Olusola Palacios,
February 16, 2020
Web Analytics is the
"measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for the
purpose of understanding and optimizing web usage”. Web Analytics measures
visitor activity, analysis data to enlighten behavioral patterns of users, as
well as a tool that encourages business and market research. Below is an
illustration of Web Analysis, it’s all about metrics – measure, optimize,
report and analyze.
Web Analytics consists of 5Ws, namely:
1. Who (location, demographics)
2. When (page views, events, time & date / seasonality)
3. Where (location, network)
4. Why (events, clickpath, pages viewed)
5. What (device type, screen size, network)
What are some important metrics/Key Performance
Indicators (KPI) to track?
1.
Website Traffic:
Traffic is important and fundamental for a website to be successful and it is
easily tracked by using Analytic tools such as Google Analytics. Traffics helps
to determine if a website and in fact a business is growing, a flat and steady
decline of lack of traffic will indicate that marketing or business isn’t doing
well. Using Google Analytics, one can determine if the traffic is from new
visitors, repeat visitors, where and when the traffic is higher or lower.
This helps determine where a business should target for continuous
growth.
2.
Traffic Sources:
There are different kinds of web traffics sources: (1) direct traffic, (2)
Organic (3) Referral (4) Campaign. All of these are covered in Module 2. It is
important to know where the traffic is being generated, for example – organic
searches will help determine if a website if ranked high in search engines.
Whatever source referrals come from will help determine how well a business
should drive more traffic and from what source.
3.
Bounce Rate:
Bounce rate was explained in Module 2, it is important in that it tells us the
number of visitors who leave the website from a particular page. This is an
important metric as it may determine how well the website is doing. The lower
the bounce rate, means more people are visiting and
staying on the website to accomplish the end goal, whether it is to purchase or
accomplish other tasks.
4. Conversion Rate: This
is the “proportion of visits that result in goal achievement”. It is highly
important to track the conversion rate, which is calculated as unique visitors/conversions.
Conversion rates can have a substantial impact on profits, the website should
continually be improved form conversions.
There
are so many other Web Analytic Metrics such as number of visits, exit rates,
number of visits, pages visited, top pages, etc. All of these can be measured
easily using Google Analytics.
Why are metrics/KPIs
important?
1.
KPI allows users to extract meaning from
data at a glance.
2.
KPI allows users to create a snapshot to
monitor performance over time.
3.
KPI and metrics provide overall health of
marketing of a business.
4.
KPI highlights potential problems and may help
users understand a better solution.
Importance of Data Analytics:
1.
Historical and Real-Time monitoring of
users.
2.
Easier marketing.
3.
Identifying pages with specific bounce
rates.
4.
Determining future demands.
Conclusion
It
is important to have monitor metrics and KPIs of a business website, to create
better marketing strategies and for business growth.
References:
Quarton, S. (2015). 7 Key Metrics to track the Success of Your Website. Torque. Retrieved from https://torquemag.io/2015/03/7-key-website-metrics-track/
Ram, S. (n.d). Introduction to Web Analytics. Class Notes. Lecture 9_V18, University of Arizona.
Ryan, D (2014). Understanding Web Analytics and Key Performance Indicators. Kogan Page. Retrieved from https://www.koganpage.com/article/understanding-web-analytics-and-key-performance-indicators.
Sharma, V. (2017). Importance of web analytics. Klient Solutech. http://www.klientsolutech.com/importance-of-web-analytics/
Hi Olusola! This was a great summary of this week's modules. With a powerful tool such as GA being free of cost I wonder about the capabilities of tools that a professional pays to use. Have you had to analyze large amounts of data in your current role?
ReplyDeleteHi, I haven't analyzed large data, my current role isn't in analytics, although I plan to transition some day. I agree, GA is fantastic and free. Best things in life are free!
DeleteHI Olusola. The information that you provided is really good and help to better understand the web analytics. I believe a strategy behind the web analytics will be helpful. In my HW3, I found that my client where using a basic code of google analytics, without full implementation of e-commerce. A partial implementation of google analytics doesn't allow to track the complete picture of their source of income.
ReplyDeleteFor that reason to define what will be measure it is the first step to be able to do analysis and reports that will help to optimize the content.
I agree with you Angela, knowing exactly what to measure is important. You may suggest to your client what will be most beneficial to them.
ReplyDeleteGreat summary and discussion for web analytics! I particularly liked your findings regarding the most important metrics/kpis that can be generated from a web analytics platform such as Google Analytics. In my own analysis I found that we had particular pages that were equal in acquisition traffic to even our home page. We may hope to leverage this other page as a potential springboard into other related pages that don't receive as much traffic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Casey. I didn't know about Google Analytics prior to this course, I have introduced my company to it, I am hoping to use important metrics to help the marketing team.
DeleteGreat write up. I found it helpful, as you did, to focus on the 5 Ws and the Measure, Report, Analyse, and Optimize cycle. This as already help me present my ideas to my Director levels better, by using data, trends, metrics and KPIs. Using data over anecdotal evidence is by far the best approach when arguing for changes.
ReplyDelete