I love analytics. I love measuring stuff online because it’s pretty much the only way to figure out what people are looking for, what problems they’re having, and what problems they’re solving.

But if you are always chasing just the metrics and not thinking through how analytics relates to your individual, specific and unique business, you’re cruising for a bruising.

Chasing just a single metric — like bounce rate, number of visits or time on site — is almost always a recipe for disaster.

Web metrics are things that are most useful when they are put in context. I’d like to tell you about what happens when you take them out of context.

It is possible to royally screw up your website while making the metrics look like you’re doing a great job.