Web Analytics is Cool

The first time I realized how cool web analytics can be, I was at work typing out an email. But this was not your typical work email. Someone had asked a very specific question about why something kept happening on the site. The data was irrefutable but the behavior the data showed made no sense. So I sat in front of my dashboard and spent hour after hour looking at the numbers from all different angles, trying to figure it out.

It took a while, but I finally found an answer.

So I started to write up an email describing what I’d found. As I revealed the step-by-step logic I’d followed and inserted screenshots that explained the behavior so anyone could understand it, I had one of those out-of-body realizations you very rarely get at work.

I was having fun. Lots of fun. I felt like a detective that had cracked open a case and was hammering out the report. The report that would be handed out to the media the next day declaring the case solved, the guilty party identified, and the rule of law victorious. And I the hero.

And this is at work, mind you.

I know how stupid this all sounds. Trust me, I’m aware. But when you’re able to get this kind of feeling at work, you go with it—you don’t ask questions. You just keep going. And sure enough, the next time I was digging into the data trying to find answers to questions, I started to feel that rush again.

Finding answers is pretty cool, and while the data doesn’t have ALL the answers (web analytics is part art, part science after all), it sure can shed light on a lot of the questions your team might have about what’s happening on the site. Answers that can drive behavior to make your site better. Which means you’re having fun at work while you help make the site you work on that much better.

It doesn’t get much cooler than that.

Image by stevekeys