Oh, so That's How It Works

It's happening less often these days, but you probably still encounter executives or colleagues who have trouble wrapping their heads around newer technology—how something works, for instance, and what it can do for them. So if you find yourself trying to explain the ins and outs of Google Analytics to someone who has barely mastered email, Lynne Harrold comes to the rescue with an anecdote about analytics on a small scale.

In a few posts at her Marketing Analytics blog, she recounts creating an online shop for her mother's handcrafted jewelry—and using Google Analytics to determine whether her mother should be making quite so many bracelets.

What Harrold found seemed to confirm her suspicion. "Visitors clicked on the necklace section more often than the bracelet section," she says, "which indicates that necklaces are more popular. However, necklaces are the first section listed and it may be that the order is causing more page views. Thus, I will switch the order and check back to see if the pattern continues."

Combining this information with sales numbers, moreover, it nevertheless helps to confirm that her mother's energy might be best spent on necklaces. "I had thought," notes Harrold, "that visitors would gravitate towards bracelets because they are less expensive; however, her online sales suggest that visitors are more likely to purchase necklaces even though they cost more."

The Po!nt: With a simple story about a very small business, Harrold neatly illustrates how the data gleaned from Google Analytics can contribute to the types of decisions any business needs to make.

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