Self-actualization is an important step in the healthy development of any person.  It is beneficial to know your abilities as well as your limitations.  It can be dangerous, at times, to not be intimately familiar with your own impediments.  Embarrassment may be the outcome in lighter situations, but never should one's last words be "I can jump that," "Aw, it can't be that difficult" or "Hey, watch this."  Yes, it is crucial to know yourself in and out, to know who you are and are not, what you can and cannot do.  Likewise it is imperative (as a owner, marketer or webmaster) that you know your site.

"Site-actualization" is an important step in the healthy development of any web presence.  It's beneficial to know your traffic and their sources, your pages viewed and their duration, your points of entrance as well as exit.  It can be dangerous, at times, to not know what's really going on with your site.  Mere embarrassment may seem like the most daunting outcome, but when business decisions are made on bad information or poor assumptions the consequences can be financially hurtful.  Yes, it's crucial to know your site in and out, to know what it is and what it isn't, to know who it reaches and who it doesn't, what it can and cannot do.

3rd Party Analysis

I feel compelled to warn others about this because a very dear client recently got a little burned in this regard.  They decided to invest some money and pursue some improvements to their site.  This decision was largely based on the past success of their site as reported to them by their Site Analysis.  Good numbers were consistently reported every month though not a single update had been made to the site in nearly a year.  Surely, they thought, with new content and a better layout the numbers will only rise.  This was good logic based on bad information.  The hits being reported included robots and spiders.  The "hits" did not necessarily represent people.  When we switched them over to Google Analytics, the numbers dropped to an accurate reflection and the investment no longer seemed that prudent.

The Importance

3rd party analysis is important for many reasons.  I'll just list a few here.

• There is nothing to gain from inflating your numbers.
• Comparison is more accessible.
• Terms, conditions and accuracy are held to high standards.
• Information is translatable adding validity to the reports.
• Ad campaigns are often more easily integrated.

If you don't currently have 3rd party analytics for your site, talk to your webmaster.  This is important information for the vitality of your site and its profitability for your company.