Ballardvale Research Conclusions:  Best Practices

Although the presentations by enterprises such as Amazon.com and Hewlett-Packard were heartening, based on dinner conversations at the conference it's clear that many companies are still struggling with how to do Web analytics well.  Emerging best practices highlighted at the conference include:

• A Chief Web Officer -- Whatever the title, a single person responsible for a company's online presence.  This "buck stops here" office helps crystallize a company's online vision as well as resolve disputes such as which department gets the most real estate on the home page this week.
• Clear goals for both the business and the Web site -- Without clear directives, optimizing a Web site is futile -- the business endorses conflicting business goals, the Web analytics group cannot identify the appropriate KPIs, and confusion reigns.  If an enterprise can agree on the top priorities for both the business and the metrics, it -- by default -- agrees on what to ignore.  And given the complexity of today's Web sites and metrics, that is a huge victory.
• The use of multiple technologies -- Companies successful at Web analytics no longer solely depend on a clickstream analysis solution for all of their insight.  Although such a system is initially helpful at identifying major Web site gaffes, over time as the required changes become more subtle, the need for online surveys, user interface studies, and other tools grows.  Cross-checking and double-checking from multiple points-of-view becomes the rule.
• Iterative improvement -- Finally, rather than going for the "big bang" -- a wholesale rewrite of the Web site, for example -- cutting-edge enterprises improve their Web site in an iterative fashion.  Only then can they keep the variables to a minimum and prove that this specific site change improves conversion by 2%, for example.

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