For an analytics evangelist like myself, reading them was both a breath of fresh air and a punch in the gut.

It got me thinking about web analytics in general, but also in our little corner of the internet – the higher education websites. There are so many limitations as far as online analytics is concerned and, as Mr. Carrabis points out, most of it is because of people. Yes, people. People in the analytics industry. You. Me. All of us.

Why am I bringing all this up you may ask? Why not? I’m still an analytics evangelist, but I acknowledge the fact that there are holes … big holes that we need to work together to fill up. I also acknowledge the fact that higher education is *years* behind other industries when it comes to analytics – all analytics.  Sometimes I think this may work to our advantage.

If you really think about it, we aren’t unlike other industries in what we want to get out of our websites. We also aren’t unlike companies that have issues with web analytics – numbers don’t add up, leadership doesn’t take the recommendations of the analysts (that are based on *facts*), leadership doesn’t *trust* the numbers, etc.

They do have a point. The web analytics industry has yet to have any real standards. Definitions, tagging, metrics, are different from tool to tool. Because there are so many variables involved, numbers will never tie – heck numbers often don’t tie between tools from the same darn company because they gather the data differently between those tools. From the same darn company! It’s enough to drive you batty.

There isn’t a ton we can do about that right now, though. Question for all of us – have we done all we can to get the most out of these tools, even with all their limitations? We complain all the time (why can’t I do this or this or this) – I know I complain. I’m very guilty of this.

At most our institutions, the current times have given us the opportunity (yes, opportunity!) to scrutinize what we do more. To look at the numbers more. Website analytics is a small part of the larger analytics picture, but it is a part. It’s a very important part and it will only get more important.

Where can we do better? Let’s talk about training. How many of you in higher education have been trained in your analytics tool? I’m talking real training, whether it’s self-taught or classes, or consultants, or anything. I’m also not talking about, “training in your spare time” because we all know how that goes.

From Mr. Carrabis:

… the use of any tool is going to require training across the usage spectrum. The use of new tools definitely so. This training can be self-training and the user should be prepared for scraped knuckles, smashed thumbs and lots of cursing. Self-training is great when the user has lots of time and patience. Otherwise, take a class or let the experts (”consultants”) in.

He goes on to say:

More training is the answer only if the training results in well-reasoned and understandable business actions*. Tools and trainings are worthless without knowing what one wants to build (”It reminds me of the development of web sites themselves ten years ago – everybody had to have one, still not being absolutely sure what to use them for. Of course the free tools have done their part in this evolution.”).

So, although the analytics industry has to get there … eh em … stuff … together, we do as well.

Bright Future?

So let’s get to the “bright future” part of this post before everyone ends up throwing in the towel and going back to the homepage hit counter. Yikes!

I really do think that web analytics has a bright future, especially in higher education. Some thoughts:

1. Web analytics is young. Avinash Kaushik has said it’s a toddler. When it comes to higher education, I’d say web analytics is an infant – still wearing 0 – 3 month clothes. We’re trying to figure all this out. We’re still at the joke-forward stage. Remember when you were first introduced to e-mail? You’d get jokes or stupid chain e-mails and forward them to your entire address book because it was something that was new and cool and you weren’t quite sure what to do with it? Today, if you get joke forwards or chain e-mails you either reply to sender cursing him/her out or just delete it without reading. Higher education is still there with web analytics. We spit out visit reports, see an increase after a certain marketing campaign and say, “cool, a  job well done” and nothing more. This is good news for us, though. There is nowhere to go but up! But, if we don’t change and evolve, this can be bad news. 2 years from now we shouldn’t still be forwarding jokes!
2. Higher education is slowly but surely coming to respect the power of analytics (not just web analytics!).  With a little centralization, some training, and some resources, we can do this. Should be easy, right? : )
3. Web analytics vendors are starting to feel the pressure from end-users to improve their products, both functionality and customer/technical service. Google Analytics alone has come out with a ton of new features just in the past few months. Remember, however, that we must practice (training!) using them or new features don’t mean a thing.
4. The web analytics industry is trying to standardize definitions. They’re not there yet, but they’re trying.

I hope that I’m not wrong on #2 above. With some of the conversations I had at HighEdWeb in October I may be. What we have now is better than what we had a year ago. It’s better than what we had 4 months ago.

Let’s face it – with the economy and layoffs, and everything else that’s going on in higher education these days, we are being asked to scrutinize more than ever before. For those of us that came from another industry, this is nothing new. Even with all the limitations, analytics has a lot to offer, but we must educate ourselves and leadership. We must continually ask for training and show leadership why it’s so important. Secondly, we must educate others on what web analytics can and can’t do. It cannot tell you how many *people* clicked a certain button while standing on one leg wearing a red t-shirt. It is not the be all, end all. It can tell you how many times that button was clicked, and using segmentation, what other things during those visits. to your site. If you’re using both quantitative and qualitative analytics, you can start to know not only the “what,” but the “why” as well. To me, that alone can tell you so much. So much so that it’s definitely worth the time and effort. As for the limitations – I’ll take them … and move on.

PostScript: My apologies for a stream of consciousness post. The 2 posts mentioned really got me thinking and this post is an attempt to articulate those thoughts – it may be a poor attempt, but it’s one nonetheless.

FYI … coming up within the next month - Look for a survey on the state of web analytics in higher education. After reading some analytics posts recently, I’d love to gather some data from higher education as to what we’re using, how we’re using it, etc. I really want to look in-depth, especially into how people are using the data (if at all).

*My emphasis