There are hundreds of different reports we can create. We can see who, what, when and how someone navigates the site, but our web analytics won’t tell us WHY. As marketers and “web analytics gurus” we need to figure it out by ourselves using the reports we create.

I consulted a company that created about 40 different reports on a weekly basis just to look at them. They’d panic if numbers (orders) went down and they’d be happy if sales went up. That was pretty much it. But what about figuring out a trend? What about understanding why most people decided to go to page D from Page A and not page C (but they all rushed to page C from page D)?

When looking at web stats, you need to assign a “reason” to every number, especially if it’s the “User path” or any other site navigating / user behavior reporting.

Why does someone decide to go to page C instead of page B from the home page? Well this tells us what’s most important to them at that moment or in that stage of the buying process. Based on these statistics, you will somewhat understand the mindset of your prospect customer/client.

The best thing you can do based on these reports is create a “perfect” funnel for your visitors. No, you won’t satisfy everyone, but for majority you’ll make their browsing experience on your website more pleasant, comfortable and easy …. resulting in a higher conversion rate.

You can’t apply the same rules for every website and you can’t do a “one fits all” report analysis, but the best thing you can do is …. assign a reason to the behavior of a visitor and then make changes to improve your website’s performance.