June Dershewitz on Web Analytics

X Change 2008 News and Deals

Have you heard?  The X Change web analytics conference is coming up in San Francisco on August 17-19, 2008. At X Change you'll share the table with seasoned practitioners, vendors, consultants, bloggers and industry experts without feeling like you're subject to a formal speech or a sales pitch.  You'll all have an equal stake in the conversation, thanks to the small-group discussion "huddle" format.  You won't just be an attendee, you'll be an active participant.

If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, here are a few things you can - and should - do soon:

Get a room

X Change will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco.  It's a classy place and the service is phenomenal.  Our discounted room rate of $329 USD per night is only available through June 30th.  If you want this rate you must reserve your room before the end of June; the discount code will be provided when you register for X Change.

Get a discount

Members of the Web Analytics Association are eligible for a 15% discount to X Change.  Use the code "XCWAA15" when you register for the conference.  If you are not a member of the WAA, I most certainly encourage you to join today.  Event discounts are among the many benefits of membership.

Get a free ride

Wish you could come to X Change but lack the funds?  Well, this year we are awarding a scholarship - including conference admission, a room at the Ritz and reasonable travel - to one talented individual, possibly you. Read the scholarship details and get started on your essay.  The conference will be a great place to network, and the scholarship will make an impressive addition to your resume.

If you've got any questions about X Change you can contact me directly at <[email protected]>.  See you there!

Tracking Downloads with Page Tags, Just the Basics

I offer a useful tidbit for those of you who 1) rely on a page-tagging solution for web analytics, and 2) care about tracking downloads.  I've encountered this situation several times as a web analyst, so I thought I'd write up a basic summary of the issue. 

You will find this relevant if you are either a newbie web analyst or an experienced web analyst charged with educating your data consumers.  Here's what you need to know:

Page-tagging

Many popular web analytics tools available today – like Omniture and Google Analytics – rely solely on JavaScript tags for data collection.  Using this method, site owners place a tag on every page they wish to track; when a visitor accesses a tagged page, information is sent back to the web analytics tool.  That, in a nutshell, is page-tagging.

Before you read any further, confirm the method of data collection used on your site.  If you've got something other than page-tagging - such as log files, or network collection, or a hybrid solution - then you can stop reading now.  The issue I'm about to describe only matters if you use page-tagging alone for data collection.

Tracking downloads

Here's the problem with using page-tagging to track downloads: it's not possible to embed a JavaScript tag inside a downloadable file.  Instead, the tag tracks the very moment the visitor clicks a link to get a file.  This counts downloads initiated, not downloads completed. 

Measuring downloads initiated is not wrong, but it is slightly upstream from the spot we'd ideally like to track: successful completion of download.  Marking this slightly-upstream-but-still-valid action will necessarily inflate the number of real downloads, though, since it’s entirely possible to back out of the process before actually downloading the file 100%.  

What it all means

Do not expect accounting-level precision from tag-based download stats.  Take the metric at face value, and make sure everyone who uses the data understands how to interpret it.  If you find yourself needing to compare tag-based downloads with an overlapping source of business data, I invite you to read my data reconciliation how-to guide post.

When I encountered this issue with downloads most recently (last month, in fact), my client opted to put a statement like the following as a footnote in a widely-distributed report that includes download stats:

"Values in this report approximate the number of successfully completed [Product X] downloads. Since no status is returned to the server when a download completes, it's not possible to get an exact figure. Therefore, we count downloads initiated."

So, armed with education and footnotes, you and your fellow analysts should feel confident using the "download initiated" value as a valid marker of site success.

Extra credit

Here's one of my favorite pieces by early photographer Edweard Muybridge.   As progressive snapshots of a single activity, it seems appropriate to include it here.

Image credit, Digital Journalist.