Use At Least Two Metrics Packages

Have you ever logged into a Web-based service only to find that your data was missing or temporarily unavailable? Have you ever experienced a service outage where you could not log in for several hours or days? These are common problems for the Web and it is a prudent measure to use two or more metrics packages that operate on different platforms for this reason alone.

However, there are other reasons to use more than one metrics service. For example, some metrics services (like G----- A--------) cannot or choose not to filter out rogue robots so they overreport your traffic. Some metrics services provide very simple reporting even if they do a better job of filtering out crawlers and rogue robots.

When you use two or more metrics packages you can sometimes see disparities between the data sets and that may help you ignore rogue events (or find ways to block them) rather than assume that a spike in traffic was a good thing or a drop in traffic was a bad thing. Just because a metrics reporting program says your Website traffic changed does not mean you are seeing a different number of "real" visitors.

It is impossible to capture good data about "real" visitors but you can estimate where the numbers should be by comparing different reports. You can become expert in filtering out bad visitors in any one metrics package but most people don't have the time or the patience to learn how to do that. It is better to compare results from two or more sources and look for consensus.

Even inside the SEO industry most people are not very experienced at analyzing the metrics reports they work with. They are taught very basic skills and then turned loose on "live" Websites. Their analysis tends to be mediocre at best because they don't know what to look for.

Perhaps some day someone will start teaching advanced metrics analysis to the SEO industry and their coverage of user behavior will improve. You could start by reading about the Directions of Exit that affect every Web page.

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