MW2012_Clicks_that_Count_GA

Clicks that Count: Achieve and Measure Online Success with Google Analytics Presented @ Museums and the Web 2012 04/11/2012 Brian Alpert, Catherine Shteynberg Smithsonian Institution

Table of Contents• Web Analytics Process / Google Analytics – Brian Alpert• “Know Thyself: How Suffering Through an Existential Crisis Will Help You Create Your Metrics Plan” – Catherine Shteynberg 2

What web analytics is often about 3

Web analytics is often about: “So What?” “„Youre fired‟ is a very strong term.” – Donald ... well, you know. Source: Brainyquote.com 4

What do you mean, “So what”? A lot of what‟s measured Just. Isn‟t. Useful. Aggregated, non-actionable metrics. Reporting lots of stuff “because you can.” The “Big Numbers”:  Take your time.  Distract from meaningful work. “All data in aggregate is crap.” – Google “Analytics Evangelist” Avinash Kaushik Source: Occams Razor 5

What web analytics is really about: Furthering Goals Source: It‟s a Wonderful Life 6

Articulating your goals is the hard part Sometimes your museums goals:  Aren‟t precisely articulated.  Aren‟t articulated at all (!)  Are too broad to meaningfully measure. “An institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." -- James Smithson Source: Smithsonian Institution Archives 7

Your goal: storyteller You want to use the data to tell a story. Management loves stories. The “So what?” factor melts away because it makes sense:  What was happening.  What it meant.  What you did.  What‟s happening now. Source: http://www.squidoo.com 8

It‟s not wizardry, it‟s a step-by-step process Articulate goals. Decide strategies to achieve those goals. Decide tactics to pursue the strategies. Decide what and how to measure. The measurements:  Directly reflect goals (sales, donations, signups), or…  Serve as proxies for your goals (engagement, authority, TBD) Benchmark for X months (six?) to get a sense of normal. Use the benchmarks to set targets and timeframes. 9

Nothing is “one size fits all”! The process isn‟t rigid.  Steps and definitions are open to interpretation. What‟s important is:  Discussion.  Consensus-building.  Getting management feedback & buy-in.  Not overloading with measurements. Source: http://morganlinton.com/ 10

Start by articulating specific goals Not too many! A few bullets that express what your museum is trying to accomplish. By being specific, strategies can emerge. Distill high-level goals into more specific sub-goals:  “Increase influence” >> “Become the definitive source on Smithsonian history.”  Making the broad goal more specific makes it easier to specify strategies and tactics. Getting started – suggested approach:  Articulate the goals & next steps on your own.  Work with management to redefine / refine / finalize 11

Next: determine strategies & tactics Strategies – the plans you make to achieve the goals.  Marketing, social media are strategic pursuits. Tactics – the things you do to advance the strategy.  Advertising, search engine optimization (SEO) are tactics. Per the example:  Goal: “Become the definitive source on Smithsonian history.”  Strategy: search engine performance.  Rationale: search engines have sophisticated algorithms that determine which websites are highly relevant, or, "authoritative.“  Tactic: SEO.  Search metrics become proxies for authority. 12

Decide how to measure your tactics Choose a few (again, not too many) measurements. Trend them over time. Per the example:  Measure: segment history-specific content in GA  Directories (site.edu/history)  Dedicated content (site.edu/historyblog)  Google Analytics custom variables.  Apply SEO metrics to that content:  Number of keywords referred per month.  Number of history pages drawing visits from search engines. 13

You can‟t set targets w/o benchmarks You need at least six months of data.  Data fluctuates; is often seasonal.  Six months is just an opinion.  It also depends on how much traffic your site gets.  Peer data is valuable, but hard to come by. Balance your targets with factors beyond your control:  Are the improvements you‟re seeking known to be difficult to achieve?  What is the current status of your program (i.e., brand new, mature)?  How much resources will you have to devote to implementing tactics? 14

Keep it simple! Don‟t do too much! Once you‟ve selected your strategies and tactics, minimize the number of measurements. If they turn-out to be inconclusive, change them! This is an ongoing (i.e., never ends) process! Source: Matt Groening 15

Google Analytics Custom Dashboard „Engagement‟ oriented metrics  Frequency of Visits  Length of Visit  Depth of Visit  Bounce Rate  Goals (conversions)  Search Engines A foundation to make data actionable  “Key Trends and Insights”  “Impact on Site/Museum”  “Steps Being Taken” Shows trending Excel-based Easily updated 16

