Stop yourself from drowning in data and build a Web Analytics Dashboard that puts you in control…
The media are quick to highlight stories of lost data or identity theft, but, while we should be concerned with the protection of our data, there is another truth: many online marketers are drowning in data.
The advantage of online marketing ease of measurement: email marketing, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimisation, Display, Affiliates and A/B testing can all be measured. In doing so, they generate huge amounts of data.
Web Analytics was originally presented as a way of solving this data deluge. Web Analytics is simply the measurement, collection and reporting of online traffic for purposes of understanding and optimising website usage.
The problem is that, as vendors of Web Analytics products have added more options to track more data sources, it has become harder to manage and interpret the data.
The solution is build to Web Analytics Dashboard that only focuses on the data that is of the most interest.
These are the top five rules that I use when creating Web Analytics Dashboards:
1. Keep It Simple & Include Insights
Keep your Web Analytics Dashboards to just one page: doing so will keep it focused and make it easier to understand the data. As well as including the summarised data, have space for some insights and recommendations. Having a section for these allows the senior executives reading the Dashboard to focus on making decisions, rather than just interpreting the data.
2. Include Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
What do you need to track? Is it time on site or the recording of a sale or sign-up? First work out your KPIs, then set up Goals to measure them, and then include these in your Dashboard.
3. Use Filtered Data
Filters allow you to exclude certain traffic from your Web Analytics. This could be your internal traffic or traffic from your web development company or PR company, allowing you to be sure that you are only looking at data from genuine visitors.
4. Segmentation
Web Analytics allow you to not just filter your data but also segment it. For instance, you may only want to look at search web traffic or even just Paid Search traffic. Segmentation will give greater clarity to your data and make it easier for you to see if your KPIs are being met.
5. Make Your Dashboard Visual
A picture says a thousand words: using graphs, pie charts and bar charts will not only make your Dashboard look more appealing but will also help make it easier to understand.
What do you all think? Have you tried to create your own Web Analytics Dashboard? What was the impact of it? Do you have any tips you want to share?
Please share your comments below.
