Imagine putting a bag over your head just as you stepped in front of a room to make a presentation, or before you entered a networking event. Okay, you wouldn’t do that because it would be weird. But you also wouldn’t do that because then you wouldn’t be able to tell:

• Who you’re talking to
• Whether they are paying attention to what you’re saying

Well, if no one in your organization ever looks at your website analytics to observe user behavior, then you’re basically putting a bag over your head.

Analytics tells you what is bringing visitors to your site, and how engaging they find it once they get there. Without analytics information, improving your website or tracking success is difficult if not impossible.

This is connected to one of the biggest challenges I see people struggle with in maintaining their websites: why would you bother writing for the website if you can’t tell that anyone is reading it?

Solution: Install Google Analytics (or another statistics service, but Google Analytics is free and easy to learn). Use a WordPress plugin like Google Analyticator to track outbound traffic and downloads correctly. Then schedule weekly times to check your key analytics.

I’ve embedded the video from the MadCon song, “Beggin'” as a source of inspiration. I’m beggin’ you…