Brian Clifton - Advanced Man

Series don’t come much sillier than this, but if you want to know more about the folks in the web analytics industry – this may be just the place to do it.

Now it is time to talk to the mighty Brian Clifton, a man who could snap you like a twig…probably.

Who is Brian Clifton?

Brian Clifton (PhD), is an independent author, consultant and trainer who specialises in performance optimisation using Google Analytics. Recognised internationally as a Google Analytics expert, his latest book, the second edition of Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics is used by students and professionals world-wide.

Brian has been involved in web design and SEO since as far back as 1997, when he built his first website and started defining best practise to advise clients.  From 2005-8 he was Head of Web Analytics for Google EMEA (Xoogler*), defining the adoption strategy and building a team of pan-European product specialists from scratch.  A legacy of his work is the online learning centre for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification.

Brian is the Founder, CEO and Senior Strategist for GA-Experts.com – a company specialising in performance optimisation using Google Analytics and Urchin Software for global clients. He is @brianclifton on Twitter.

You were once an international weightlifter.  How often do you find that a useful skill in your work today?

lol – that was a different lifetime, though for some strange reason I do feel guilty if I am not in the gym twice a week… I am good at guessing the weight of a parcel that needs to be posted!

What do you see as the most common mistake made by web analytics practitioners?

The vast majority of web analytics practitioners fall into 2 categories:

• Data obsessed – they just want to see accurate reports on their desk each week. They stop short of actually doing anything with the data i.e. improving their marketing, user-experience etc. For them, web analytics is simply a benchmarking tool – not an optimisation tool unfortunately.
• Testing obsessed – they want to test and change everything based on science using MVT and A/B testing. They don’t stop to understand their visitors behaviour or intent.

Those two are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. The trick is to bring them into the middle. That is, get a balance of good solid, reliable data, understand your visitors and their intent, then test.
Test the parts where there is the greatest opportunity for improvement and where it’s difficult to understand the visitor behaviour i.e. don’t simply test everything on the assumption that statistics will optimise your site for you.

You are asked during a speaking engagement if last week’s 10% pageview increase is “enough”.  What do you say?

If the site is a publisher, that’s great – what are the causes? If you are not a publisher, so what? Surely there are other engagements on the site that are better indicators of success…

You’re alone in the dark.  You have 5 eggs and a hat.  How do you find your way to the village of Ault Hucknall in Derbyshire, England?

Now I know why you call this the “silly series”.

Who is your superhero-sans-cape in the web analytics community and why?

There are a number of key people in the industry who have influenced my thoughts over the years – Avinash Kaushik, Jim Sterne, Neil Mason.  These are genuinely decent people who share their thoughts in a modest and humble way. A rare combination.

You hear a song about web analytics on the radio.  Are you so vain that you think that song is about you?

After having endured a weekend of the Eurovision song contest, if I hear songs on web analytics, it’s time to quit…

How many copies of your book do you have and how many hours a day do you gaze lovingly at the second edition?

I actually have quite a few copies in my office as I regularly give these away at training events and to clients. I also look at it often as a reference guide for me when sanity checking client’s data.  I guess that sounds odd coming from the author, though I really can’t remember it all in my head!  I hope that doesn’t make me sound vain.  Like any author, I am certainly very proud of the book(s).  It really makes my day when I get positive feedback or a new Amazon review. Touch wood, they all have been to date, but I don’t take that for granted…

What is your favourite chemical equation?

I have forgotten most of them(!) though I do have a few chemical/scientific heroes. For example, William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) made many announcements in his life, some quite ridiculous, but one that is often quoted in this industry is:

“If you can’t measure it you cannot improve it”

What do you see as the greatest threat to the future of web analytics?

Privacy.  I am a strong advocate of online privacy. That may sound strange coming from a web analytics evangelist. However, if we as an industry do not sort these privacy issues out, there is a real danger that web analytics, as we know it today, will disappear completely. The use of 3rd party cookies and Flash cookies (Shared Objects) over the years has done real harm to our industry.

Check out the full list of interviews in the Silly Series here!