Web Analytics MBA 590 Spring 2016

Introduction Syllabus Course content Attendance Grading Groups

One-Slide Course Summary An online presence is indispensable for businesses of all sizes Websites enable two-way information flows: A means for customers, employees, business partners to obtain information and services Businesses gather data about activity on their site and draw implications from it Web analytics is the set of tools and methodologies businesses use to learn about their website traffic

The Role of Websites in Business Multiple functions: Automating routine business activities Enable transactions Inform customers about products Inform businesses about actual and potential customers Convenient for most customers No travel, available 24 hours a day Site search capabilities Facilitates price comparisons More informative for businesses: Can gather data unavailable to physical stores Examples?

Basic Website Design URL (Uniform Resource Locator) HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) Links Content: Text Images Videos Interactive (registration, polls, etc.)

What is Web Analytics? Studying patterns in Web traffic Who’s visiting my site? Where are they coming from? What are they doing? Can be measured at every page of a site and every stage of a purchase process Linking demographics and behaviors allows: Assessing website performance over time Identifying opportunities and shortfalls Devising and refining business strategies

Evolution of Web Analytics 1995: Focus on page hits, search engines relatively primitive 1998: Google starts selling search terms 2000: : Google Analytics released 2008+: Explosive growth in smartphone use has driven tracking mobile users 2014+: Shift from Web access to proprietary apps

Terminology glossary.php

Visitor and Visits Visitor: A person who visits your site New visitor: Visiting the site for the first time (maybe) Returning visitor: Is known to have already visited the site Cookies are used to establish visitor histories but may be blocked or deleted Visitor session: The time a visitor stays on your site Visit: Each time your site is visited Users may view multiple pages during a visitor session Different from page hits One user may visit the same site using multiple devices and appear to be different users

Channel Channel: How visitors get to your site: Search engines Referrals from other sites Direct: typing in a URL or linking from a user’s own favorite sites entry Transactions are commonly attributed to the immediately preceding source The relationship between sources and purchases is not always clear

Goals and Conversions Goal: Something you want your visitors to do when they visit your site: Purchase products Download files Watch videos Click on links Conversion: When a goal is reached Goal conversion rate: What fraction of visits result in that goal being achieved

Funnel Funnel: Series of steps a visitor must follow to reach a goal Typically involve at least two pages: Find a product, then check out Tracked to see where visitors leave the site: Many will likely leave at the initial page After reading product description (if browsing or not yet ready to buy) Sticker shock Poor site design

Bounce Bounce: When a visitor only sees one page of your site before leaving May indicate: Your site does not meet the visitor’s needs The visitor found exactly what was needed The visitor continued directly to external link Misaligned visitor tracking across pages Can be reduced by better ad targeting, internal links Typical bounce rates vary by category, e.g.: Often over 80% for blogs Around 30% for retail

Branches of Web Analytics On-site tools track: Visitor sessions Traffic sources Goal conversions Off-site tools track: Comparisons across competitors Potential audience Buzz

Why is Web Analytics Important? Maintaining a significant online presence can be expensive but is often vital Analytics supports better decisions about how to spend limited funds wisely: Ad rates How much to pay per click? More generally, estimating value of any marketing campaign

Why is Web Analytics Important? Case 1: Bausch & Lomb analytics-case-study-bausch-and- lomb.aspx analytics-case-study-bausch-and- lomb.aspx

Why is Web Analytics Important? Case 2: Sensient Food Colors analytics-case-study-sensient.aspx analytics-case-study-sensient.aspx

What Can Web Analytics Do? Gather customer data Help quickly identify site errors Measure results of system changes But: Data is often ambiguous Web analytics technology can’t interpret the data for you

Learning about Customers Demographics Product preferences On-site activity: Search patterns (internal and external) Visitor paths and exits Viewing site content Link with transaction histories to estimate value of visitor actions

Identify Problems Site Design: Bad links Inaccessible pages Product: Sticker shock Insufficient information

Measure Results Marketing efforts: Short-term: temporary discounts, isolated major ads, being in the news Long-term: Partnerships, other channels Changes in site design Differential pricing (Amazon, 2000)

Web Analytics Methods Server logs: Server-side model Record all site activity and store it locally in a (very large) logfile Page tags: Client-side model Collect data through JavaScript code on all pages being tracked Send data to remote servers

Server Logs Automatically collects all relevant data: immune to tracking code failures Combines the entire history of all visitors to the site

Page Tags Gathers data almost in real time Easier to learn user activities in detail Typically implemented as SaaS (Software as a Service); outsources data management Requires users to have JavaScript enabled and accept cookies

Project: Building Your Website Create account at yola.com Create pages Create links Generate web traffic

Create yola.com Account Free Mostly painless Provides content management tools Each yola.com site allows multiple pages

Create Pages Please, only SFW content Add some search terms, like: Your name UIC, MBA 590, Analytics Static content: Photos Text Interactive content: Surveys Comments Shares

Create Links Plan your funnel Connect pages: Within your site To other student sites Add hyperlinks by: Text widget HTML code

Generate Web Traffic Target: 500 hits, eventually Help your friends! , but avoid spamming! Social media: facebook, twitter, etc. Look for your site via search engines