10 Ways to Be Strategicwith Web Analytics

February 2011www.NowMediaMarketing.com

Copyright 2011 James R. Smith

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10. Keep Your Eye on the Prize

• Your Web site exists for a purpose– Find it– Articulate it– Work towards achieving it

• Design the site around that goal

• Look at metrics that relate back to that goal

• Continuously improve

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9. Not everything that can be counted counts

• Don’t count for counting’s sake• Web analytics exists for no other

purpose other than improving site performance

• “You can learn many interesting things by analyzing data. But you should only spend your time looking at info that identifies opportunities for improvement.” from Actionable Web Analytics Pg 53

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9. Not everything that can be counted counts

Can Be Counted Counts

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9. Not everything that can be counted counts

Can Be Counted

Counts

Page Views

HitsVisits

Visitors

Registrations

Click thru

Purchases

Time on SiteTime on Page

Bounce Rate

Conversion Rate

Gain Faith

Further Lord’s Work

Develop Testimony

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8. Be Compelling

• You might not be a PhD statistician or know how to run a multi-variate test or know how to set intervals with two standard deviations…

• But you can be compelling

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8. Be Compelling

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7. Data Beats Guesses

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7. Data Beats Guesses: Two Case Studies

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/guesses-data.html

• Should you offer users help to adjust font size?

• Studies say yes• 100% of people who cited

external data were right• 25% of people who relied on

personal opinion were right• Basing decision on data

quadrupled the probability of being right

• A/B test: Version A and B of online banking interface

• 3 usability attributes: Time to Complete, Success Rate, and Satisfaction

• On all 3 attributes, version B scored best

• Showed designs to people in web design course

• Going on personal guesses, probability of choosing best design was 50%

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6. Questions Before Data

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6. Questions Before Data

• We must understand the difference between a business question and a report request

• These are all report requests…– How many hits has the site gotten?– How much traffic is coming to our website?– What’s the bounce rate?

• Ask: What business problem are you trying to solve?

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6. Questions Before Data: Example• Request for Data: How many people click on the

Carousel Hero Banner on LDS.org?• Real Business Question: Are the benefits of Carousel

Hero Banner worth the screen real estate it takes up?

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10K Clicks

60K Clicks 20K Clicks 2K Clicks

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6. Questions Before Data

• Advice to Analysts:– Seek to understand the strategic questions of the business– Don’t just provide data. Provide answers and insights.

• Advice to Business folks:– Bare your soul. Share questions that keep you up at night– Seek insight, not just reports.

• Soon you’ll be getting (or giving) questions like:– How can we improve the registration rate on our site?– What are the most productive sources of traffic?– What is the impact of our website on our call center?– Which banner ad is most effective in driving conversions?

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5. Ask “So What?” Three Times

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5. Ask “So What?” Three Times

• “Ask every web metric you report the question "so what" three times. Each question provides an answer that in turn raises another question (a "so what" again). If at the third "so what" you don't get a recommendation for an action you should take, you have the wrong metric. Kill it.”– By Avinash Kaushik, www.kaushik.net,

Kill Useless Web Metrics: Apply The "Three Layers Of So What" Test, Mar 8, 2010, Emphasis added.

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5. Ask “So What?” Three Times

• Example• Analyst: “Our search engine referrals have increased 10%.”• Business Owner: “So what?”• Analyst: “The data shows the visitors who come to the site

through search engines are twice as likely to register.”• Business Owner: “So what?” What do we do?”• Analyst: “I have identified dozens of keywords that we should

target. Optimizing pages around these phrases could double our search referrals, and drastically increase registration rate and volume.”

• Business Owner: “That’s fantastic. Let's do it.”

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4. Use a Balanced Scorecard

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4. Use a Balanced Scorecard

• Any one metric can be manipulated– Visitors: can be inflated thru aggressive marketing

• But bounce rate may suffer

– Page views: can be increased (or decreased) due to site design• But return visitor numbers may suffer

– Conversion rate: can be increased by targeting niche audiences• But overall conversions may decrease

– Time on site: can be increased by adding interesting content• But that may distract from sites goals and reduce conversion

• Try getting multiple metrics to improve simultaneously

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3. Look at trends rather than level

• Give data context through… – Trends– Percentages– Comparisons

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• 15,000 iPhones visit LDS.org each month (report from summer 2008)• How confident are you in that exact number? Low.• High degree of confidence in:

– The upward trend over time– The % of iPhone visitors (~1% of LDS.org visitors)– The distribution of iPhone usage across our websites

• More iPhones use Scriptures and Gospel Library than other websites

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2. Align Goals and Tactics

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2. Align Goals and Tactics

Strategic TacticalGoals and Objectives Strategies Sites

FeaturesTactics and

KPIs

• The tactical metrics are indicators on how well a site is performing against high-level goals.

• Determine how user behavior on your website relates to your overall business goals

• Prioritize web projects based on their relevancy to business goals and ability to move key metrics.

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KPIsTactics/ Site FeaturesObjectivesPurposeGoals

Hasten the Work of the Lord though sharing the Gospel and Reputation

Management

Inspire members to share the gospel

online

Motivate and Inspire Talk on Why Share

Visits, Downloads, Views, Time on Page, Bounce Rate, Search

Rf

Inform and provide examples

Why I Share – Stories Visits, Views, Time on Page, Bounce Rate

Other A/V Videos: Bounce Rate, Search Referrals

Teach members how to share the gospel

online

Instruct How to Online

In Plain English: RSS, Social Bookmarking,

etc.

Views, Time on Page, Bounce Rate,

Provide findable and sharable content

Site Search and Navigation

Most Popular content and sections, site

search terms, zero result searches,

search conversion

Push out negative results in SERPs

Distribute Optimized Content

Provide Optimized Image Galleries

Visitors, Downloads, Search Ref, Key

images Google Rank

Provide Badges and Widgets for Key Landing Pages

Code Grab Its, Widget and Badge

Referrals, LP Google Rank

Optimize site itself

Blog, BadgesRSS subscribers,

Comments, Badge Referrals

Share It, Fav-ing and Liking-type features

Search referrals, Bounce, Visitor

growth, Usage stats : % of visitors liking, #

of times shared

User Generated Content

Submit Pictures: “Temple” pictures,

etc.

# of submissions, # of good submissions

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1. Hold People Accountable

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1. Hold People Accountable

• #7 of Omniture’s Seven Common Mistakes in Web Analytics: No accountability for Web data

• “Accountability drives adoption and change.”– From

Seven Keys to Creating a Data-Driven Organization • “When performance is measured, performance

improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” – Thomas S. Monson

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10 Ways to Be Strategic with Web Analytics

• 10. Keep Your Eye on the Prize• 9. Not everything that can be

counted counts• 8. Be Compelling• 7. Data Beats Guesses• 6. Questions Before Data• 5. Ask “So What?” Three Times• 4. Use a Balanced Scorecard• 3. Look at trends rather than level• 2. Align Goals and Tactics• 1. Hold People Accountable

10 Ways to Be Strategicwith Web Analytics

February 2011www.NowMediaMarketing.com

Copyright 2011 James R. Smith