Web Analytics Success Measurement For Government Websites

Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik, 12 October 2009. Discusses what are the top 5 measures for a government website including: Are Visitors able to find the information they are looking for? Are the Visitors satisfied with their experience? What is the most popular content on the site? What area can we prioritize higher than it currently is? How long does it take for someone to find key information they want? Does the right information actually exist on the website? What major things might we be missing on our website?

A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use - in 3 parts

Juice, Inc., 2009. Also called 'Designing great dashboards". "... This document will approach dashboard design in a holistic way, beginning with general goals and evolving to specific data presentation. Part 1: Foundation will help you identify your target audience, understand what type of dashboard you want to create and why it is valuable to your organization. It concludes with guidance regarding how to focus your message on the information and metrics that matter. Part 2: Structure will get you started on designing your dashboard, including what form it should take, how to arrange for audience understanding, and what navigation, interactions, and capabilities will make the dashboard useful and engaging. Finally, Part 3: Information Design dives into the details of interface and information design. You will learn how to lay out your dashboard and best practices for charting and data presentation..." [Requires Registration]

Setting Performance Targets: The Ins and Outs in 10 Steps

by Laura Patterson. MarketingProfs, September 15, 2009. "... What characterizes a performance-driven marketing organization? Performance-driven organizations consistently demonstrate the following five traits: 1. They establish and work from clear standards of performance and metrics. 2. They align resources, policies, and practices around standards of performance. 3. They track and report results against their performance standards. 4. They use data and performance targets to drive continual improvement. 5. They use analytics to facilitate fact-based decisions..."

Building Analytics Into Your Business Processes

By Neil Mason, ClickZ, September 15, 2009. "... Often organizations are happy to spend money on new campaigns or large-scale product development on their sites without thinking or being explicitly clear about how they will measure the campaign's effectiveness or the new piece of functionality. So how do they know that they have done a good job? Measurement also needs to be built into the campaign or product development process as well. Here is a simple framework to use..."

Actively Avoid Insights: 4 Useful KPI Measurement Techniques

Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik, 18 February 2009. Discusses why averages, percentages, ratios and compound metrics are not good KPIs and why you need to segment your data to get anything meaningful from it.

Simple Lesson in Public Sector/Non-Profit Website Return on Investment (ROI)

by Mike Kujawski. Public Sector Marketing 2.0, March 17, 2008. "... Currently, performance measurement in most departments is limited to very uninformative web analytics which are not tailored to the website's objectives and as a result are quite meaningless since they do not gauge quality of traffic but rather sheer quantity. The first step of good Performance Measurement is identification of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's)..."

Web analytics dashboards demystified

By Andreas Roell. iMedia Communications, November 14, 2008. "... Marketing dashboards are an indispensible tool to get a holistic and high-level view of how key metrics are performing, and if key performance indicators (KPIs) are linked to business goals and objectives, marketing teams can make appropriate campaign adjustments to ensure every dollar, placement and tactic is contributing their clients' bottom line. The three overarching advantages of an optimized dashboard is the ability to gauge and report on campaign ROI, improving visibility for senior management and ensuring the proper allocation of budget..."

'Dear Avinash': Be Awesome At Comparing KPI Trends Over Time

Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik. 30 September 2008. "... In this post we’ll cover a topic near and dear to all our hearts, comparing trends of our Key Performance Indicators and two specific strategies you can use to drive action. One that focuses on presenting data, the second an approaching to analyzing trends..."

Eight Rules for Choosing Web Analytics Key Performance Indicators

Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik, 16 September 2008. "The term KPI is one that I hear far more than any other in this nascent field we call Web Analytics. Key Performance Indicators!..." Avinash gives you 8 rules to consider when choosing your key performance indicators.

Managing Marketing Performance: The Role of Data, Analytics and Metrics

by Laura Patterson. Marketing Profs, August 26, 2008. "Performance management has been applied to various parts of a business for quite a long time, particularly when it comes to manufacturing, logistics, and product development. Applying the concept to marketing is finally coming of age..."

Thinking About Key Performance Indicators?

by Judah Phillips. Media Posts Online Metrics Insider, August 29, 2008. "Web Analytics Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are critical for understanding the huge volume of data in your Web analytics tool. While it's wonderful to have a tool that lets you cut, cross, and slice datasets in innovative ways, it can be a challenge to frame the data or put it in context in a way that helps your business optimize the Web site and meet customer needs..."

33 Website Success Metrics Instead of Rankings, Google PageRank and Traffic

by Tad Chef. SEOptimise, August 22, 2008. "... The good old days of primitive measurement of website success are finally over. Business people demand more than just traffic and rankings, marketing professionals get more web-savvy than 12 year old kids who almost were born on the Web and new web analytics tools finally make it possible to consider far more and specific metrics than ever before. So check out these 33 website success metrics instead of rankings, Google PageRank and traffic..."

5 Essential Steps to Effective Web Measurement

Omniture, Inc. September 2006. Learn: Effectively identify, measure, and analyze key metrics; Improve Website performance through innovation and optimization; View sample reports and key metrics analysis. [Requires registration to download a pdf file]

KPIs are not always averages, ratio or percentages - sometimes raw numbers are better

by Brian J Clifton. Advanced Web Metrics, June 22, 2008. "Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used throughout organisations for defining success. They are particularly essential in web analytics due to the plethora of data collected. In fact without KPIs, it is easy to become overwhelmed. So once you have set your overall web site objectives, use KPIs as the metrics to benchmark your progress. By definition, these are a small subset of 'key' information points taken from your web analytics reports..."

Three Steps To Better Web Site Performance Metrics

by Megan Burns, with Harley Manning, Steven Geller. Forrester Research, March 11, 2008. "We interviewed measurement specialists at leading companies and interactive agencies to determine how they select the right Web site performance metrics. Through our analysis of their responses, we identified a three-step process for defining key performance indicators (KPIs): 1) Clarify site business goals; 2) identify critical tactics; and 3) choose indicative metrics. We recommend starting with the metrics that can be generated with the data that's currently available. Over time, companies should plan to automate additional reports and integrate the data sources required to produce the full complement of Web site KPIs..."