. It will be a while before I can say I know what’s what on this bad boy, but it comes with out-of-the-box data warehousing. That’s huge. Unfortunately, so is the price.

As a consultant type, it is necessary for me to maintain my value by making up acronyms. My success depends on the broader adoption of the acronyms I create so without further ado, I give you: SRD.

That’s right. SRD. What does it mean? SRD = Site Raison D’etre. It is an acronym to use when describing a website’s primary function or purpose. Please add this acronym to your vocabulary, and use it all the time. Oh and give me credit, of course.

Yesterday, I installed WebTrends on a virtual server for two reasons. To practice installing and so I can mess with it and not screw up something serious.

As I continue down this road I keep identifying new knowledge areas I am going to need competencies in to be successful. Such as: Site design, all that crazy URL crap that those corporate websites throw at you like http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5970320

What does all that mean.

I am having fun and I definitely have reading plans for the weekend.