Michelle Robbins discusses the overwhelming amount of data generated daily and emphasizes the importance of meaningful analysis over mere data collection. She recommends focusing on user behavior and optimizing website navigation for conversions while utilizing tools like Google Analytics for insights. Regular site audits are essential for identifying and resolving issues that affect both search engines and user experience, ultimately leading to improved conversion paths.

1. Clicks, Conversions
and Crawls!
DeepCrawl Dec 2019
Michelle Robbins
VP Product & Innovation

2. About me
 In tech, search and digital
marketing since the mid-90s
 Full stack engineer, analyst
 Formerly SVP Content &
Technology, Editor in Chief
at Search Engine Land,
Marketing Land, MarTech
Today, SMX
 Data Scientist in training
 STEM advocate and mentor
 Superhero enthusiast

3. We are drowning
in data:
 More than 2.5 quintillion
bytes of data created
every day
 It is estimated that by
next year, 1.7MB of data
will be created per
person per second

4. Ever-Increasing Number of Business
Data Sources
 Website Analytics
 Google Search Console
 Advertising: Google, Bing, Facebook, Amazon, etc.
 Martech products: CRM, CSM, Data enrichment

5. “Collecting massive
amounts of data rarely
leads to any material
increase in insights or
smarter decisions.”
~ Avinash Kaushik
TMAI #180 – September 2019

7. “Data never acquires magical
powers because more people have
access to it. Data acquires magical
powers when analytically savvy
humans are available to do the post-
campaign analysis to find meaningful
stories that explain failure or
success.”
~ Avinash Kaushik
TMAI #180 – September 2019

8. Measure What
Matters

9. Focus on the user, not
on the robots.

10. Rage Clicks
Source: Bluesmoon
Track rage clicks in GA via GTM using this code from Reflective Data.

11. Cursor Thrashing
Source: Bluesmoon

12. Ask the
Right
Questions

13.  How many visitors
converted?
 How many returning vs.
new visitors did we get?
 How do visitors who
converted behave
differently from those who
didn’t?
 How do returning visitors
behave differently than
new visitors?
vs

14. Focus on behaviors,
not just metrics

16. Surfacing the
behavioral data

17. User path
analysis
 Is the site architecture optimized for
conversions?
 Navigation and sub-navigation
 Breadcrumbs
 Internal linking
 Are there technical problems on pages leading
to bounces or exits?
 Is site search required for customers to find the
information they need, or is it simply helpful?

18. Google Analytics App + Web Property
Source: Google

19. Quick list of GA App +
Web resources
• Google announcement
• 10-minute setup tutorial video and brief
reporting walk-through
• Simo Ahava (Google Developer Expert for
GA/GTM) deep dive
• Krista Seiden (former GA Product Manager)
deep dive on setup and new reporting

21. Source: Google
NEW: Exploration

22. Source: Google
IMPROVED: Funnel Analysis

23. Source: Digital Debrief
SERIOUSLY IMPROVED: Path Analysis

24. The Keys to Conversions:
Paths and Prediction

26. What is
”Narrow AI”

27. Sequence
Prediction
Models

28. Sequence prediction:
a problem that involves using
historical sequence
information to predict the next
value or values in the
sequence.

29. Examples of
Sequence
Prediction Models
 Compact Prediction Tree (CPT) - Python
code here
 Markov chains - R code here
 Requirements:
 sizable enough data, with enough
common paths being taken by users to
reliably predict next steps based on input
paths/pages
 A developer, data scientist or analyst
familiar with Python or R, and data
transformation and modeling

30. This sounds
like a lot of
work.

31. The Benefits of Path Analysis and
Predicting Paths
Better understand your site
users:
•- See what may be broken in your funnel
•- Determine if you have a tech, content, or
optimization problem
•- Enable you to adapt your goals to capture
how people actually convert (vs. how you
thought they would)
By applying prediction to path
analysis you can:
- Programmatically intervene to direct users
away from non-converting paths
- Reduce friction in site usage
- Optimize frequent paths

32. What’s crawl got to do
with it?

33. Regular Site Audits
are Critical
 A platform like DeepCrawl will surface
problems for both the search engines
(blocked pages, 404s, duplicate content)
and users (thin content, poor internal
linking, navigation issues)
 To provide your customers with a
conversion-path-optimized experience on
your site, you need to ensure they can
find you in search - and that your pages
deliver on the experience expected.
 A site crawl and auditing tool should be
part of your overall martech stack - no
different from your analytics package,
CRM, CSM or other “always on,” critical
technology.

35. CRAWL OPTIMIZE ANALYZE OPTIMIZE

36. CRAWL
Regularly crawl your site to:
 Surface problems
with bots accessing
content
 Surface problems
impacting user
experience (page
load times, etc.)
 Surface content
optimization
opportunities

37. OPTIMIZE

38. ANALYZE

39. Optimize

40. The web is not static.
Your strategy shouldn’t
be either.
Always be optimizing -
toward customer
experience.

41. Let’s connect:
@MichelleRobbins
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellerobbins
Thank you!
Michelle Robbins
VP Product &
Innovation