These are the thoughts of a well know web analysis expert,Avinash Shrivatva, as he explains how a web analyst should spent his time.

Following is an excerpt from his blog:

So if you are a Analyst then here is what I recommend you start with (customize for your organization as you see fit):
• 20% Reporting – Sorry you can’t escape this, you are still going to do reporting. But on the bright side it is a great way to keep in touch with reality.

• 20% Analyze Acquisition Strategies – What is your company doing to attract traffic to your website? SEM? Affiliate Marketing? Banners? Email Marketing? What else?
There is no faster way to win the hearts and souls of your company stake holders than helping them understand how their efforts are performing.

Focus your analysis on Outcomes (revenue?) that your company desires and you’ll do fine.

• 20% Understanding On-site Customer Experience – Using a mix of ClickStream and qualitative methodologies analyze what the customer experience is on your website. Really. Not what you think it is, not what your company wants it to be. But what it is in reality.
There is no better way to make money then this (and you’ll get happy customers as a bonus).

• 20% Staying Plugged into the Context – Most Analysts suffer because of a lack of context. They are put away in a corner with Omniture or WebTrends or HBX or Google Analytics and expected to produce earth shattering insights.

We need to have our Analyst use 20% of their time simply to stay plugged into what else is going on, in the marketing organization, on the websites in terms of operational changes, with senior management (anyone higher then their boss) to know what their strategic pain points are (then imagine how web data can solve them), with the phone or retail (big box) channels, etc.
Web analysis is not a silo and the analysts needs to be plugged into the context so that they can look at the right data, better and provide relevant insights (that they can’t possibly provide when locked in their ivory tower (!!).

• 10% Explore New Strategic Options – I don’t know where your company is but you always want to move the ball forward, this chunk of time should be spent in experimenting with new and different ways to move your program forward.
Think testing, competitive intelligence analysis, multi channel integration, usability etc. If you really are a one man band this is really hard to do (especially with 10% of your time) but think of tiny ways in which you can show that web analytics is not just about ClickStream, it is about creating better customer experiences and it is about creating a strategic advantage using data.
• 10% Bathroom breaks , oh and lunch! I am generous aren’t I. : )

I realize that each company is unique and each Analyst is unique, but I hope that the above picture provides a semblance of universal guidance for anyone how has the word Analyst in their title. Do a quick back of the envelope of how you spend your day/week and compare it to the picture above.

A few points in the above things are damn useful as they dont focus just on the analysis and all the statistics that one might be expected to do but it emphasises on how important it is to know something about everything.

How your analysis effects the content and how one might be able to use these anlysis not just to gain traffic but to enrich the user experience.

There is also an emphasis laid on the innovative ways one can think of for all sorts of enhancements. This is just to point out that how important it is, not to restrict yourself within the realms of your own job description.

It is very important for the brain to breath and the layout that avinash kaushik has given, does just that.