Web Analytics: An Hour a Day

I've been promising this book review of "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day" by Avinash Kaushik for near six months and it has taken every week of six months to finally make it all the way through this book. I've spoken many times about Avinash and his wonderful blog "Occam's Razor" which this book being the pinnacle piece of the writings on that blog. Avinash is an analytical genus and the knowledge and experience he pours into this book are unbelievably practical, but even more important downright effective.

As I mentioned it took me six months to make it through this whole book. The problem wasn't the wealth of knowledge, but reading through it I constantly found myself stopping to take notes and try out things that are mentioned. Never have I read a book quite like this that packs so much knowledge in a way that I constantly find myself learning so much and wanting to make notes every few pages.

Web Analytics An Hour A DayAvinash really strives for this book to be able to stand the harsh test of web time (where a year is an eternity) and does a surprising good job of making it practical even as it's a few years old and will continue to be relevant going forward. The truth is this book is designed to be consumed over a long period of time as the chapters are broken down to be consumed one a month with actionable and learning assignments given throughout. The first few chapters focus on explaining how to build a successful strategy and the fundamental things you need to know about web analytics then dig right into monthly chapters starting with "Month 1: Diving Deep into Core Web Analytics Concepts" all the way through "Month 8 and Beyond: Shattering the Myths of Web Analytics". This practical tomb packs so much punch into its pages that I'm sure it will stay on my desk for a long time as a great reference piece.

Be warned that "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day" is not a casual read nor is it for someone without a hunger for numbers and data. Bottom line is that if you are truly interested in the field of Web Analytics this tomb is your Holy Grail. I've already written quite a few posts simply from the applied knowledge I've learned from this book and I think anyone that chooses to read it will no doubt come away with tons of practical nuggets themselves.

Oh and did I mention the best part is that all proceeds for this book are donated to a couple charities that Avinash has choosen! So go get your learn on and feel good about donating to a good cause by buying this piece of work that will only make you a more intelligent and better informed individual.

Learn how to develop a web analytics strategy using a step-by-step guide by an expert who tells how to gain solid, useful information from data collection methods. From identifying valuable metrics and using the appropriately to quick-start solutions for blogs and small business websites, Web Analytics An Hour a Day, this is a powerful recommendation not just for computer users and programmers but for general business collections catering to any who gather and analyze web statistics. Very highly recommended!

The word:value ratio is poor. Compression is needed. Overly focused on collecting data, nothing penetrating is offered about using it.

I love that Avinash has broken down the learning process into digestible chunks, it really is an hour a day. Add to that this man is the Chief Analytics Guru for Google and you have a winning combination. This book is a must-use for anyone who runs a website.

If you're looking to get into web analytics, this by far, is the book to pick up. I've taken the UBC web analytics program, and this book pretty much summarizes the entire program (as of the writing of this review) without all the typos, and repetition. It's straight to the point and very affordable.

You will NOT learn specific KPIs (you won't really get much of this at UBC either), but you will learn how to think like a web analyst. You also won't learn of advanced techniques, or learn how to use GA or Omniture - but it's definitely a good intro book.

Light reading, friendly tone. Definitely worth the purchase.