Occam’s Razor: Making Web Analytics Sexy

Avinash Kaushik wrote the book on web analytics. No, really, he did. He wrote the book I have ever bought on web analytics. And I honestly think it is the only book anyone needs to buy on web analytics, unless you want to waste your time or start some sort of strange collection of books on web stats.


I highly recommend this book if you want to be clear on how well your site is doing and how to improve it. However, you don’t have to just take my word for it that Avinash knows his sh!t. You can visit his blog, Occam’s Razor and read it for yourself. The first time I visited the blog, I was blown away by the amount and depth of information Avinash shares with his readers for free. Spend an afternoon in the archives and, even if you consider yourself an analytics expert, I promise you will learn at least three new things. Being that I was a newbie when I landed at Occam’s Razor, I learned about three thousand new things. I bought the book because I like having physical resources for certain topics, but the truth is Avinash discusses all the answers for free on his blog.

The term Occam’s Razor is an obscure one, but once you know what it means it shouldn’t be too hard to understand Avinash’s method of teaching and understanding web analytics. Here is a quick definition from Wikipedia:

“This is often paraphrased as “All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.” In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities. It is in this sense that Occam’s razor is usually understood.”

In other words: Keep It Simple Stupid. And that is just what Avinash does. He breaks down complex theories and processes, explaining them simply and easily. The most important thing, though, is that he makes it interesting. Before Occam’s Razor and Web Analytics and Hour a Day, I had been wanting to learn about analytics for quite some time. The problem was, every resource I found was more of a sleep aid than a learning aid. Not so with Avinash. His writing style is casual and clear, and he uses real-world examples. Seriously who else could think of a way to link web analytics and Angelina Jolie? Occam’s Razor is a perfect combination of brilliant writing and killer skills.

Recently, Avinash partnered with iPerceptions to introduce 4Q, a free service that adds a simple survey to your website. There are two special things about this survey: (1) it is served to people at random using an unobtrusive pop-up based on a percentage you choose and (2) the survey consists of only four easy questions that should give you all the feedback you need to see how your site is doing in terms of customer satisfaction. To see how 4Q works (and how cool it is), here is a video of Avinash setting up a survey:

I have had the survey up on my site for about two weeks now with an invitation rate of 20%. That means that 20% of my visitors are being asked if they would like to take a survey. I wrote a post disussing the brilliance of 4Q at the beginning of the month if you’d like to learn more.


Back to Avinash. For about a year now, Avinash has been a consultant for Google. I was afraid that this would decrease or change his openness regarding analytics tactics. This is not at all the case. His blog has remained just as forthcoming with methods and training. Avinash is one of my top five teaching bloggers because he shares freely, is a real expert and clearly has a passion for his subject. I would go so far as to say that Avinash actually cares about the success of his readers. You won’t find a ton of affiliate ads or product pushes on Occam’s Razor. What you will find is thorough, experience-proven tactics to help you improve your customer response and increase your readership. If you are still judging your site’s success by looking at just your feed count and clickstream data, you really need to start reading Occam’s Razor on a regular basis.

If you enjoyed this post make sure you subscribe to my RSS Feed