This book, while some of it is super outdated, is also really helpful and motivating.

NOTE: This was published May 29th 2007, I read it in 2016/2017.

The tone of the book was perfect; It was professional with a splash of humor here and there. The humor really helped me to stay engaged in the reading.

The information itself is really helpful. Like I said above, some of it is outdated, but many, many times I found myself jumping on my computer to try something that the text suggested. There is a lot of really great insight in this book!

Some of the main topics and passages that really stuck with me include:

* Analysts must have a customer-centric view that enables them to think like customers.

* Customer-centric web design is key- you must shift from "the site visitor needs to do what I want them to do" to "the site visitor is doing whatever they wanted to do" and having success.

* Report creators and analysts are different- the ability to see the big picture is what an analyst does.

* Everything starts with objectives and desired outcomes; "Tell me your objectives and I'll tell you what insights I can provide with the data I have."

* The upward trend in user wariness with paid campaigns puts the focus back on SEO.

* Data will never tell you the why.

* A dashboard=1 single page, any long and that's a report.

* PPC can deliver visitors, but often it comes at a great cost and is suboptimal for building long-term relationships with customers... you are "renting" traffic.

* "In reality, a while bunch of traffic for most websites comes from the top 20 or so key phrases."- are you optimizing for those 20?

* The three greatest survey questions ever: 1) What is the purpose of your visit to our website today? 2) Were you able to complete your task today? 3) If you were NOT able to complete your task today, why not?


Tips I also loved included:

* The So-What Test: Ask every metric that your report on the question "So what? three times. If you don't get an answer by the third ask, you have the wrong metric.

* Check "PPP Campaign Cannibalization Rates" to make sure you aren't paying for traffic you already got organically in the past- test by going dark with PPC.

* Not every visitor is there to buy, so don't focus on single-goal or website travel funnels. That's not how people make decisions.


Useful links that really stood out to me:

* google.com/trends

* site:www.domain.com

* link:www.domain.com


Please keep in mind that these are only the lessons and URL's that really stood out to me. This book is full of hundreds of others.

I would highly recommended purchasing this book so you can highlight and add tabs to mark important pages that you want to go back to again later on!