Statistics are for maths teachers, politicians and...website developers? Well, if you have anything to do with running websites you'll know that the internet opens up a world of numbers. But that doesn't mean that everyone knows what to do with them.
Here's a common scenario: A website owner hears that some software can help measure their traffic, or their competitor's traffic...and so on. They ask their tech team to use that software. Yet once it's installed, nobody really knows what to do with the information gathered.
This is the gap between wanting stats and using stats effectively.
How can you mind the gap?
Stats are nothing without context. For example, a monthly traffic statistic isn't too useful by itself. All it tells you is the number of people who arrive the site. It doesn't tell you what they want or what they do when they arrive.
You could have 10,000 people arriving at your site and leaving within a second because they couldn't find the right content, or because they landed using an irrelevant search term.
So, you need context and a clear goal.
Know what your objective is in gathering and analysing this information. Figures mean nothing unless you put them in the context of what you're hoping to measure. It's often easier to start with a goal and work back to find the statistics you need.
When you do have a figure such as your monthly traffic stats, ask yourself how you can use that information to improve the quality of your website design. Instead of saying "let's measure how many people arrive at our site", set out to answer questions like "what percentage of people bounce straight off our site when they arrive and what can we do to fix it?" or "I wonder if we can increase our traffic numbers by adding more content to our website?"
Attach your stats to a practical goal and you'll hurdle that stat gap with ease.