Clicks r u

Aren’t web site statistics wonderful things? They help web site owners see inside the heads of their users and, hopefully, then allow some meaningful conclusions to be drawn for mutual benefit.

So what are Business Transformation’s site visitors interested in the most? What were their preoccupations in 2007?

Leaving aside the main news and news archive pages, the pages thereafter proving most popular this year were ranked by number of page hits…and it turns out you’re all a bunch of speed freaks.

For way out in front by a goodly margin was Go faster broadband, a story on how to clock your connection speed. Who would have thought a mere 151- word article could have struck a Highlands and Islands chord so accurately?

Strangely, though, broadband doesn’t dominate the psyche of the small to micro-sized business. The rest of the top 20 ‘hit’ parade is a mix of both broadband, e-business and business transformation issues. And here they are

 
2  Web site optimisation
3  Broadband
4  Useful facts about broadband
5 Image protection
6  Customer care
7 Information about ISPs and broadband suppliers
8 Broadband glossary
9  Web sites - a builder’s checklist
10  Free downloads for business
11  The weakest link
12  Domain names - a good place to start
13  What is an ISP?
14  Optimising images for search engines
15 What is broaband speed?
16  Freshening content
17 Broadband beginner's guide
18 Search engines
19 E-business features
20 Broadband case studies

But there are statistics, and there are statistics. The real black art of web site statistics is in making sense of them, drawing out an interpretation on which the web site owner can act. In this case, it would appear users fret a lot about their connection speed, worry about their content and wonder if they are making the most of their web presence.

All of this begs the question whether we needed web stats to confirm to us what we thought we knew already. And further is it really is true that 27.3 per cent of all statistics, including this one, are made up.

Anyway, have a Merry Xmas/ Happy New Year. And keep watching in 2008.