Part 3 of a three-part tutorial - Accuracy is What Really Matters?: Explains the ins and outs of Web analytics and helps dispel the kind of conventional wisdom that can lead your Web business astray.

Accuracy is What Really Matters?

Our fearless marketing maven has made it through the Myth of the Average Visitor, and has a more keen understanding of how the Road to Hell is Paved with Trends. But she's about to face the biggest obstacle she's faced in the land of dotcom-the myth that Data Accuracy is What Really Matters. Knowing that other sages may try to confuse or obfuscate the issue, the wizards within the ClickTracks Castle offered our heroine some wisdom.

"First," the wizards report, "we must dispel one myth about web analytics-and that is a myth of the accuracy of the data. The fact of the matter is that all the numbers that your web metrics software gives you are--at best-close. Data within every web analytics tool (yes, even ClickTracks) is approximate, though some metrics are admittedly more valuable than others. Numbers like 'unique users' are substantially better than simple 'visitor counts', which, of course, are eons better than 'hits'!"

"So if the data isn't completely accurate, is it still worth knowing?" asked the maven. "Certainly," the wizards replied, "But what matters most when looking at any metric is whether the number is rising or falling significantly.

In other words, young maven, don't stress over the number of visitors to a site. Instead, stress when your number of site visitors is significantly decreasing (then figure out why it's happening and fix it!) or have a celebration (and ask the boss for that raise!) when it is markedly increasing. Keep an eye on the trends, or even better, use the ClickTracks' labeling tool to compare two discrete time periods."

"And it is of utmost importance that you remember this, Predictable data-having the ability to say something like 'Google is my top referrer' is invaluable," said the wizards.

"Saying 'I have 5600 visitors from Google' isn't as powerful, because it is lacking context-is that 5600 a good number, up from only 3200 visitors the week previously, or is it a bad number, down from 9800? Knowing through trends that Google is your top referrer will alert you to the fact that something odd (and worth paying attention to) is occurring if another search engine takes over the top referrer spot. In this case, it'd be indicative of something bad happening in Google (that needs to be caught and corrected, stat!) or something good happening in another search engine (perhaps as the result of recent SEO efforts.)"

"But what about cookies?" asked the marketing maven. "Ah, good question. But be patient-we'll talk about cookies in just a moment," replied the wizards. "First, let us talk about noise.

Counting on predictable data or data trends help you eliminate the noise inherent in data, and therefore minimizes the impact of any inaccuracy. That's why comparing groups of visitors is the best method for understanding what's happening on your site, and why. Let's give you a solid example of how data inaccuracies disappear when faced with trend data: Cookie deletion."

"You are not the first marketing maven to ask us what impact cookie deletion has on the accuracy of data. In this case, there are two answers. The complete, technically correct answer is that if/when a visitor deletes the cookie issued by their site, your reported unique visitor count could increase-perhaps as much as ten percent. The marketing-focused answer is this: When you compare groups of visitors to each other, the cookie deletion inaccuracy is likely to be the same for both groups-meaning the inaccuracy virtually disappears.

This allows you to put your focus on what really matters-how the data is changing-and keeps you from falling prey to focusing on the numbers themselves," concluded the wise wizards before sending the maven on her merry way.

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