【Foreword】
Articles written for novices are always very popular, and even a friend on Zhihu asked me to answer this question. Today, I also treat myself as a novice and talk about my learning experience in the past few years, my work experience in the past few years, the development and changes of the industry in the past few years, and if you want to work in this industry, how should you adapt to it? kind of change.
【text】
Many friends asked me, I am a newbie, can you tell me how to get started with website analysis?
I'm actually more afraid of this kind of problem, because it's a big problem and everyone's situation is very different.
For newbies, there may be several situations.
The first situation: Love the Internet and have a good understanding of the experience of various websites. However, I only have a partial understanding of how to make money and promote the website.
The second situation: Love the Internet, like to understand and think about the profit model of websites, read books, and understand some online marketing and promotion methods, but have no practice.
The third situation: You are familiar with and have experience in online marketing promotion, but you just don’t know how to use the theories and tools of website analysis to analyze marketing effects.
There may be huge differences in how to learn website analysis and how to get started in the three situations. Today, I will talk about the first situation, because the friends in the first situation are the ones who need help the most. I will give these friends some advice that I think is practical, some of which is based on my own experience.
How to start in the first case
In the first case, this may actually be the case for many friends who have just graduated from college. These are some very young classmates, full of ideals, but also quite confused. After all, this is how everyone came here. These friends are eager from the bottom of their hearts, hoping to find a skill as soon as possible and find their own foothold in a market full of competition and uncertainty.
In this case, how to start your own career involves your own philosophy of life. Yes, I can’t say that enough. Is your philosophy of life to adapt to life's circumstances without setting clear goals for yourself in advance, or to have very clear goals with unswerving determination and will? There is nothing right or wrong about these two philosophies of life, it just depends on your own personality and beliefs. Because I am the former, I study website analysis. Entering this door is completely casual, because when I graduate, I cannot choose which path I want to take, just like the floating feather in "Forrest Gump", it will float to where it belongs. its place, but definitely not where it was prepared to go.
When I first came to Beijing, going to Tiananmen was the first thing I did.
After graduating from graduate school, I came straight to Beijing. I didn’t have an offer, any relatives or friends, and the employment situation at that time was definitely no better for graduate students than for undergraduates. Like many, many of my friends, I sit in front of the computer every day. When I find a company that is slightly more in line with my major, I throw out my resume, and then I wait for the interview opportunity with an uneasy mood. After I get the interview notice, I become even more uneasy. Then, I chose (to be precise, I didn’t choose, but I was chosen) the first company that gave me an offer. Moreover, what this company does has little to do with the website analysis I am currently engaged in. I was assigned to a company that produced information briefings. My daily task was to find information related to the informatization of a certain traditional industry from the Internet and then filter and organize them into a collection of Word documents. This job did not involve much creativity. , but I had to do it for almost a year.
My example is not necessarily a good example. This example definitely does not apply to second-generation rich or second-generation official graduates. However, most graduates like you and me, we have longing and always feel that we should do some more creative and valuable work, but we must face the most critical problem-I need to stand firm. , need to feed yourself first. Therefore, I don’t encourage those of us graduates from ordinary people’s families to have too strong and stubborn goals, and we must work in this industry or join this company. After all, speaking from the bottom of my heart, whether it is Chinese undergraduates or graduate students, everyone knows how much they have learned in school. Before they can truly achieve a professional job, everyone should not talk about themselves. There is "professionalism". So, don’t limit yourself, first find an opportunity for yourself in the city you want to go to, or in an industry related to the industry you want to work in.
However, you also have to believe that life's experiences cannot be static. Even if you don't have any clear goals that you must achieve, your life will definitely bring you to a place you like, as long as you are willing to persevere and be optimistic and happy. Some friends are easily unhappy when they first start working, but believe me, everyone is unhappy when they start working. However, my suggestion is that even if it is very unsatisfactory, please work hard with a peaceful mind. Work, try to do it better than others, and try to reduce negative emotions and thinking until a new and better opportunity is discovered. I think that any quick decision to give up your current job because things don’t go your way is a sign of immaturity and impetuousness. This society is already very impetuous. Only if you are not as impetuous as others can you achieve greater success. .
After saying this, everyone will scold me, but this has nothing to do with website analysis. What I want is - how to get started with website analysis! ! !
Don't worry.
What I said above is to express my truest opinion. I can actually lie to you, saying that you can learn website analysis as soon as you graduate and make a lot of money, so that I, the "missionary" of website analysis, can have more followers, right? But that's not what happened. The truest point of this is - if you really want to do website analysis, then website analysis will automatically find you, instead of you going to her.
What does it mean? Quite simply, there are not many job opportunities for website analysis for freshly graduated college students. Frankly speaking, there are not many. I once said on CWA's Weibo that website analysis consists of four parts: mastering the basic metrics of website analysis, mastering tools, analytical thinking, and business understanding of the Internet. Among these four parts, there is nothing special about tools. If I were recruiting, the tools would be the least important thing to me. If you can learn to use Word, then you will definitely learn basic website analysis tools well. Analytical thinking is related to school studies, and the other part is innate. Frankly speaking, I don’t think training at work will have a great impact on this field. The basic metrics of website analysis and the business understanding of the Internet are two hurdles for graduates, especially the latter.
