Posted in Online Publishing Strategy	March 19, 2008

Blogger, author and Google analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik shares four keys to succeeding with web analytics

Web analytics is a popular topic at SES NY, as all the sessions we’ve attended on the topic have been standing room only. In a session titled Web Analytics: Measuring Success, our new favorite speaker, Avinash Kaushik, who we first heard at SIPA’s Miami conference, shared four keys to succeeding with web analytics.

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1. Integrate or Die – Measuring basic metrics are the price of entry. To succeed, you need to apply those measurements to other events beyond your website, and see what's making or costing you money.


2. Measure Bounce Rate – Bounce rate is your website visitor saying to you, "I came, I saw, I puked." If they come to one page and leave right away, you're not giving visitors what they're looking for. Figure that out and fix it.

3. Go Beyond Ego Bidding – The definition of success for one site will be different than success for another. The key is to find your own success metric, such as conversions, or time on site, and measure your performance against that metric. 


4. Experiment or Go Home – Most sites are designed by "HiPPOs": The Highest Paid Person's Opinion. That often means the site is not designed around what users are searching for. You could be sending people to a less relevant page than you could or should be doing, or offering something different than what was promised in your search ads. Avinash calls this "Writing a check on a search engine that your site can't cash." Both are bad for the user.

Learn more about Avinash by checking out his highly read blog: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

Read related coverage from SES NYC:

4 Keys to Web Analytics Success
Blogger, author and Google analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik shares four keys to succeeding with web analytics

Understanding Link Popularity
A few notes about link popularity from Debra Mastaler, President, Alliance-Link

12 Steps for Successful Video Search Optimization
Shari Thurow’s Tips for Optimizing Video

10 Tips for Universal and Blended Search
Mike Grehan’s Top 10 Tips for Optimizing for Universal and Blended Search