Dashboard “home pages” are designed: 1) To help orient you toward action 2) To communicate with managementSummary definesand puts themetric in context Red/Yellow/GreenChart shows status markerssegmented data shows at-a-glancetracked and each metric‟strended over time. status. „Action‟ section answers the question “So what?”Suggestions for • Key Trends and InsightsPossible • Impact on Website / UnitAdditional • Steps Being TakenSegments. 17

Frequency of Visits (“Loyalty”) Useful engagement metric for content sites. Provides insight into how compelling and/or valuable content is perceived to be. Frequent visitors are:  More likely to be loyal visitors  Exhibit higher levels of engagement than infrequent, and especially one- time visitors 18

Length of Visits Useful engagement metric for content sites. Measures quality based on the amount of time spent consuming content. Segmentation is critical.  Segments of time  Types of content consumed, or activities pursued. For example, spending lots of time searching may indicate a poor website search experience. 19

Depth of Visits Useful engagement metric for content sites. Number of pages per visit. Helps understand content consumption patterns, which can help paint the picture of the longer term relationships visitors have with the website. 20

Segmented Bounce Rate Number of times a person visits one site page and leaves without clicking, divided by the total number of visits. Easily misinterpreted as always negative. Sometimes a high bounce rate is desirable or expected.  Visits to single-use informational pages (location/hours)  Blog visits 21

Goal Conversions – Primary and Secondary Any high-value behavior that supports the sites goals.  PDF downloads  Videos watched  Donations  Completed orders Conversions indicate higher engagement, deeper commitment than viewing pages. "Conversion Rate" is the number of conversions divided by visitors. 22

External Search Engines / SEO Search Engine Visits as % of Visits  Used to monitor site traffic mix to ensure it is not over-reliant on search, or too low. "Long Tail" Analysis  Pages receiving visits from an SE  Total web pages that received at least one visit from a search engine for any keyword or phrase.  Total keyword referrals  Total unique keywords or phrases that generated search engine traffic. Search Conversion Rate  Conversions from search engine visitors divided by the total number of visitors who arrived from search engines.  Identify and track which types of keywords result in consistently high conversions is. 23

“New GA” = “New Dashboards” There are two versions of GA in the world, so… There are two “data export” dashboards  „Old GA‟ version – available, in use.  „How to‟ self-directed tutorial.  „New GA‟ version – available soon.  Self-directed tutorial will follow. Data-export versions require no budget and minimal learning curve.  Just GA and Excel. Easily updated, but monthly vigilance and careful metrics selection are recommended. 24

A more automated dashboard is coming GA Data Grabber imports GA data into Excel via Google‟s API  (Relatively) easy-to-use.  Nice charting capabilities.  30 Days free / $300 per year. Other Excel tools are available  Excellent Analytics (free!)  Nextanalytics.  ShufflePoint.  Google‟s Reporting Tools lists these and others. These tools come with a learning curve.  Documentation and support are minimal. 25

Using the Dashboard 26

Segmentation example – All Visits data looks one way... Key Trends and Insights Minimal loyalty group (purple) downward trend indicates improving content engagement High loyalty group (blue) upward trend indicates sameThis Impact of this Data on the Site or Program• This good-looking chart may indicate high content engagement and/or perceived value• This data may correlate to increasing conversion behaviorsActing on this Data• Identify moderate and high loyalty pages as a means of duplicating, or improving others• Examining conversion behaviors of these segments may yield addl insights• Correlating high bounce rate pages to one-time visits may yield addl insights• Test different content types in an attempt to move minimal visitors into moderate group 27

…But applying segmentation tells a different story Key Trends and Insights Minimal loyalty group upward trend indicates organic listings are not appropriately targeted Moderate loyalty group downward trend indicates same High loyalty group trending slightly downward, in contrast to previous chart‟sThis Impact of this Data on the Site or Program upward slope• Organic search listings are driving poorly-targeted traffic• Will result in decreased organic search performance over timeActing on this Data• Refocus title tags, meta-description tags and page content for important pages• Perform link analysis to see where other SEO improvements can be made 28

Customizing GA‟s advanced segments Creating charts from other segments is easy!  Remove trendlines from charts (weird Excel bug).  Copying the worksheet worksheet.  Paste-in new data.  Add-back the trendlines. Useful advanced segments include:  Organic search engine visitors (standard)  Social media visitors  Visits from specific sites (e.g., facebook or twitter)  Engaged visits  Highly-engaged visits 29

