Making Web Analytics Actionable Peter O’Neill Freelance Web Analytics Consultant Scottish Web Folk 28 th Nov 2008

Web Analytics What is Web Analytics? ‘Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage.’ (Web Analytics Association) What is the point of Web Analytics? To use data to make better business decisions (Peter O’Neill) Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

My Opinion on Web Analytics If you are not using web analytics data to make decisions, there is no point in investing resources in collecting and reporting on it. Better for data/reports to be simple and useful than complicated and just filed away. Small steps Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Issues people are facing Response from surveys Clear objectives from stakeholders Lack of time Knowledge of using web analytics data to make decisions Lack of support of internal stakeholders Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

What I am going to discuss Not ‘How to produce hundreds of reports’ Defining KPIs & setting targets Dashboards Key reports for internal stakeholders Some ideas Other external resources for assistance Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

KPIs/Targets Defining KPIs and setting targets Why have KPIs? Why set targets for these KPIs? Process for defining KPIs and targets How to use KPIs/targets Suggested KPIs Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

KPIs/Targets Suggested KPIs for a University website Number of visits with > 5 page views Number of course descriptions downloaded or viewed Number of clicks on links to online applications % of successful on site searches % of traffic from Direct Entry % of Returning Visitors to ‘What’s Going On’ site section Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

KPIs/Targets KPIs need to be related to how your organisation defines success Targets allow you to define whether you achieved success or not Involve stakeholders in discussion if possible If not, create your own – best guess – use that as a starting point Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Dashboards The purpose of Dashboards Quick overview of performance Include only relevant information – the key facts Simple to read Indicator of performance Quick to update Anyone in organisation can use Dashboards evolve over time Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Dashboards What I recommend Start with Site Metrics and/or with KPIs Distribute weekly or monthly Include some basic commentary Answer people’s questions My recommended Dashboard format Get people used to looking at web metrics and data – grow from there Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Key Reports Top search terms Search engines and on-site search Identify terms as targets for SEO Measure performance of SEO Insight into what visitors find interesting Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Key Reports Site Overlay / Direct View Use for key pages How are visitors using that page? Does navigation for the page/website need to be improved? Can create manually using Navigation Summary or Clickpath Explorer Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Key Reports Most popular Rank the different site sections or departments or courses or staff profiles... Ideal metric is visits but visitors or page views is acceptable substitute Depends on site structure & naming convention GA – Content Drilldown report Nedstat – XX per subdirectory within directory report Can be produced using segmentation (manual process) Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Some Additional Ideas How to get internal stakeholders more interested? Find internal champions Focus on analysis that can save money Create a university case study How to increase knowledge? Create your own forum to compare notes Trade time between universities You are the web analytics experts for universities Do expert reviews of each other’s websites Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Some Additional Ideas How to make most of limited resources? Use your natural resource – students Talk to the professors for marketing/computer/analytics courses Students can do work for experience or as class projects Best dashboard Best recommended improvement to website Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Other External Resources Forums – Web Analytics, Google Analytics Blogs – smart people are writing about how they use web analytics Books – why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from the mistakes of others Free tools - Google Tools/Firefox plugins Twitter – start conversations with people who can offer help Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com

Thoughts to Take Away Web Analytics is about using data to make decisions Keep things simple and take small steps, both for yourself and for involving internal stakeholders Help by making other’s jobs easier If you give people some information/answers, they will start asking more questions Examples are the best way to prove value Make the best use of the resources available to you Remember, you are the web analytics experts for university websites Peter O’Neillwww.aussiewebanalyst.com