How to monitor and measure your Web analytics

Trend it

Measure each month (or more often if your situation requires) against your desired trend. This can be done very easily if you’ve got a clear trend chart to measure against.

Chart your small(er) successes instead of drowning in worthless data. Make sure you look at the trends, and not just the specific numbers or data.

Analyze successes or failures

Try to uncover 2-3 factors (items that can’t necessarily be measured) that contribute to each trend - either positive or negative. Use these factors to change or continue your direction for the following month.

For example:
Goal: Increase visitors to “XYZ” section of the site
by 50%
The Trend: A 15% increase in traffic to that section
each month, for four months

Insight: After two months, you’re trending ahead of schedule. What accounts for this? If you look at the referring page or the source of the visitor, you can gain insights as to whether it’s your search engine optimization efforts, changes to navigation portions of the site, or your new, creative banner ad that is the contributing factor. These insights are then useful for you to continue to make improvements.