Custom segment: engaged visits These visits:  Were deeper than three pages.  Were longer than three minutes. 31

Custom segment: highly-engaged visits These visits:  Were deeper than four pages.  Were in frequency more than two times in the measured period.  Were longer than two minutes. These values can be tweaked for your site, of course! A nice blog post on this topic is here. 32

Ocean Portal Analysis Analyze 8 months of ocean.si.edu data.  Assess sites performance.  Understand visitor behavior .  Determine benchmarks.  Recommendations, new measurements. 33

Frequency of Visits – All Site Visitors Key Trends and Insights Minimal frequency group upward trend indicates less willingness to visit the site over time, which may indicate difficulty finding or navigating content. Moderate loyalty group downward trend indicates same. High loyaltyImpact group also trends• Site visitors visiting the site less frequently over time negatively impacts the project goals of downward, but the“fostering a desire to learn more, to continually share and to move visitors along a continuum of overall range islearning toward action.” encouraging.Recommended Steps• A-B test premise that visitors are having a difficult time finding content due to nav/U-I issue• Replace complex site map with a simpler HTML version 34

Frequency of Visits – Social Media Visitors Key Trends and Insights Segmented group trends are „streaky,‟ indicating interest correlating to social media program activity. Moderate loyalty group trend is flat but in the same % range as other segments. High loyalty group share is much higher thanImpact either of the other• Social media visitors visiting the site erratically over time could impede the project goals of “fostering a segmentsdesire to learn more, to continually share and to move visitors along a continuum of learning toward analyzed,action.” indicating strong relationshipRecommended Steps between OP• Consider ways to more consistently execute social media/blog efforts content and this• Engage qualitative effort to gauge possible U-I or search issues, and/or uncover other engagement- audience.related characteristics. 35

Followup – Frequency of Visits – All Site Visitors Key Trends and Insights Minimal frequency group trend has leveled off; whether or not the trend will shift downward is TBD. Moderate loyalty group trend has reversed and is now trending up. High loyalty group isImpact significantly fallen• The moderate group of visitors visiting the site more frequently over time positively impacts off, reflecting thethe project goals of “fostering a desire to learn more, to continually share and to move visitors new primary trafficalong a continuum of learning toward action.” source (social media), and theRecommended Steps fact that traffic has• Strategize ways to boost high frequency group. skyrocketed.• Other social strategies, SEO / paid search / serialized blog 36

Followup – Frequency of Visits – Social Media Visitors Key Trends and Insights Minimal frequency group trending more sharply upward than all-visits group, and is still somewhat „streaky.‟ Moderate loyalty group trend is also trending up. September‟s # is the highest in site history. As expected,Impact high loyalty• Crossing of the blue and orange trends reiterates learnings from previous slide group has fallen off even more• The site may be over-reliant on social media traffic, and should consider ways to balance the sharply than thetraffic mix. „all visits‟Recommended Steps segment.• Strategize ways to boost high frequency group.• Other social strategies, SEO / paid search / serialized blog 37

Google is launching new “Social” reports Make data-driven decisions for social media programs:  Identify the value of traffic coming from social sites.  Measure how they lead to direct or “assisted” conversions.  Understand social activities happening on and off site. Google‟s blog post 38

Social conversions “Social performance at a glance and its impact on conversions.” “Which goals are being impacted by social media.” 39

Social sources “Find out how visitors from different sources behave.” This is similar to the custom advanced segment. Other reports: • Social Plugins data • "Activity Stream" (lacks facebook & twitter) 40

Well-meaning advice Having specific goals is the only way to know what to measure.  If they‟re not clearly articulated, make them up!  …then take them to management.  This will get the ideas flowing.  Don‟t measure too much!  It‟s easy to do and you don‟t have time.  Pick a few metrics that make sense for your goals.  You can always change them. When presenting, tell a story, with the focus on action.  Trends and Insights (what‟s happening).  Impact (why it matters).  What you are doing about it. Steer management away from “quantity of stuff” metrics.  Keep them in context; they should not be the dominant metrics. 41

Resources Google‟s “Reporting Tools”  http://s.si.edu/9YLK8 Avinash Kaushik‟s “Occam‟s Razor”  http://kaushik.net/avinash Lunametrics blog  http://www.lunametrics.com/blog SEOmoz (free and paid SEO tools)  http://seomoz.org SEOmoz “Open Site Explorer”  Authority and link data  http://opensiteexplorer.org Slides, all dashboards (including automated) and tutorials will be made available.  Send me email (alpertb@si.edu)!  Or twitter @balpert 42

