FAQ: Web Analytics Yahoo! Group - October 2007

I'm giving a shot at building/maintaining an FAQ for the Web Analytics forum. Let me know what you think and if it's worth doing it. New questions will be added and each answer will be refined to give exactly what is needed.

tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/webanalytics: FAQ
Last-modified: 2007-10-02
Author: immeria.net (Stéphane Hamel)
Available online at: http://blog.immeria.net/search/label/FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions == FAQ

1. Disclaimer
2. Why this FAQ?
3. Can you answer my web analytics question?
4. How can I add a FAQ and its answer to the FAQ list?
5. What are the forum best practices?
10. What is web analytics?
11. How do I break in the web analytics field?
12. What's the point with cookie acceptance/deletion?
13. Why are Unique visitors/visits/sessions/any metrics not accurate?
14. How can I select the "best" vendor?
15. I want to do XYZ with product ABC. I need help!
99. Credits

1. Disclaimer

Read at your own risk. I make no claim as to fitness for any purpose or absence of any errors, and offer no warranty. May contain traces of nuts.

2. Why this FAQ?

It could be hosted on the WAA site or on a wiki, but chances are those who are new to the forum (thus, more likely to ask a question that has been answered numerous times) don't know where to look for an answer. Posting this FAQ directly to the forum has proven to be one of the most effective way to address Frequently Asked Questions for nearly 15 years in thousands of online forums.

3. Can you answer my web analytics question?

Maybe. But you are better off reading this FAQ and the materials pointed to by it, and if you can't find an answer there, by all means post to the forum.

A FAQ list is intended to reduce traffic on a newsgroup, not eliminate it.

4. How can I add a FAQ and its answer to the FAQ list?

I'm following the threads on the forum and trying to spot what appears to be a FAQ. But you can mail BOTH the Question AND the Answer to me. Then I can add them to the FAQ and it should help people who have that same question later, as well as everyone who reads the group, because they won't see it asked and answered so often.

I do not work on this FAQ every day, but I will try to get updates incorporated in a timely manner.

5. What are the forum best practices?

WAA member-volunteers are doing an outstanding job at moderating the forum and making sure it doesn't get out of control. It's recommended to prefix your subject with a meaningful tag to ease perusing the high volume of posts. Some sugestions are:

• [Job] - For all job announcements
• [ProductX] - For a question specific to a product
• [WaW] - Web Analytics Wednesday
• [WAA] - Web Analytics Association announcements, giveaways, events, etc.
• send me your sugestions

10. What is web analytics?

First question first! An official definition from the Web Analytics Association web site: "Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage." See also the definition of "web analytics" on Wikipedia.

11. How do I break in the Web Analytics field?

See the conversation thread.

• Recommended books by Avinash Kaushik, Jim Sterne, Bryan Eisenberg.
• Give it a try on your own website or volunteer to do Web Analytics for a nonprofit organization
• Try your chance at jobs that seems to be a bit higher than your experience
• Read the forum and top blogs
• Attend Web Analytics Wednesdays, eMetrics, XChange, Basecamp events
• Get educated: UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics
  

12. What's the point with cookie acceptance/deletion?

See the thread about comScore study.

13. Why are Unique visitors/visits/sessions/any metrics not accurate?

See "Doubts about Unique Visitors"

14. How can I select the "best" vendor?

See "Why do web analysts switch packages?" initiated by Robbin Steiff

15. I want to do XYZ with product ABC. I need help!

1. Read the documentation that comes with your product (in the old days, we said RTFM...)
2. Search the forum for the product name ABC
3. Search the forum for all variations of XYZ
4. See if your vendor offers their own forums/knowlege base
5. Contact your vendor's support services
6. Post to the forum

99. Credits

Most of the content of this FAQ was edited from posts found on the Web Analytics Yahoo! Group. When text is taken "verbatim" credits are indicated, if the answer is edited from several posts, there is no specific credit.

Web Analytics Get Together, October 17th, Montreal

This month Web Analytics Get Together is sponsored by Omniture. Thanks guys!

What is it?

A monthly meeting of the local Web Analytics community. A gathering of practitioners in the field of web analytics or related interests (strategy, website optimization, SEO, design, or the Internet in general).

Event details

Last month we gathered about 20 people, this month we aim for more!

• Come for a drink offered by the Omniture folks!
• Hear Matt Kohl, Omniture's Manager of Customer Support talk about what can be done to improve user adoption and successful use of a web analytics solution.
• Of course, we will also share our latest news about web analytics in Québec
• ... and if you like, stay for supper and eat some ribs!

Bâton Rouge
180 Ste-Catherin West (Complexe Desjardins)
Montréal, QC H5B 1B5
514-282-7444

RSVP: simply send me an email, leave a comment below.

Speaker/sponsor

If you would like to sponsor this event, present a product or a service, pay for the first round, or simply present something on the subject of web analytics, please contact me. The only restriction, to stay in the true spirit of WaW, is that your presentation be educative or otherwise help people grow in their web analytics practice, not simply to promote your product or service.

Desjardins General Insurance site launch

Over the years, I have participated in many web projects, smaller campaigns up to full ecosystem revamp. Today is the official launch of my employer's revamped web ecosystem: Desjardins General Insurance.com (or Desjardins Assurances Générales in French).

On the surface, it's a new design, new content, renewed branding and a much more pleasing user experience.

Under the hood, it's Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2007 (MOSS) using Content Management System, custom authentication and optimized HTML /CSS rendering of pages... and lots of little tweaks and hacks. Being "early adopters" of a new technology or a new version of a solution is always risky, and of course, we ran into our share of problems. But at the same time, MOSS elevated us to a level where a huge amount of work was saved and the technological platform is in a very good shape to push the envelope. In this project like any other, there is rarely a "best" solution, there is always what appears to be the most promising scenario under the circumstances!

From the organizational perspective, it's a big project involving dozens of people over nearly a year. Financial services and insurance are usually quite conservative organizations, so this is a welcomed shift toward ebusiness and a much better leverage of the Web. And it's not over yet!

As a senior ebusiness adviser/architect, I was much more involved in the early stages of the project: addressing the business requirements and turning them into realistic and feasable solutions. While I used to be deeply involved in project development, this time I had to watch the project evolve from a distance and stay at a 40,000ft view. Still, there's always a warm feeling when seeing the baby's face for the first time! (ok, a bit stretched in my comparison, I have two kids and it's not quite the same... but you see what I mean!)