Nick Yorchak, the founder of Big Footprint, had the privilege of speaking to an audience of Tech4Good members at a Denver Event about the principles of data driven website optimization. Tech4Good is a community of professionals interested in the use of technology in the nonprofit sector, so the topic was well received by those in attendance. Nick’s presentation explained how non-profits can leverage free tools available within Google Analytics to measure digital campaigns and drive insights that can be leveraged for optimization and testing.

1. DATA DRIVEN
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

2. :: BEFORE WE GET STARTED…
• What organizations in the room are using Google
Analytics (or another tracking tool)?
• Who is tracking goals or conversions within Google
Analytics?

3. :: OPENING THE BOX
• Google Analytics data can be powerful “right out of the box.”
• Still, in order to fully leverage the power of this data to optimize
your website, you need to be tracking goals and/or conversions.
• Analytics data should drive business insights.
• Let’s talk about that.

4. :: WHAT ARE GOALS/CONVERSIONS?
• A goal or a conversion is any desired action you want your user
to take.
• Goals can come in many forms depending on your organization.
• The most effective optimizers are tracking both “hard” and
“soft” conversions to gather data and insights.

5. :: WHAT CAN YOU TRACK?
HARD CONVERSIONS
• DONATE
• BUY TICKETS TO AN EVENT
• SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
• ASSET DOWNLOADS
SOFT CONVERSIONS
• ENGAGED VISITS (time on
site, visit depth, etc.)
• SOCIAL CHANNEL CLICKS
• VIDEO VIEWS

6. :: WHAT CAN YOU TRACK?
• Every website’s tracking goals and KPIs will be as different as
your data. Examples abound, but see a few below.
• Focus on what matters to your organization.
• Your goal is to use comprehensive analytics, audience insights,
and eco-system orchestration to achieve performance growth.

7. :: CORE METRICS TO MONITOR
CORE METRICS
• Visits by channel/source
• Depth of visit
• Length of visit
• Bounce Rate
• Visit/Device Type
• Even if you don’t have conversion tracking fully implemented,
you can make inferences about traffic quality with available data
in Google Analytics.

8. :: SETTING IT ALL UP
• Every website’s tracking implementation
could be different depending on your
content management system (CMS), URL
structure, etc.
• Unless you are familiar with web
development, leverage IT resources or your
webmaster.
• To get started, click “Conversions” in left
hand navigation of Google Analytics to
expand that sub-menu.

9. :: SETTING IT ALL UP
• Click “Goals” to configure your
tracking with a number of pre-
loaded templates.
• You can create up to 20.
• Follow the instructions to
create engagement based
conversions.

10. :: BUILD A DASHBOARD
• Create a custom
dashboard of your own,
or use pre-loaded
templates to make
accessing your data
quick and easy.

11. :: PLUG IT ALL IN
• It is critical to remember that we need the full picture before
making data-driven optimization or testing decisions.
• Don’t forget to connect your Google Analytics data with the
following:
• Google Webmaster tools
• Google AdWords

12. :: I HAVE THE DATA – NOW WHAT?
• Once your goal or a conversion tracking is implemented, you
can begin the data-driven website optimization process.
• First and foremost, focus on CHANNEL ATTRIBUTION.
• Ask yourself, which channels or traffic sources drive the
greatest amount of conversions?

13. :: CONVERSION ATTRIBUTION
• Identify the top performing channels and build upon them.
• Test and measure new initiatives.

14. :: OPTIMIZING YOUR WEBSITE
• In order to optimize you have
to know what’s working.
• Leverage the data and
insights your are generating
with conversion tracking to
improve your website.
• Start by building conversion-
driven landing pages that
focus on a single action that
impacts your organization.

15. • By defining and measuring clear conversion goals, your
organization can gather the data you need to improve your
website and drive impact.
• Remember, conversion optimization is a PROCESS, not an event.
• Don’t test too many things at once.
• Reduce friction with a clear call to action.
• Address the USER THOUGHT PROCESS.
:: OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

16. • Address the USER THOUGHT PROCESS.
• Optimize Thoughts, Not Design.
• Utilize usability testing tools (which you have).
:: OPTIMIZATION PROCESS
User’s Thought Process
• Where Am I?
• What Can I Do?
• Why Do I Care?
• What About… ?
• Why Your Organization?

17. :: OPTIMIZING YOUR WEBSITE
• Optimize on BOTH sides of
the click.
• Pre Click vs Post Click
optimization.
• Drive better quality traffic to
pages built to convert.

18. :: OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

19. • Data-driven website optimization should be ACTIVE.
• By developing the 5 Active Optimization Habits, your digital
presence and website will drive results.
:: ACTIVE OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

20. • Five Active Optimization Habits to Develop:
1) Go beyond the basic metrics and traffic analytics
• Stop worrying about visit volume – focus on quality but more importantly,
focus on CONVERSION and ATTRIBUTION
2) Go beyond channels
• Understand your digital ecosystem (paid+earned+owned) and how it
impacts your results with assisted conversions
3) Go beyond groundhog keyword strategy
• Keyword research becomes multi-dimensional – across all assets/channels
:: ACTIVE OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

21. • Five Active Optimization Habits to Develop:
4) Go beyond retro-active optimization
• Strategy, Data, and Insights drive new content generation and testing
5) Celebrate the enlightenment of Integrated Analytics
• Measure impact by contribution
Remember, performance measurement is prioritization logic
• What are the Top 5 items for you to focus on right now?
:: ACTIVE OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

22. :: OPTIMIZATION PROCESS
Qualified
Leads
Closed
Sales
User
Behavior
Link
Portfolio
Digital
Footprint
Ranking &
Reputation
Keyword
Insights

23. • We’ve heard how to do this in principle.
• Let’s see how it works in the real world!
:: OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

24. THANK YOU
Nick Yorchak | BIG FOOTPRINT
www.bigfootprintdigital.com

25. :: WHO WE ARE
ZACH RANDALL
! 8 Years Experience
! Strategist & Analytics Expert
! Managed $40 million+ in Media Spend
! Enterprise & Startup Level Experience
! Landing Page Testing Lead
NICK YORCHAK
! Founder & Lead SEO
! Speaker at Industry Events
! Features in NY Times for SEO Expertise
! Enterprise Level SEO Experience
! 8 Years Experience
CARLO RITSCHL
! 5 Years Experience
! Manager Digital Content & Social Media
! Link Earning/Social/ Content Generation
! BMA Young Professionals Board Member
! Builder of Digital Footprints
JAKE HAVENRIDGE
! 5 Years Experience
! Lead Paid Search Manager
! Landing Pages + Keyword Research
! Google AdWords and Analytics
Certified