Categories
Short posts

Web analytics data should be used for recommendations, not for reporting

Web analytics data should be used for recommendations, not for reporting.

We should always keep this in mind:

“Data are not taken for museum purposes; they are taken as a basis for doing something. If nothing is to be done with the data, then there is no use in collecting any. The ultimate purpose of taking data is to provide a basis for action or a recommendation for action. The step intermediate between the collection of data and the action is prediction.”

(D. Edward Deming, 1942)

Too often, web analytics stops where it should just begin: A lot of energy is spent on collecting data.

Sometimes it is used as a basis for action and recommendations. But almost always the intermediate step of prediction is bypassed.