Why do you say that? Graduates often read a lot of news, blogs and books about the business understanding of the Internet, but due to lack of practice, many things are still very abstract in their minds. But website analysis is not an abstract thing. Analysis is based on a considerable understanding of online marketing and promotion. Because analysis ultimately explains the effects of a certain purposeful behavior and ways to improve it, but if you don’t have a clear understanding of the behavior itself, you won’t be able to make a reliable analysis. One of the most common questions I ask in interviews is: "Please list common Internet marketing methods and their respective advantages and disadvantages." The more details a friend can tell, the greater the chance of impressing the interviewer. This question may also be rephrased: "What is buying traffic? What are the common methods of buying traffic?"
Therefore, if you don’t have much understanding and practice related to Internet marketing when you graduate from college, I think that if you start doing website analysis all at once, you may just do odd jobs with analysts and do math, and it will be difficult to get started with analysis. If your assessment of yourself is indeed true, and you really have a very strong desire to do website analysis work, then my advice is very clear: do work related to website analysis, such as directly engaging in the basic work of online marketing, Watch what others do, and then practice it with your own master—even if the job is as simple as adding external links to your company's website every day. As long as you are diligent, you can figure out why the website has some seemingly "weak" external links, or why my SEM keywords are written like this, or why I have to follow the bidding rules required by my boss. As long as you understand the reasons behind these seemingly low-level basic tasks, you will quickly master some relevant knowledge about Internet marketing, and you will take a big step towards a career in website analysis. I have said in previous articles on this topic that if you want to be an expert in website analysis, you should first be an expert in online marketing. Now it seems that this is no exaggeration.
If you have done a lot of website marketing work, and you are also interested in website analysis during this process, then you will naturally start to do website analysis (because you have to use website analysis to evaluate and optimize the effect). In this process, you You will unconsciously have to use the knowledge of website analysis and develop skills in the process. This is the best way to learn. It is far more reliable than building a small blog with no traffic and then installing Google Analytics. It is also far more efficient than sitting down and reading a book. The latter two methods are not completely undesirable. They are indeed a good way to conduct surprise interviews, but they are not a good way to learn website analysis. There is only one way to learn website analysis, which is to solve real problems through practice - learn with problems, read with problems, and experiment with problems until the problem is solved. In this process, you will naturally learn the theory and then integrate it.
Therefore, there is only one piece of advice that can be given to college students who have just graduated and are interested in working in website analysis: With the dream of website analysis in mind, don’t force yourself to find a job in website analysis as soon as you graduate. Do work related to website analysis until the website Analysis comes to you naturally.
In this way, aren't you just getting started?
One more word, in addition to online marketing, website analysis-related work, website product design, editing, traffic reporting, etc. are also highly relevant tasks, and you can feel free to try them all.
Website analysis is more than just website analysis
Now, let me talk about how novice friends should understand what website analysis is. First of all, everyone must understand that the situations in China and the United States are very different. The biggest difference is professionalism. We know that professionalism and job segmentation are inseparable. It is not that China does not have professional jobs, but that professional jobs are not so segmented. Website analysis is a very niche field in the United States. Just being a website analyst has many job opportunities for real website analysis, and consulting services are also very common. Another thing that is very different between the United States and China is that the price of labor in the two countries is very different. For example, the hourly wage of an aunt who cleans your house for you in the United States is very high, perhaps dozens of times that of an aunt in China, and the same is true for couriers. So when we were in the United States, we all lamented that the price of anything involving manual labor was much higher than in China, such as getting a haircut, and the more famous the brand-name things made by machines, the cheaper they were in China. Therefore, working in the website analysis industry is a decent and high-paying industry in the United States, not only because this job involves a lot of labor, but also because this job is highly professional.
But this is not the case in China. First of all, China has different recognition of majors. In China, you really need to be professional, but this major is not a subdivided major, but a major that requires insight into world affairs and squandering resources on the basis of a certain field of expertise, because in China it is not enough to specialize in one. This country Except for the military, which does not believe in team culture and does not have a strong team spirit, it is bound to require a truly capable person who knows something about everything. Therefore, in China, both proficiency and breadth must be emphasized, but people's energy is always limited. If something is broad, it will inevitably not be so profound. Just this little difference means that China has no original business model and has not produced people like Jobs, Gates or Zuckerberg who can do something to the extreme. On the other hand, if you are too specialized in a certain area, it will actually be difficult to find people willing to pay for your expertise. China's recognition of the value of human labor is significantly lower than that of the United States. You have spent a lot of effort to delve into it extremely deeply, but the current market cannot offer you such a price, so people naturally don't do it that deeply. . This may not be entirely true in other fields, but it is especially true in the Internet field. Therefore, friends who are truly sophisticated in the Chinese Internet industry tend to start their own businesses or go it alone, because the only person who truly understands your value is you. This is absolutely true. I didn't start a business or go it alone because I knew I was far from proficient.
