June Dershewitz on Web Analytics

5 Industry News Tidbits from the First Half of the Year

In an effort to get myself all caught up on what happened in the web analytics industry while I was on leave, I've been sifting through posts and press releases from the first half of 2009. Here are 5 noteworthy items:

1) Microsoft adCenter Analytics beta closes

The already-slim web analytics vendor market loses another player. Here's the development team's announcement from March.

2) GA launches certification for individuals

The new Google Analytics Individual Qualification test costs just $50 USD - and all of the course materials are public domain. Will it become a must-have bullet point on a web analyst's resume?

3) Twitter reaches critical mass

Somehow in the past 6 months every web analyst and their dog joined Twitter, Eric T. Peterson whipped up this incredibly popular Twitalyzer tool, and even Omniture says via press release that they can measure brand activity on Twitter.

4) New web analytics books

Dennis Mortensen and Steve Jackson - both very smart gentlemen - have published new web analytics books this year.

5) Web Analytics Association elects 7 new board members

It's an honor to have such a qualified set of WAA board members; I look forward to working with everyone over the next year.

Hello Again!

I have spent the past few months offline - welcoming my new baby - and now I am making a gradual return to the professional world. I plan to work part-time at Semphonic through the summer and then go full-time in September 2009 when my daughter enters daycare.

Ever the analyst, I have recently occupied my time with child-rearing data geek tools like the Itzbeen (it goes everywhere I go) and Trixie Tracker (oooh, pretty charts). Now, though, I am ready to pick up where I left off with the web analytics industry. I look forward to exploring all sorts of data and writing about the experience here on this blog.

It's great to be back. Thanks for reading.

Taking a Break

As of February 1st, 2009, I am officially on maternity leave from Semphonic. My blog will remain dormant while I'm away; I intend to pick it back up again when I return to work later this year.

In the meantime I hope you get some value out of what I've written. This blog has been a great learning experience, as much for me as for the readers who've found their way here.

If you're looking for a place to start in the archives, the 5 most popular posts are:

1. Real-World Challenges of Tracking Mobile with Page Tags (plus a whitepaper I wrote on mobile analytics and CEM)
2. Web Analytics Data Reconciliation How-To Guide
3. What is the Career Trajectory in Web Analytics? (plus a little advice for newbies that I wrote for the WAA)
4. Tracking Downloads with Page Tags, Just the Basics
5. The Dreaded 404 Not Found: Three Ways to Find Broken Links

Enjoy!

Mobile Analytics Whitepaper: Written by Me, Available Free

I'm pleased to announce that - as a joint effort between Semphonic and our partner, Tealeaf - I have published a whitepaper on mobile analytics and customer experience management (CEM). You can get the whitepaper at Tealeaf's site or write to me directly (june@semphonic.com) if you want to know more.

Working with Tealeaf has given me a new appreciation for the value of CEM, and I believe they've got a very unique offering when it comes to mobile web usage analysis. So have a read through the whitepaper. I welcome your feedback either privately or as comments on this blog.

Looking Forward to 2009

I haven't blogged much lately (shame!), I will miss a few Web Analytics Wednesdays this spring (unheard of!), and I'm skipping Omniture Summit 2009 (how could I!). But I have a really good excuse: I'm due to have my first child on February 22nd.

Yesterday someone asked me if I would Twitter from the maternity ward. Uh, no. But I am bound to post a few baby pictures on Facebook, so you can friend me there if you'd like.

I plan to maintain my Semphonic duties and my obligations to the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors through early February, then I will take a break. You can expect to see me back online professionally starting in June of next year.

I look back over the past 12 months and am amazed at just how much has happened. I look forward to the next 12 months and know that there are even more surprises in store.

I wish you all a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year. Here's to 2009.

The Best of eMetrics DC 2008

I have recently returned from a highly informative, thoroughly enjoyable and action packed week at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit 2008 in Washington DC. Since then people have been asking me, "What did you think? How did it go? What did you learn?" so here it is in writing.

Big Successes

eMetrics would not be complete without a sampling of client-side case studies, and I knew that I would catch some at this conference. However, I was not expecting the case studies to be quite so inspiring and so motivating as they turned out to be.  I had two favorites, both rightfully featured on the big stage as keynotes: James G. Robinson from the New York Times, and Joe Megibow from Hotels.com.

