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The Complex World We Live In: Analytics Alone

When I started with Internet Marketing in 2002, we had the following to be aware of (“we” being people wanting to sell something online, or even just to communicate online).

  • PC or a Mac (Basic operating systems)
  • A desktop or a laptop (Devices)
  • Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and AOL’s browser. (But AOL was always for a more basic level user, and the basic level has gotten more and more basic over time. (We’ve all become geeks in a way.)) (Browsers)

That was the end of the story.

Today, I received an email from Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a program/tool that lets you track what people do on your website.

Bear in mind, this is the summary email from Google Analytics… which is supposed to entice me to click and read the articles they’ve prepared for me.

Instead, I just feel completely overwhelmed and underprepared to even tackle anything.

The email I’ve received is divided into 6 sections. Remember when an email used to just be an email? Like 3 years ago? Those days are gone.  Each section of the email has multiple articles that you can read about a given topic.

Let’s just take 1 section of the email, where they’re talking about “Universal Analytics”.

In this section, they want you to click to read about how the new Google Analytics *Universal Analytics* can help you understand how your website is going to function for users on different devices.

Remember from above… (it used to just be a Mac or a PC, a desktop or a Laptop, and Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator).

2002: 6 Major Options, 18 possible combinations.

2013:

Devices

  • Smart Phones (multitudes of them)
  • Mobile Devices (not smart phones)
  • Tablets
  • Ebook Readers
  • Laptops
  • Desktops
  • (That’s just for starters)

Browsers (Just the popular ones)

  • Firefox
  • Internet Explorer
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Safari Mobile
  • Android
  • Android Mobile
  • (Again, just for starters)

Operating Systems (Just the popular ones)

  • Linux
  • PC
  • Android
  • Mac
  • (Again, just for starters)

Listing just the most known options, there are 17 items on these lists.

2013: 17 items, 168 possible combinations

That’s all just for starters.

And the thing is, as a person running a website, you should be aware of all of these.

They’re all important.

They’re all necessary to running a really successful business online.

But what I’ve listed above…This is just so that people can access your website.

I haven’t mentioned APPS (Applications), which are a whole thing unto themselves.

I’m also not talking about ANY of the other more “normal” aspects of business (employees, marketing, sales, distribution, production, etc. etc. etc.)

I also haven’t mentioned that there’s an Internet sales tax that the White House is attempting to ramrod through congress?

If it passes, it will be probably the most cumbersome, poorly devised, poorly conceived, confusing *thing* invented, in the history of taxes.

It’s really (from most perspectives) designed to make Wal-Mart and “big business” more money.
(I actually like Wal-Mart in many respects.  It’s just very deceiving that they’re one of the big backers of the “Mainstreet fairness act” – yes, Wal-Mart.  You figure that out.  Wal-Mart is now “Mainstreet” business.)

95% of businesses in America are small to medium sized businesses.  They’re currently being squeezed from every direction imaginable.

It’s always been this way for small to medium sized businesses.

But you’d be hard pressed to find a time in history when (at least in Western Civilization) they were being more squeezed than they are right now.

As you should always be with anyone, make these following guidelines doubly true for the small to medium sized businesses you work with or buy from:

  • Be patient.
  • Be polite.

If they’re not getting back to you right away, just call back or email again.  Yes, it will take you 30 seconds or a minute more.

But if they’ve said they’ll do it, it’s likely they will.  You just need to chill out a little bit while they do it.

And the next time you’re on a website, and something is taking a few seconds to load, or not working properly, or a business has some difficulty addressing your issue the instant you need help, this is  all very important to keep in mind.

Your issue is important to them.

They’re working on it.

And life for businesses has gotten infinitely more complex and expensive in the last 10 years, in a way that is unprecedented in all of human history.

 

 

 

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