From Cherry Blossoms to Google Analytics …

Every May the flowering cherry in our garden is bedecked with flowers.

It’s a superb specimen and treats us to a magical display every year. Without fail.

Whether it flowers early or late is very much dependent on the weather.

And despite the late Spring this year, it hasn’t let us down. In fact, this year it may be better than ever.

I often wish I’d recorded the flowering dates just to see how much or how little they vary from year to year but have never got round to it.

But before you laugh your socks off and pigeonhole me as a swivel-eyed loon with obsessive behavioural traits (an opinion with which Mrs S would wholeheartedly agree) the Japanese can go one better.

Because they have been recording flowering dates during their cherry blossom festivals since early in the 9th century.

For you and I this might be of mild historical interest but for those studying climate change, contemporaneous records like this are GOLD dust.

There’s no guesswork or wild assumptions. Just cold hard data and it is phenomenally useful.

And you’ve got or should have data like this right under your nose. It’s called Google Analytics.

Cold hard stats on who’s visited your website site, where they’ve come from, what pages are most popular and a whole host of equally riveting metrics.

There’s almost too much information but it’s informed data that you can use to make improvements to your site’s performance and drive more sales in to the business.

It wouldn’t harm to take a look.

Until next week.

Alec