Nothing!  Yep, I said it and it feels so good.  Data isn’t worth a single cent.  Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.  However, actions are worth a fortune.   RM has been going through a stage which it visits every year to determine what new reporting, if any, should we look into in order to better serve our clients.  All of the same arguments come out.  We need more data!  How do we speed up the process?  What can we add to generate more value from our reporting?  What are the new tools and what are they looking into.  At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter.  Not one bit.  It is, however, the insights and actions from them that can be the difference between an extra million in our clients pocket come 2011 or being out a few hundred grand for implementation, consulting, tech, and all of the other costs going into maintaining an online business.

It doesn’t matter if you are using Google Analytics or Omniture.  It doesn’t matter if you are displaying the data strait into the analytics interface or in excel.  At the end of the day, if the report doesn’t tell you to do something then it wasn’t worth looking at.  Here are a few tips to make sure that your data turns into actions…thus turns into something worthwhile.

Segment out Your Audience

Web Analytics is all about segmenting consumer channels and understanding why a particular type of consumer did or did not convert.  Why don’t you do the same with the information that comes out of your data?  Does your SEO need the same information as your C Level executive?  The answer should have been no. What does a CMO care about pages indexed for?  Most CMO’s I talk to care about traffic and how it turns into revenue.  Most of the time, they do not care where it came from as soon as you can show them how it generated money (The same applies to brand exposure or any other business driving KPI).    Segment each report to make sure that the attended audience is receiving the information it needs to take the desired action; don’t include a single thing more.  Yes, that means you will probably have several dashboards…but get over it.  Just as your website cannot be everything to everybody, your website reporting should not be either.  The ones I like to create are:

  1. C-Level Dashboard
    1. Traffic by Source: Sourcing being Paid, SEO, Direct, Referring Sources…classified into types of sources if I feel like going crazy (i.e. New vs. Shopping Engine vs. ILS site).
    2. Revenue by Sources: Revenue/leads/etc. based on the same breakdown
    3. Those sources trending over time.   The level of detail will come from the importance of each source.  (i.e. if I know that a client spends a ton of money in PR or on ILS sites)
    4. A place with long term strategic initiatives (i.e. PR campaign to start on X date.)
    5. A place with past initiative take away (i.e. Social Media project started on X date and we received $XXXX revenue form it to date).
  2. Digital Manager Dashboard
    1. Everything that the C-Level Dashboard
    2. More details around executable initiatives such as link building efforts for the last month
    3. Stats (traffic, rankings, revenue, etc) for keywords but broken into thymes (or campaigns or whatever you want to call them).
    4. Data points that show immerging trends
  3. SEO Dashboard
    1. Everything you see above
    2. Top Keywords of all different kinds
    3. A more detailed look into link buildings, social media, etc.
    4. Crawlablity Stats
    5. Webmaster Tools information
    6. Anything else that I feel like changes at least weekly that I need to stay on top of but know that my client wouldn’t understand

Define the story

Websites are designed to accomplish a goal.  Very few people design their website to latterly do nothing…especially if they are paying you to improve said website.  So, the goal of the report is to help determine where and how a particular person should spend their resources.  Should they pay you or someone else?   Define the story you want to tell.  We want you to invest in your website here, here and here because those show the best chance for positive ROI (I would make sure that at least one of those points are you).  Often times, that is a simple a stating what information you want a given person to come away with.  Limit yourself to a couple high level points.

  • The SEO Program is doing well because we are driving 30% more revenue year over year
  • This sector is not performing well for us in SEO and we need more Content and Buzz around that product
  • This sector is over achieving for our department.  We need management to make a decision to prioritize the promotion of those products, raise the price on said product, or discontinue optimizing for it because the product is not a profitable product to sell at high volumes.

Create a Wire Frame

There is a reason why you create one for web design.  It is to organize information before you spend hundreds of hours creating content that may be utilized.  Wire frames for reports do the same thing.  Start with the main idea (or story you want to tell) and then create the different data sets that build that case.  Then create a level that starts to talk about the data sources needed to populate the give data set.  This will help you understand what information you will need to pull and from what sources.

Reporting Wire Frame Example

Example of a Reporting Wire Frame

Understand Your Data Points

Use the right tool for the right purpose.   SearchCenter is not SiteCatalyst is not Radian6 is not Google Webmaster Tools.   You can use all of those tools in an SEO report (OK…maybe not SearchCenter), but they can all generate great data points for what they were designed to do.  Some tools are much more directional than others.   Find what will give you the best information and use the right tool for the right job.

Also, I’m sure you have seen a graph or visual that you look at and go, “Um…OK?”  Use data points, graph, charts, etc. to tell a story….but keep them simple.  If you can’t understand the graph in 15 seconds or less then you have a problem.  Understand your data points, how they fit into the story, and how they should be displayed.

Most Importantly, Keep it Actionable

The ultimate task is to keep this report Actionable.  Data creep is a real thing…and is very contagious.   The more data you have isn’t always better.  You need to keep it actionable.   After every data set or chart you place in a graph ask yourself these questions:

  1. This tells me what?
  2. Because I know that I know that?
  3. Because of what I know about said graph, I should?

If you can’t answer those questions, then you missed making it actionable.  Each section of the website should scream a take away of some sort.  Think of it this way, “I know this so I should do that.”  I won’t tell you what that is because it is completely defined by your goals and objective.  However, I will close with this action is what makes all of the above worth something.   All the time spent installing your web analytics platform, the money spent on it (if you are not using GA), effort into SEO or anything else is all a waste if you cannot answer the one question that matter, “Because I know this I know I can move my business forward by doing what?”

Remember the old parable:  It is what the repairman knows, not his tools, which make him worth his fee.  The same goes with data.  Data itself isn’t worth anything; it is the actions that come out of analyzing the data that is worth millions.