Having said so much, it is actually just a conclusion. China's Internet majors must not be isolated in one field. There are no truly subdivided majors here.
Therefore, China's website analysis cannot be done according to the American method, because China's website analysis is not just segmented into analyzing the website. In the world of work that I face, the so-called website analysis is actually online marketing analysis and optimization. There are following reasons:
Internet marketing is the main theme of China's Internet industry. Websites are an important part of Internet marketing, but not all;
In most websites, front-end traffic is more valued than back-end conversions. Although this is not correct, it is a fact that is difficult to change in a short period of time;
The performance of website analysis must ultimately be reflected in the improvement of online marketing effects. As I said, making money is the king. Analysis and analysis are useless if there is no money in the account.
Therefore, in China, website analysis is not just website analysis, it includes the following aspects:
1. Analysis and optimization of front-end traffic and marketing performance - in order to increase traffic and improve conversions;
2. Optimization of website structure and content - in order to improve conversions;
3. Analysis and optimization of chaotic fields such as users, word-of-mouth, and surveys—in order to eliminate risks and explore potential opportunities;
4. Competitor analysis and competition optimization - in order to know yourself and the enemy;
5. Even include analysis of the impact of the entire Internet environment on your own company - in order to understand the overall situation;
6. Even data mining and predictive analysis – in order to predict the future.
Don’t be intimidated, you can learn as much as you want about these areas, but your expertise in one or two areas will suffice. But you can't sit back and look at the sky, thinking that optimizing the structure and content of the website is everything. In other areas, you may not need to be profound, but you need to have an understanding.
Industry changes in website analytics
What I said above may disappoint some friends, but it doesn’t have to be. Website analysis is being accepted and trusted by the industry, which is an obvious trend. A typical fact is that various companies are constantly asking me for website analysis talents, and almost all my friends who have some experience in website analysis can be quickly poached by various companies. One benefit of niche areas is that talent is scarce.
Unlike marketing-type work such as SEO or SEM, website analysis does not require much "cost" to work. All the capital is your brain. After all, SEO is all about resources in the end; SEM relies on money and is a high-input and high-output business. Only website analysis only requires investment in yourself, and the requirements for professionalism are also very high. It is a potentially "lifelong career." From this perspective, devoting yourself to website analysis is actually a career plan, and even related to your future lifestyle.
Changes in the industry herald the future of website analysis, because Internet marketing is already on the eve of revolutionary changes. In the past, online marketing was all about traffic. Although this essence has not changed much today, the simple and crude methods in the past are no longer so mainstream. The reason is very simple. The properties of the traffic itself and the traffic platform are undergoing significant changes. The characteristics of this change are: the trend of traffic quality differentiation is becoming increasingly obvious, traffic platforms are diversified, traffic is more dispersed, traffic paths are more complex, and the impact of more potential paths is stronger. Under this trend, extensive Internet marketing will gradually withdraw from the stage of history, and instead require more intensive cultivation and a method of making big gains with small efforts.
Did you know that 5 years ago, few people knew about social marketing, but today almost everyone realizes its importance, but who knows how to operate social marketing? Very few.
Similarly, in the past, those simple optimization methods that only looked at the ROI at both ends are still the operating methods of many websites today, but websites that understand the rules and optimization space early will be the first to taste the benefits. More than one website has the idea of establishing an analysis center and has consulted me. Although this investment is still prudent, it is far from what it was three years ago, because everyone is beginning to be driven by changes to work in the right direction, although Passive, but passive changes illustrate the general trend.
Website Analysis Job Opportunities
As a result of website analysis being guided by refined marketing, there are more and more job opportunities for website analysis. From my experience, the following types of companies are in great need of website analysis talents.
1. E-commerce websites, large, medium and small e-commerce websites all need website analysis talents, but relatively speaking, small and medium-sized e-commerce websites are more effective;
2. Internet service websites, such as financial services websites, real estate websites, educational websites, etc.;
3. The website operation department of traditional enterprises. Some time ago, Lenovo’s emerging market department was eager for e-commerce talents;
4. The digital department of advertising companies has a relatively large gap;
5. Third-party Internet marketing service companies have urgent needs;
6. Tool providers, the gap is small, but they often recruit people;
If you pay attention to CWA's recruitment website, you will find that there are many job opportunities for website analysis. Remuneration packages vary depending on the company and individual circumstances. At present, the salary of junior analysts is not too high. After all, it is a basic job. An average analyst's monthly salary should be between 5-10k. Analytical managers are definitely above 10k, and better analysts should get higher.
Okay, I have written a lot, so I won’t be wordy anymore. I hope it will be inspiring to my novice friends. I may not be right, personal circumstances vary greatly, but I think encounters in life are the most important four words, as I said at the beginning of this article - there is always a time in life...
Wish us luck!
Author: Song Xing
Article Source: Website Analysis Please indicate the source link when reprinting in China