Putting Web Analytics into Perspective

I have been reading Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk recently (an excellent and very practical book by the way) and came across a section on Web Analytics in the book. I have reproduced it below (with permission) as it makes a very important point – don’t obsess about your web stats!

From Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk:

I use analytics very rarely and I urge you not to rely too much on them either, especially if you’ve got good busi­ness instincts. A lot of times the stats and percentages re­lated to my business just don’t support what my instinct says is true, and I’ll trust my instincts over numbers every time. What if your analytics tell you that you’ve only had seven views on Break.com in two months? Are you going to stop posting to that platform? The data are telling you that you should probably drop it, but what you don’t know is that one of those seven viewers is a producer for The Today Show. There’s no reason to think that can’t happen.

The numbers can be a trap that changes your behavior. People see they’ve only gotten fifty viewers in a few weeks and decide they suck and they stop trying as hard. Or their video catches on and gets watched a thousand times and they think they’ve made it, and they stop trying as hard. Metrics can be useful, of course, but the effect of your online interactions and the excitement building toward your brand isn’t accurately reflected by the number of viewers you have It’s not about how many viewers you have, it’s about how, passionate they are. If you must use them, analytics should remain a minor-league detail. Focus the majority of your attention on your overall brand positioning.

The topic Gary is talking about specifically is looking at web stats related to your own blog and community posts in the process of building your personal brand. However, the same principle also applies to the web stats for your website.

The key message is that you are looking for sufficient TARGETED traffic to support your brand. If that equates to 10 people a day, then that’s OK. If you’re into selling online, it will mean much bigger numbers but where they come from and how they get there (the details of the stats) is key. In the latter case you should be focusing on detailed SEO work to get the right people to visit your website – people who are most likely going to buy from you (which is also where Gary’s book can help as he talks about building your online brand, which is the most organic way possible to develop targeted traffic).

Here is an example from personal experience and this blog.

Brilliant Thinking doesn’t get a lot of viewers by volume (at the time of posting), but it does have some regular readers (via RSS and email)  and a growing number of followers on my Twitter stream, as well as a few who have converted to Facebook followers. Alongside my professional network on LinkedIn, this is my community or “brand world”.

About a week ago I received an email from one of my LinkedIn connections asking if he could introduce a senior executive to me who “liked the way I thought”. So from my relatively small community I have achieved one of the goals of Crush It! – the one where people are seeking me out in person because they “like the way I think” and want to have a dialogue with me, which may in turn lead to business in some form down the road, but either way extends my brand world one person at a time.

So, don’t think “how can I get lots more viewers to my site?”, think “have I got the right viewers for my brand?”

As Gary says, focus on your content and your message, not the raw numbers. Keep the numbers in perspective at all times – make sure they are relevant to you and your business. If you are working with SEO experts, make sure they understand this message – ask them a few awkward questions about targeted visitors And if you are in the business of building an online (personal or otherwise) brand, get a copy of Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. It’s great!

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Or have a story you’d like to share?

Post below, I’d love to hear from you.