Thanks! Brian Alpert Smithsonian Institution @balpert alpertb@si.edu 202-633-3955 43

Know Thyself: How Suffering Through an Existential Crisis Will Help You Create Your Metrics Plan Catherine ShteynbergWeb, New Media, & Outreach Coordinator Museums and the Web 2012

Questions to answer: •What does the planning process look like? •What are some tools that are helpful in planning? •What can measuring do for me?Image: Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2009-0711

Self Evaluate • What do we think we do now? Listen • What do others think we do? What are others doing? • Who do we interact with? Audiences • Who do we want to interact with? Goals • What is your museum trying to accomplish? • Strategies: the plans you make to achieve yourStrategy & Tactics goals • Tactics: the things you do to advance the strategyMeasure & Retool • Develop GA/other metrics, Observe, Reevaluate, Repeat

Step 1: Self-Evaluation Complete an Audit Your Do you have a Activities mission statement? MISSION SO WHAT? WHO CARES?

Why Should We Listen? •Our best insights often come from without rather than within •Listening is another word for research •Is audience research just pandering to the public? Image: Smithsonian Institution Archives, MNH- 1261B

Step 2: ListeningTools/Methods-  Organization Come up with Keywords Keywords  Twitter hashtags and lists Set up Google  Industry Keywords Reader  Google Alerts  URLs of site, blog (on  Twitter Search RSS Twitter, Google Alerts, Wikipedia) Other Tracking?  Events, exhibitions,  Facebook Open services, program Search names  Twitter lists, individuals  Names of people in  Other Free Monitoring Tools? (e.g. org. SocialMention,  Related organization BackType, Technorati) blogs Feed it all into your  Social Media blogs Reader  Influencers on social Archive & Track media channels mentions with  Your evangelists Bookmarking

What Does This Listening Achieve? Who‟s talking? Scan quickly, What are they saying? Pick out Patterns What do you do differently/successfully ? What content is successful? Possible collaboration? Trends? Image: Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2008- 0888

Steps 3 and 4: Audiences &Goals Choose top Audiences (types, not demographics) & prioritize HINT: “General public” is not a legit audience Goals (2-3) K.I.S.S.

Case Study: SmithsonianArchivesAUDIENCES & GOALS Our initial goals and audiences were too broad Are your goals what you thought they were?

Bringing it all together  Steps 4 and 5:Develop your strategies and tactics  Step 6: Bring it all together to develop your measurements! Audiences & Strategies &Self-evaluation Listening Measurements Goals Tactics

What is a “money” measurement? Poor measurements vs. “money” measurements -# of views of photos -Percentage of images on Flickr Commons identified on the Flickr Commons per crowdsourcing campaign What‟s your $$Money$$ if you‟re not actually raising money? $ = specific goals for specific audiences, or a

Get Inspired Case Study: Outcomes at the Archives Donation of Scopes Trial photographs Meet your grandmother in our collections People identify our Collections A Wikipedian-in-Residence who helps give millions more people access to our collections Our staffTrial Photos, Grandmother in Images: Scopes have become collections, DC church identification, Wikipedia empowered to create Edit-a-Thon

And Finally: Do it all over again Self- Evaluate Measure & Listen Refine Strategy & Audiences Tactics Goals

ResourcesReading: Wearemedia.org "Mission Accomplished?“ by Linda Norris Templates: “Good Research Isn‟t About Asking Audiences What  Social Media Audit Template, The Other Media they Want,” asking audiences  SMART Chart, Spitfire Strategies “Five Cool Twitter Search Tricks,”MakeUseOf  Creating Your Organizations Social Media Strategy “Spreadsheet Aerobics,” by Beth Kanter Map, Beth Kanter “Actionable Listening,” by Beth Kanter  We Are Media, Social Media Strategy Worksheet and AIDS.gov New Media Strategy Map based on “The Listening Primer” Social Media Listening Wiki, We Are Media Worksheet. by Beth Kanter Tools:  Google Keyword Tool  Google Reader  Google Alerts  Sociable, Twitter RSS Feed Creator  Diigo, or another bookmarking tool  List of Social Media Listening, Monitoring, Measuring, and Management Tools, Social Media Listening Wiki, by Beth Kanter

Catherine Shteynbergshteynbergc@si.edu

MW2012_Clicks_that_Count_GA

by Brian Alpert

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 1

Statistics

MW2012_Clicks_that_Count_GA Presentation Transcript