Jun
2009
25
sshhh - 10 top web analytics tips
1. Select an analytics package that is right for you
Make sure that you select an analytics package that suits your requirements as a business. Research the packages available while asking yourself the following questions:
- What level of analysis is required?
- Would the free packages available suffice or should I opt for a professional package?
- How much am I willing to spend?
- Do I want someone to host the analytics for me?
- How much traffic should I expect to measure?
- Do I need to track revenue?
Alternatively, speak to your agency and provide them with pointers in relation to the questions above. With this background knowledge, they should be able to recommend a package for your needs.
2. Set your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Analytics packages can provide masses of data, some of which may not be relevant to your needs. To avoid drowning in it, ensure that what you extract from analytics is aligned to your overall business KPIs. For example, if your company is looking to attract new business, you may want to segment unique users and review what these users are doing when they arrive at your website and where they have come from.
3. Improve content
Reviewing where traffic comes from and what users do when they arrive at your website is great but the key to getting the most out of your analytics package is being able to apply actions on your site as a result of the data findings. A good starting point is to review pages with high bounce rates. A bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who ‘bounce' away to a different site after viewing only a single page of your website. Look at the structure and content of pages and investigate how you can engage the user by encouraging them to spend more time exploring your website. You may find that pages with high bounce rates either contain irrelevant content or the user has navigated there expecting to find something and has been disappointed with what they have found.
4. Tap into your on-site search
If you have site search built into your website, review the data to identify any recurring trends. Site search can help you identify and fill content gaps or identify popular content that could be promoted on your site's homepage. For example, if your website sells video games, you may find an increase in searches for games vouchers at Christmastime because bewildered parents generally don't know what game to buy for their teens. Providing a link from your homepage to vouchers may increase sales which you can review post-Christmas.
5. Become traffic police and private investigators
When marketing budgets are tight, it is essential more than ever to evaluate which channels are performing and which are not. Monitor the traffic to your site from paid search campaigns, organic search, banners and e-mail campaigns to establish what is working most effectively for you. However, be aware that there is often a positive crossover effect accross campaigns, so a visitor may make multiple visits to your site through different channels before making a purchase or enquiry.
6. Discover user preferences
It is possible to test multiple versions of a page and evaluate performance through analytics. Campaign landing pages, for example, are the perfect mechanism for testing. Variations in copy, layout, images and calls to action can all have an impact on conversion rates. The testing of two different pages with the same type of content or purpose, often referred to as A/B testing, is designed help to determine the better of two variations while multivariate testing can test the effectiveness of limitless combinations.
7. Segment your visitors
Visitors to your site often come from a mix of sources and are likely to have a range of different behavioural patterns. Many analytics packages allow you to gain a deeper insight into your visitors by isolating and analysing data. Even basic segmentation tools can paint a more accurate picture. Rather than looking at all visits generally, you can compare visitors by source and behaviour through to conversion.
8. Set up funnels
Essential for e-commence, sites funnels work by assigning a series of page views that when completed in sequence lead to a defined goal, often in the form of a sale. Analytics will tell you the ratio of people who begin placing an order to the number of people who actually complete one. Crucially though, through using this funnel process, analytics will be able to indicate the exact drop-off points for all customers who abandoned their purchase. This may show that customers are having problems with specific pages or are finding the purchasing process tortuous.
9. Exclude internal traffic
Don't muddy your stats with visits from internal sources or suppliers who may be working on your website. It is possible, and highly recommended, to exclude specific IP addresses to ensure a more accurate picture.
10. Enhance your analytics results
If you're keen to enhance the results from your analytics package you won't go far wrong with Google Webmaster Tools. By setting up a sitemap.xml, listing all the pages on your website, you can assist search engines in discovering pages within your site. Essentially you are feeding them a list of the pages that you want included within search engine results pages (SERPS). In return, Google offers advanced stats on the performance of your site including:
- Top search queries your website ranks for within Google
- Internal and external link details
- Stats on how Google views the site
Sitemap.xml is supported by Google, Yahoo! Microsoft and Ask.
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