A few weeks ago, Google announced the unveiling of a beta product that allows users to ghost themselves from Google Analytics tracking. In other words, the Internet’s current obsession with privacy precautions are forcing invisibility into the default setting for users.
While this pivot is only in its infancy stage and it will take a little while for the web to adapt to the principle, this move is definitely a foreshadowing of what’s to come.
The ability to remain anonymous will heighten as online shopping becomes even more mainstream and voluntary social actions become a media standard. There will be an inevitable inverse relationship between voluntary and involuntary actions online.
So, what will this mean for website owners?
Like what eventually happened to tangible storefronts, it will start to become impossible for website owners to maintain an accurate analysis on measurements that were once so important. Instead of website visits and conversion rates, progress will have to be measured by the level of engagement these websites partake in with their current and potential customers.
Today, retail stores may have rough estimates of how many people walk into their stores, but it has become almost impossible to track walk-ins alongside the number of phone calls, website sales, etc. All of these numbers become relative at some point.
Estimations and relativity will take over very soon in this web world as well. To accommodate, I would start managing your customer database and increasing your human interaction immediately.