James from NYT explained how the work he's doing in the online channel has influenced the offline channel at his company, and how his team has managed to convey the importance of web measurement to that wider audience.  For instance, they found that they could use daily page views (yes, page views) on their web site to accurately predict the number of print newspapers they'd sell the following day. Pretty simple, yet a very effective way to encourage cooperation across diverse groups and spread the word about web analytics.

Joe from Hotels.com described how his team has managed to fuse customer feedback and session-level customer experience data to identify and correct commerce flow problems on the web site. He gave great examples, and it's something that anyone with an online form (and isn't that everyone?) really ought to be doing at their own company. Joe also highlighted the work of his colleague Vernon, in the audience, as an ace developer of applications that the analytics team has been building in order to monitor their systems and notify them of problems. Now everyone wants to hire Vernon, or some rare individual just like him.

I hope that someone (ahem) will post videos of the keynotes online. These stories need to be shared.

Getting Executives to Listen

As a theme I've seen evolving over the past couple of years, web analytics professionals are working hard to get buy-in from our executive teams. At this conference there were a couple of really articulate and important presentations on this topic. 

First, all-around great guy Eric T. Peterson gave a presentation entitled Competing on Web Analytics.  It's an extension of Tom Davenport's 2007 book, Competing on Analytics, applied specifically to the online channel. Since his time as an industry analyst I've always felt that Eric has had a clear view of how the practice of web analytics can evolve, progress and grow within a company, and this latest presentation continues to build on that theme.   

Also, Liz Miller from the CMO Council gave a compelling presentation on The View from the CMO's Office.  I hope she returns to eMetrics, because she's got an important message we should all be listening to as we attempt to capture the attention of our CMOs.

Talking to Everyone

Those who know me know that I love to meet people, and I always stay up late in the Lobby Bar, talking shop while eating fine Belgian chocolates. I recognize that networking is one of the primary reasons that people attend conferences, and there were plenty of opportunities to do so at eMetrics (not just in the Lobby Bar). 

My personal favorite networking event, Web Analytics Wednesday, was as lively and well-attended as always - thank you Coremetrics, WebTrends and eMetrics for generously sponsoring us. After years of rogue and covert operations we were honored to have WAW make it onto the official eMetrics agenda for the first time.

Also, as a member of the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors I had a hand in organizing the WAA Community Meeting and Speed Networking session in DC. Based on feedback we'd gotten from our members we decided to help everyone meet each other by conducting this speed networking experiment - it was loud and chaotic and we might make some refinements next time but I'd still call it a success.  Here's a picture from speed networking:

 

That's Janet Park (WAA Membership Committee volunteer extraordinaire) on the left, introducing herself to June Li (my doppelganger, the "other" June of web analytics) on the right.

If you went to eMetrics DC, lucky you - I'm sure that you left feeling as inspired as I did. If you missed out, I do hope to see you at one of the 2009 events.

Book Review: Click by Bill Tancer

I love data. No, no, I mean it. When I saw Bill Tancer speak at a conference a little over a year ago he closed with that sentence, in fact a clever plug for his corporate blog: ilovedata.com. I gladly took the bait. Recently, when I heard that Tancer had published a book about his beloved data, I snapped that up, too.

The book is Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters. It is, chapter by chapter, a collection of analyses focused on a single data set, namely the search and clickstream behavior of 10 million US-based internet users. 

On the surface Click has genuine pop culture appeal, with coverage of topics like porn and fashion and phobias and rock bands. In that respect it's readable by anyone who uses the internet and wonders what we - the collective "we" - are doing online. At the same time I believe there's extra value for those of us who work with web activity data for a living. 

As an analyst there is nothing quite so satisfying as taking some data, asking and refining and asking questions, turning the data over and over until interesting observations pop out. Tancer writes about his observations, but he also writes about the processes leading up to his observations. In no way is Click meant to be an instruction manual for data analysts, and yet it does a pretty good job of describing the act of analysis. If you want to know what it's like to be a data analyst, read this book.

