Analysing
variations in your website traffic isn’t always plain sailing. Identifying the
causes behind spikes in traffic and major fluctuations is labour intensive and
can chew through your precious time and resources. When trying to get to grips
with your data flows and make viable predictions, a range of factors can come
into play:
- Variations can be hard to spot, and it
can be difficult to identify their causes - Meaningful fluctuations aren’t
always easy to pin down – just because you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they’re
not important… - Data mining and delving into issues
on your online platforms is a lengthy process and often needs specific
expertise
However, there are proactive steps you can take to make the process run more smoothly – with a little help from a high-tech analytics solution!
CHALLENGE:
Investigating
the source of the over or underperformance of your web traffic is tricky for several
reasons. If a part of your site increases in traffic and another part decreases,
the overall traffic figures will stay the same as the two effects cancel out. This
means that you will miss significant trends if you only take into account the overall
figures.
There may also be multiple causes for fluctuations on your site. By only identifying and resolving one single problem, you may have whitewashed over a series of other issues.
In addition, some problems arise from the limited time digital marketing professionals can commit to solving a problem. Despite the increasing number of tools designed to improve marketing teams’ efficiency, they often have more tasks to carry out and less time to spend on each tool.
SOLUTION:
Innovation
is often boosted by cross-fertilising ideas from different fields. In terms of
website traffic variations, it is possible to take a data mining approach and
apply it to web analytics – data quality and technical knowledge are the key to
solving problems through data mining.
Data quality
High
quality data is key to guaranteeing quality analyses – simply put, data analysis
is only as good as the data it is based on. Empowering our customers with
flawless data quality is fundamental to AT Internet’s approach, based on the
following 5 dimensions:
Accuracy – does my data reflect reality over time?
Consistency – is my data consistent across digital platforms?
Completeness – is my data intact and sufficiently rich?
Timeliness
– is my data available when I need it?
Cleanliness
– is my data error-free?
To make
sure that your data is of the highest possible quality, it is important to put the
effort in throughout its lifecycle, from collection to analysis. AT Internet
employs significant resources to ensure our clients’ data is of irreproachable quality
– with a team of consultants who can help with the collection, processing and
use of our tools in line with industry best practices.
An analyst’s knowledge
Another crucial
aspect for effective analysis is the having the knowledge and experience required
to successfully carry it out.
According to Drew Conway, Data Scientists need three specific areas of knowledge.
- Mathematical & Stats knowledge –
more specifically, a decent knowledge of statistics to properly understand your
data, set up algorithms and understand the significance of the results. - Substantive expertise – understanding
the business context to grasp the tangible issue in question. Developing the
best algorithm in the world is useless if it can’t be applied to solve day to
day problems of the business - Hacking Skills – required to
efficiently collect, transform, analyse and model your data sets. A substantial
amount of data is required, especially in complex situations.
AXON – MAKING ANALYSIS SIMPLE
High-quality
analyses can be a complicated process – with the quality of the analysis
depending on the quality of the data and the analyst’s expertise. However, at
AT Internet, we don’t just democratise data, we provide user-friendly access to
valuable insights. Axon, our data science initiative is designed to make actionable
insights available to all users, even those who do not have an analyst on hand.
Even if you are an analyst, it can save you a considerable amount of time and
energy!
Regardless
of the size and nature of your data project, Axon does the heavy lifting. It is
designed to enable analysts and business users to rapidly get the most out of
their data – allowing them to devote more time to higher value-added tasks.
Our
solution is the result of the combined strengths of our digital analytics
experts and data scientists, who have developed models and algorithms based on
millions of data points – all to provide you with the best possible statistical
results and drive your decision making into the fast lane.
Our latest project, AXON Contribution, aims to do exactly this: by applying an algorithm to your underlying data it can identify and measure variations that explain unusual trends. Seamlessly integrated into AT Internet’s Explorer, it is specifically designed to save you time by helping you analyse your data as well as unearthing insights that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Axon makes
sure you never miss a beat.
Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash
