A pop quiz (no cheating, please); you have five seconds to answer each question:
1. How many unique visitors does your Web site receive each day?
2. How many unique visitors did your Web site receive in the last 30 days?
3. What is the average time spent on your site?
4. On average, how many pages are viewed per visit?
5. Where is most of your traffic coming from?
6. What keywords and phrases are driving traffic to your site?
7. What percentage of your traffic consists of loyal (returning) visitors?
8. Which browsers are your visitors using?
9. What connection speeds are your visitors using?
10. What is the capitol of South Dakota? [This is a bonus question].
The answer to #10 is Pierre. There are no bonus points; you should have learned this in grade school.
As for the other nine questions, I will freely admit that I could not accurately answer these questions without visiting my Google analytics account or referring to a recently produced report. Of course, the real problem is not the lack of visitation. Web site analytics are not like a security deposit box that one visits on occasion just to make sure his or her 1985 Roger Clemens rookie card is still there (and btw, it’s still only worth $20).
The real problem is the assessment of the data and the action (or lack thereof) in response to certain findings.
In short, if you can’t answer these questions, there’s a pretty good chance that you are not doing anything to ensure your Web site is producing desirable results (assuming that you have goals for your Web site). And while knowing the stats/data is just a start, it is a good start.
So I am officially declaring today (June 17) as the inaugural Analyze Your Analytics Day. If you have access to your Web site stats, please visit them now. If you do not have access to your stats – or worse – kick yourself in the ass and get started.
Happy AYA Day!