Some reviews I've read assert that Click is a plug for Hitwise and its own slice of competitive intelligence data. I disagree. Taking a step back, I think that smart analysts can draw from the book and relate it to whatever data they happen to have at hand. In particular, site-side web analytics data from tools like Omniture and Google Analytics, while offering a fundamentally different view of the internet, can still be used effectively to uncover trends in search behavior a la Tancer's approach. Simply ask and refine and ask questions, then present your observations with the same enthusiasm that Tancer does in Click.

Now that I've written this review I can hand off the book to my fellow Semphonic data analysts.  There's a waiting list. We all love data.

Mobile Analytics: A Personal Story

"The mobile phone is the most personal device you’ve got, aside from your keys and your wallet," observed Bob Schukai during his X Change session on mobile technology a few weeks ago.

By way of illustration he had each discussion participant tell a story about our own favorite mobile feature or technology. The stories were as unique as the individuals in the room, but they all fit into the idea that mobile is "personal." I can't resist; here's my story:

I live in a dense, urban neighborhood in San Francisco. Like a fair number of this city's residents, I don't own a car. I love the fact that I can get around locally and do most of my daily business by taking the subway, riding my bicycle, and walking.

When I do need a motor vehicle I use a car-sharing service called Zipcar. They've got cars all over San Francisco - all over North America, actually - that I can rent on the spot for an hourly fee. The closest Zipcars live 3 blocks from my house, which isn't bad considering how impossible it is to find parking here. Once I've made a reservation all I have to do is wave my magnetic membership card in front of the car; the doors unlock and the keys are inside. Gas and insurance are included. I get in and drive away.

Here's where mobile technology enters the story: Zipcar has a great mobile web site. Once I log in on my phone's browser I'm able to make, extend or cancel car reservations. This is incredibly convenient because I might not know I want to extend a reservation until I'm actually out running errands, without access to a desktop computer. If my car is available I can extend my reservation and pay my fee with a few clicks on the mobile web site. Every time I do this I think, "Zipcar just made money, AND they made me a happy customer."

Their mobile technology even amazes me when things go wrong. I recently reserved a pickup truck so I could move some furniture. When I went down to get it, though, the truck was missing - the guy who reserved it before me had failed to return it.

Right there in the parking lot I launched Zipcar's mobile site, found their customer service information, and clicked on the phone number. It auto-dialed on my phone (wow!), and when I got connected the system was smart enough to link my phone number with my Zipcar account number (wow!). I was so amazed that I almost forgot how mad I was. The customer service rep quickly found another truck for me in a nearby lot and I was on my way. I remain a happy customer.

Since I measure online behavior for a living I can't help but wonder if, how, and to what end Zipcar is tracking their mobile site usage. Are they optimizing mobile sales conversion rate? Are they watching satisfaction ratings for customers who use mobile features? Perhaps. If they're not now they will be in the future.

That's my story. Half the people in the world now have mobile phones, says Bob Schukai, and each one of us has a story. We are beginning to use the mobile web to purchase things, to locate things, to get customer support, to get entertained, you name it. As web analysts we must take note; mobile analytics is poised to play an important role in this revolution.

[See also my post on real-world challenges of mobile analytics.]

X Change 2008 in Review

If any web analytics conference demands - and deserves - complete and utter focus it's X Change.  I meant to micro-blog while I was there but as it happened I did not issue a single tweet; I was too busy interacting with the people around me in real life. 

One attendee remarked that X Change 2008 was a series of panel discussions where everyone was a panelist.  Whatever it was, it worked, I learned a lot, and I had a great time doing it.

Here are the discussions (aka huddles) I attended:

• Bob Schukai - The Mobile Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
• John Lovett - Industry Standards or a Lack Thereof …
• Ron Pinsky - Integrating Customer Experience and Marketing Data with Web Analytics
• David Yoakum - Measuring Web 2.0: Interactions, Events, and Consumer Generated Content
• Bob Schukai - Mobile Technology: Development, Deployment and Measurement

They were all excellent.  Every single one was a productive and lively conversation.  Along with other X Change staff members I took copious notes during the huddles; we'll be compiling everything into a conference proceedings document, so stay tuned for details.

Aside from the actual huddle business there was plenty of time for socializing and fine dining, with expertly organized formal gatherings on both Sunday and Monday night.  These events were naturally capped off by late-night lobby bar excursions.  Yes I was there.

