Some of you got into Web Analytics because of your background in statistics, some may have come in from a marketing perspective, some from computing in general, but I would wager that most did not grow up thinking, “I want to be a web analyst when I grow up!” (Though the “Net Generation”  may have kids that say this) Nor do many of you have a degree or much less a certificate in ‘Web Analytics’. (Though you could get one if you so chose to do so: http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/education/ for example)

This is by no fault of your own. Web Analytics, for as much as it has grown in the past few years, is really still in its infantile stages. Ok, maybe we’re in the pre-adolescent stages, but we’ve still got a long way to go and a lot to learn before we can be a revered discipline like physics, or algebra (IMO).

The exciting thing is that we can continue to build Web Analytics and to grow it into whatever we think/want it to be. However, if you are just getting started into Web Analytics, here is my cheat sheet for things that you can do to improve your understanding. You do not necessarily have to follow this list in sequential order.

1) Read some books

As Carlos mentioned in his previous post, there are a ton of books that you can read about Web Analytics, Website Optimization, Web Design, Search Engine Marketing, etc. So get out there and find some books about what you want to know about. If you are a beginner to intermediate analyst, try our book!

2) Read some blogs

Obviously if you are reading this you are probably already scavenging the web for blogs. My favorites include, but are not limited to: Occam’s Razor, Web Analytics Demystified , Google Blog, Mashable (for social media info) , Scobleizer (for the tech geek in me)  , and for my SEO fix: SEOmoz blog or Carlos’ $100 SEO blog. There are TONS of blogs and websites out there so don’t limit yourself to these. Google is your friend, so do some research! You also may want to utilize Google Reader to organize your reading.

3) Learn/Know your industry or client’s vertical

If you are an analyst for a company, you had better know what industry you are in. You should become a master of who your competition is and what they are doing. This will make #7 easier for you to accomplish. If you are at an agency, you may not have the time to become a master of each of your client’s industries (unless all of your clients are in the same industry) but you should know a little about each and be able to use this info as you make your recommendations.

4) Know your customer or your client’s customer

I cannot stress this enough. You cannot get Web Analytics unless you get your customer, bottom line. #3 works hand in hand with this. I do not mean that you should just know what the data tells you (though this is one key component). You need to be a customer yourself and navigate your website as if you were someone who has never been on the web before; someone who has been online but would not be considered a power user; and someone who is a power user. Think like a customer and you’ll be able to analyze your data better and make better recommendations.

5) Master your analytics platform

I hesitate to say that any one of these keys is more powerful than the other because I’m a big believer in all of these. However, I will say that if you can master your analytics platform, your job will be much easier. Too often for beginner and intermediate Web Analysts they spend hours figuring out what data they should use to analyze their site. Instead you should be able to quickly capture the data that you need and spend a good amount of time analyzing it and a large amount of time figuring out what it means. Mastering your analytics platform will allow you to spend more time analyzing and making recommendations and not just reporting data like the squirrel (love this metaphor from Avinash Kaushik). http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/04/the-action-dashboard-an-alternative-to-crappy-dashboards.html

6) Use dashboards to convey easily digestible data

The link in #5 applies to this point as well. When measuring your Key Performance Metrics, you can probably utilize a recurring dashboard that you can send out as self explanatory information (though questions from your audience are always a nice welcome!) I really like Avinash’s action dashboard examples and I break it down like this: Simplistic data, a graphic version, a text summary, and recommendations. You don’t have to specifically follow these rules, but make something that maybe even the receptionist can understand (not calling receptionists ignorant, just using an extremely unlikely person interested in your data). Keep it Simple Stupid!

7) Make recommendations, don’t just spew back data

I may have beaten this topic to death by now. Data is great for analysts. I often  joke that when I look at websites it’s like The Matrix for me.  I don’t see links, I see how many people click on those links, or even what area is the ‘hottest area’ on the page, kinda like an internal heat map in my mind.  I will admit that I really live for the data…but your audience that you will present your analysis to probably don’t get that analytical. They want to see a number and then want to know what the number means.

8 ) Look for key trends and make note of them for benchmarking

As you grow in your analytics knowledge, you should keep a running log of commonalities and baseline metrics to benchmark new and / or specific project to. Obviously you can look at the week over week or month over month or year over year data and determine a positive or negative change, but you should always have some sort of idea of what the results should look like compared to what you’ve seen in the past.

9) Join a forum and participate

Web 2.0 and beyond is making great use of social networking. As an Analyst you need to understand what social networking is all about. While you might have a Facebook account or a personal Twitter that you share funny stories on, you should think about using these tools and others for learning more about Web Analytics or anything related to your job. There are Yahoo discussion groups, there are Meetup.com groups, there might be a Web Analytics Wednesday event in your area, or look for some other type of networking event. The point is you can only learn so much by reading and doing. When you start to share and talk with others you can learn new things that you may not have ever learned (and in a shorter amount of time probably).

10) Learn about “other tools”

Quantitative data should be backed up by Qualitative data such as customer feedback, opinions, customer forums, etc. As well, talk to your coworkers in your department and other departments. There might be books or websites that they use for their job that might help inform your analysis or you understanding of your company/clients/competitors. As well, #8 might help you discover some pretty great alternative tools.

11) Write a book!

Ok, maybe this is extreme and / or you don’t want that type of attention. Maybe just start with a personal blog that you send to your co-workers that gives ‘unofficial’ thoughts about your job and your findings. I can say that the research that I did to write a book and start this blog has helped me grow significantly in my understanding of web analytics (and of course I thought I already knew it all). If you would like to know more about how Carlos and I wrote our, book send an email through our contact page or leave a comment at http://www.udpublishing.com/