There are a lot of consultants out there that claim to offer web analytics services. Finding the right one can be difficult and costly too. Often times it takes a few months to know whether a web analytics consultant is actually doing a good job or not. It takes time to track and measure stats in analytics. There are some things that a website owner can do that will help to protect themselves from making bad hires or at least minimizing the risk of making a bad hire.
Check Out Credentials
The first place to start when hiring a web analytics consultant is to look at the consultant’s background. Now obviously the internet has not been around for that long so someone with vast experience may have only been consulting for a few years. A better measure is to look at past clients. Most consultants will provide their potential customers with a list of some of their top clients. They may either post the list on their own website or blog, or they may be able to provide a list when asked. This will give a website owner an idea of how many clients that have had in the past and whether they provided good service to those clients or not.
Social Media Can Tell You A Lot
A second place to check when evaluating a consultant is to get the consultant’s name and browse their social media pages. There is a lot of information that can be gathered from these pages. Most consultants for web analytics are pretty active in the online community. This is how they build their reputation. If people are constantly asking the consultant questions or leaving glowing reviews on their social media pages, then chances are they are really good at what they do.
Finally, there is the technical community. There are a lot of technical forums out there where professionals gather and discuss various topics that are related to web analytics and other internet related topics. This is where a lot of ideas are bounced around, and a lot of general questions are asked by the less experienced people. If the consultant spends time on these forums and is considered to be an expert by the forum users, then chances are they will make a very good hire.