In this edition of Web Enlightenment we'll be talking about statistical literacy and what you need to know about it.

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Statistically Illiterate? OK....

Yesterday I moderated a roundtable for the Mailorder Gardening Association at their summer show in Chicago on website statistics. For several different groups this year I've provided my seminar called "Website Analytics Demystified" - and in doing these things I have discovered something that was pretty amazing to me.

Many Entrepreneurs that I encounter are statistically illiterate - which only gets dangerous when they don't know it.

In the wise words of Wikipedia: "Statistical literacy is a term used to describe a person's ability to understand statistics. Numeracy is a prerequisite to being statistically literate. Being statistically literate is sometimes taken to include having both the ability to critically evaluate statistical material and to appreciate the relevance of statistically-based approaches to all aspects of life in general."

If you've ever been presented with a website statistics report and you weren't able to get any useful information from it - you may be statistically illiterate. Here's something fun - most web developers (the folks that often provide you those reports), they can't really read them either.

Here on my little farm in Manchester I have a wonderful yummy veggie garden. I love going out there and weeding, checking out all the plants, and enjoying a relaxing time in my garden space with a cup of tea. I remove all the dead flowers from my geraniums, I slowly poke around, and despite the fact I love it the simple reality is that I am a lousy gardner. I am usually blindly guessing at what to do next but as long as it is fun I don't worry.

Several of my tomato plants have something wrong with them, they sort of look like this:

Every time I see a leaf like this I engage in a really crazy and somewhat stupid solution - I use my pruners to cut the leaf off. Then I throw the leaf at my puppy Sam which she thinks is just the most amazing fun game.

There is no doubt that the right thing to do would be to figure out what lack of nutrition or other problem is causing the leaf to look funky and to fertilize or otherwise treat for the problem - but silly stubborn me I just don't seem to ever do that.

Lots of web site owners do the same thing I am doing in my garden when they get website statistics reports. They have some crude idea about what may be happening, they smile and nod a bunch if asked questions - and they just discard this seemingly "diseased" stuff they don't understand.

Here is the important thing - it really is OK if you are statistically illiterate.

If you hated that dreaded statistics class and have no interest in learning about it, just go ahead and accept that you aren't a stats person - you might also not speak Japanese.

The really critical thing is to make sure that you are using a professional that can help you understand the information presented in your statistics reports, in the same way an accountant may help you comprehend your profit and loss statement.