On Tuesday night, after the official conclusion of the conference, I hosted my own event for conference-goers and locals alike - Web Analytics Wednesday.  Thank you Unica and SiteSpect for providing this month's sponsorship.  As proof that we have arrived, WAW got mentioned in everybody's favorite tech gossip blog, Valleywag.

While I am a little relieved that X Change has ended (whew, I can rest!) I am already looking forward to next year.  Gary Angel and Eric Peterson, thank you for making this happen.

I have created a LinkedIn group for X Change 2008 attendees so we can all stay connected.  If you were there, please join.

 

More X Change pictures on Flickr here.

The Dreaded 404 Not Found: Three Ways to Find Broken Links

Every so often I get a request along the lines of, "Hey web analyst, run me a broken links report." Although simple enough, this task is not without its nuances. Here are 3 tactics you can use to find broken links on your own site when you (inevitably) get asked:

1) Set forth a spider

You may be the resident expert in whatever web analytics tool your company uses, and when someone asks you about broken links they may expect that you'll use your web analytics tool to find broken links for them. However, it's not your only choice! Spiders are worth considering for this task, as well; they'll identify a slightly different set of broken links than you get from your web analytics tool.

Here's how I like to think about the difference: web analytics tools tell you which URLs visitors actually try and fail to view. Spiders tell you which URLs throw errors regardless of whether any visitor clicks the link or not, and regardless of whether the target URL lives on your site or elsewhere on the internet.

Newbie explanation: spiders are software programs that crawl pages on your site and scan for certain things like broken links. If your site employs a lot of JavaScript and forms and Flash and web 2.0 whiz-bang, you'll need to find a spider that can handle the complexity. There are basic free tools (like the W3C Link Checker) and fancy not-so-free tools (like this one from Accenture) and plenty of options in between.  If you haven't done so already, go test-drive a spider.

2) Analyze your logs

Back in the old days, when nearly every web analyst dealt with log files, it was actually quite easy to get a broken link report because it comes standard with log-processing solutions. These days, with so many of us using JavaScript tags alone for data collection, error tracking takes a bit of customization that you must initiate.  

If your web analytics tool uses log files, now is the time to locate your broken link report. If your tool uses JavaScript tags, it's worth checking to see if broken link reporting has been set up. If, for whatever reason, you don't have broken link reporting yet, there's still hope! You can still get something useful from your raw logs.

Normally I'd say don't mess with your logs - it's a slippery slope and before you know it you'll find yourself writing your own web analytics application from scratch. Don't go there! However, logs can actually be useful for error reporting, at least as a once-off project. The basic information about a broken link is contained within a single row, so there's no need to sessionalize multiple rows into visits.

Here are a few guidelines for log handling, should you have the need. Since log files are quite large your task will be easier if you pick a fairly short, recent date range for analysis. Next, you (or your sys admin) can filter down the logs so you just get the rows with status code 404. Pop your data into Excel (it fits in Excel, right?) and make sure you can identify what each column contains. The columns you'll be most interested in are requested URL (the broken link itself) and referring URL (the page on which the broken link appeared, if applicable). Finally, make a pivot table and identify the most common broken links and their sources.

3) Have a custom 404 page, and tag it

Allow me to demonstrate how to tell if any site has a custom error page: http://june.typepad.com/foo Oh no, a broken link! Now I know what my 404 page looks like, and by viewing source I can see if it's got a web analytics tag on it (as of this writing it does not). Try this on your own site. It will work like a charm unless you actually have a page called /foo.

If you discover that you haven't got a custom 404 page, it's time to make one - it's simply good form.  For inspiration, here's a practical and amusing post on how to create an effective error page.

As an extra step for those who use a tag-based web analytics tool, you will need to make sure your custom error page is properly tagged.  The specifics will depend on the tool you use, so go to your solution's document library and read the fabulous manual.  In the end you will get error reporting that's just as good as log file solutions, and a lot less effort than parsing raw logs.

Now, after trying out the 3 tactics mentioned here, take all of the problems you've unearthed and submit them as bugs. It will take far longer to fix the errors than it did for you to find them in the first place.  Mission accomplished!

Photo credit: Meteorry