Hurol Inan: Web Analytics Consultant & Author

How do I report on web analytics? This is one of the most common questions I get asked in my web analytics consulting, speaking and teaching assignments. There’s no easy answer – because every organisation has different needs.

The question generates interesting and lengthy discussion about various aspects of reporting such as:

• Rationale - why bother reporting
• Audiences - who should be getting the reports and why
• Content - what the report should contain
• Format and size - what format should the report be presented in, what is the ideal size, how effective are dashboards, charts and tables, etc
• Method of delivery - should the report be emailed or provided within a web analytics tool
• Frequency - how often should reports be generated.

Early in these discussions, I ask about the current practices. Many people think their reports are ineffective and add that no one really cares about them. Probe a little more, and I find a number of common problems emerge:

• The reports are long
• Everyone gets the same report
• The reports mostly consist of charts and tables with little or no commentary
• It takes too long to produce the reports
• Stakeholders are engaged poorly
• The reports do not prompt action.

Amongst our clients, we observe that when executives embrace the online channel and demonstrate leadership, the success in this channel is imminent. This occurs because senior management drives it and demands it, so over time an appropriate reporting scheme establishes itself.

Of course, this does not mean we should wait for leadership from above to sort out our web analytics reports. Exactly the opposite. As web analysts, site managers or owners, we can use our web analytics reports to influence and cultivate the relationship with senior management. At the same time, we can use them to assist with the day to day operations and ongoing improvement of our websites.

Rules of reporting

Don’t fall into the trap of producing a single report to serve all. You might have started with a small report, which soon grew large and unmanageable as additional information requests were incorporated into the standard report. Break your report down, segmenting by recipients and the expected function. To do this, you need to define a Web Analytics Reporting Framework.

Step one: define your reporting audiences. They are usually your internal stakeholders for the online channel. Some may be strategic, as they fund and influence the online direction in terms of products, services, content and functionality. Some may be contributing content and they need to know how well their content is performing. Some may be responsible for a service. Don’t forget yourself as the web analyst or site manager. You need the right reports to perform, too.

Step two: identify what each reporting audience needs to know, what for and how often.

Step three: determine process. Work out the best possible way to produce the reports, ideally automating them as much as possible. Efficiency is critical here because you don’t want to become a slave of producing the reports day in, day out. Some reports may require extra data analysis and interpretation. If you are short of resources and do not have these skills in house, consider outsourcing these. Many web analytics consultants offer this, including Bienalto.

Before too long, you will have defined your web analytics reporting framework.

Types of reports

Below is a list of reports that we identified for a large content-oriented website, using the process described above. The information sources are indicated unless the report could be produced from a typical Web Analytics solution.