Explaining Web Analytics: From Business Meetings to My 11-Year-Old's Curiosity

As someone who works in the field of web analytics, I often find myself explaining what exactly it is that I do. This question pops up not only in business meetings, but, quite surprisingly, it was also raised by my 11-year-old son one day. He looked at me with those curious eyes and asked, "Daddy, what is web analytics?" After a moment of surprise, I decided to explain it to him in a way he would understand and find interesting.

"Imagine our house is like a website," I began, his interest piqued at the mention of our home in this context. I continued, "Now, think about the big birthday party we threw for you. Remember how we sent out invitations to all your friends? That's like marketing campaigns we run for a website."

"Some of your friends came, some didn't," I explained. "This is the same as when we invite people to visit our website. Some click and visit, others don't. And those who do visit, well, they don't all behave the same way."

I brought up the party again, how some of his friends left early, some stayed a while, and some danced and ate cake until the end. Just as we'd want to know why friends stayed or left the party, in web analytics, we're interested in why people stay on or leave a website.

We also want to understand how people found our house, or in the case of web analytics, how they found our website. Did they find it because of our invitation (marketing), or did they hear about it from a friend (referral), or did they find it by walking past our house (organic search)?

"Remember when we set up that lemonade stand in our front yard last summer?" I asked him. "Think of it like an online store, or e-commerce website. The passersby are like the visitors to the website, and those who bought lemonade are like customers making purchases."

Just as we wanted to ensure our house was safe for the party, we also want to ensure a website is secure. We check all possible entrances and make sure there are no unexpected ways for unwanted guests to enter. This aspect of web analytics is about safeguarding our website from bad actors who might want to cause harm.

"So you see," I told my son, "our house and a website have a lot in common! By understanding what happens in our house during a party or at our lemonade stand, we can better understand how to make our website more exciting, safe, and enjoyable for all our visitors. And that, my little buddy, is what web analytics is all about!"

Explaining web analytics to my 11-year-old was a fun challenge. And it reminded me that at the heart of all the technical jargon and complex data, the purpose of web analytics is really quite simple: It's about understanding people, their behavior, and their preferences so that we can create better and safer online experiences for them. So whether in a business meeting or a casual conversation with my son, that's the essence of what I do in web analytics.