Siteimprove - Using analytics to improve user experience on your website Siteimprove Customer Workshop October 2013

1. Using Analytics to improve user
experience on your website
By Rune Andersen
Web Analytics Consultant
21-10-2013
@SiteimproveUK #Siteimprove13
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2. How many use analytics ?
How many spend more than 20
hours a week on analytics ?
How many have never used
analytics ?
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3. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
What is web analytics
Web analytics is:
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Collection
Measurement
Analysis
Reporting
…of visitor data, in order to:
 understand users
 optimise their experience
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4. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
What are the challenges
Information overload
 We have access to all the data we can think of
Organisational expectations
 The organisation expect us to contribute insight but ask for "monkeyreporting“.
Not enough time
 But we do not have time to process the data - neither practical nor mentally
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5. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
What is your organisation asking about?
“Is the total bounce rate higher than 45%?”
“How many visits last month?”
“What are the 10 most visited pages?”
“Do we have traffic from other country than UK?”
“Please fill this 34 slide PowerPoint with visit data”
“Why ?”
“Because we do that every month”
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6. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
What you should ask them
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7. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
What they should have asked about
“What is the self service abandonment rate”
“Have we tested different newsletter
signup forms, and which is better?”
“Should we make other language versions of
our website”
“Please define 5 concrete actions you think can improve our website”
“When ?”
“When you can base them on data, and not hunches”
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8. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
Questions to ask on the way to insight
Why do we have a website
 Define a purpose and KPI’s for the website
 And use web analytics to examine whether this is met
Who uses the website
 Identify your target groups – and focus on them
 And use web analytics to see if they are present
How do they use the website?
 Set KPIs and goals for specific actions
 And use web analytics to determine whether these are achieved
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9. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
Purpose and KPIs
Purpose
”You should know that”
Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
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Self-service submission
Newsletter signup
Online purchase conversions
Contact forms submit
Campaign conversions
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10. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
Time used on analytics
Purpose
KPIs
The perfect
world
Metrics
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11. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
Time used on analytics
Purpose
KPIs
The perfect
Reality
world
Metrics
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12. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
The analyst's mission:
Work towards insight
 To focus on the data and metrics that will deliver insight
 Align the insight with the purpose and KPI’s of the site
 Make the KPI’s measurable, realistic and communicated internally
Work for a data-driven decision organisation
 Analytics will help you to make decisions on a data-based foundation.
 Changes supported by decisions taken on the basis of data will increase the
chance that it is the correct decision.
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13. IDENTIFYING MOST
USED CONTENT
- AND THE ART OF LIMITING
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14. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
What are “most used content” indicators
Page views
 Reliable metric
 Can be misleading (Transport pages, front page, content without pageload etc.)
Visits
 Reliable metric
 Depends on type of site/page
Entry/Exit pages
 Behaviour metrics
 Combine with filters/Segments
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15. Using Analytics to improve user experience on your website
What are “most used content” indicators
Event tracking
 Custom metric
 Implemented correctly, it can be the key to insight
Internal Search
 Behaviour
 A direct view into the visitors purpose with visiting the website
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16. Identifying most used content
Content focus
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17. Identifying most used content
Content focus
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18. Identifying most used content
Content focus
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19. Identifying most used content
Content focus
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20. Identifying most used content
Most …and least used.
 Stockport Council have 31,798 pages
tracked last month
% of % sum of
Page # total PW total
 Page 1-5 represent 25% of total PW
1
7.7 %
7.7 %
 Page 1-50 represent 50% of total PW
5
1.73 %
25.3 %
 Page 1-500 represent 75% of total PW
10
1.05 %
31.5 %
 Page 2,501 – 31,798 represent 10% of total
50
0.22 %
49.46 %
100
0.11 %
57.06 %
500
0.02 %
75.68 %
1000
0.009 % 82.41 %
2500
0.003 % 89.83 %
PW
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21. Identifying most used content
Most …and least used.
706 pages with ZERO
visit in one month
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22. Identifying most used content
Prioritise you analytics effort
Most used
Improve user
experience
content
Editorial
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Future
improvement
opportunities
KPI
relevance
Increase KPI
achievement
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23. Identifying most used content
Prioritise you analytics effort
 If we try to make everyone happy by providing meaningless data
that some might think is important but is actually useless in terms of
taking action, we don’t have time to change anything.
 Only by prioritising our effort can we reach a point where we have
actual time to analyse data sufficiently and hereby achieving our
goals to improve user experience.
 Don’t use time on content you can’t change – unless you are doing
research for a future redo of the website.
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24. INTERNAL SEARCHES
AS A SOURCE OF
INSIGHT
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25. Internal searches
Why not external searches ?
[not provided]
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26. Internal searches
Why not external searches ?
77,4 %
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27. Internal searches
Why not external searches ?
92,5 %
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28. Internal searches
Is internal search used in Analytics ?
Siteimprove Web Governance Suite usage
100,0%
80,0%
60,0%
40,0%
20,0%
0,0%
Internal Search - Search with result
Traffic Sources - Keywords
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29. Internal searches
What we want to know
What
 What are the visitors searching for – what can’t they find
Where
 Where are they searching – which pages
Who
 Who are the users that use search
Why
 Why are they searching
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30. Internal searches
Stockport Council
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31. Internal searches
Stockport Council
Search:
14,2 %
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32. Internal searches
Search terms – External
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33. Internal searches
Search terms – External
“Stockport Council” removed
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34. Internal searches
Search terms – Internal search
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35. Internal searches
What are visitors searching for
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36. Internal searches
Stockport Council – School ?
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37. Internal searches
Stockport Council – School ?
Slider:
Visible after 20 sec.
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38. A Danish council - Search centric design
Warning:
Google translate
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39. Webanalytics
Get started
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Book time in your calendar – and use it.
Start with the simple task
Set up realistic goals and KPIs
Make the decisions data-driven
Experiment