Whether it be a personal website or your client’s e-commerce platform, understanding website analytics can help you to uncover critical data that leads to success.
In this article I will explain a few key analytics that you should look for, and quick fixes to improve website engagement.
What are analytics?
Website analytics involves tracking and analysis of user engagement with a website. Analytics platforms run calculations and report findings. Web developers can leverage analytics to drive website improvements. There are plenty of website analytics tools to choose from such as Microsoft Clarity, Google Analytics, and Matomo.
Standout Analytics
I remember the first time I opened a website analytics platform I was overwhelmed by the endless tables, graphs, and charts. But do not fear! In this next section I will highlight a few important analytics that can drive immediate change.
Average Time Spent – This key piece of information will tell you how long users spend on average on the website. This is important because it conveys the time period you have to drive an action from the user. For example, you may have on average 1 minute and 15 seconds to drive a user to purchase your product.
Scroll Length – This refers to how much of the page an average user views. Often, users do not scroll past the top section of a page. By the time they reach the middle, users may click to another page. This means the most important information on a page that would drive user behavior should be placed near the top.
Heat Maps – Many analytics platforms can track where on a page users click the most. This could be visualized in the form of a heat map, a visual representation of clicks on a page. Areas that receive more clicks will be a darker color, and lighter parts represent fewer clicks. This is important because areas that receive high clicks should have buttons that drive an important action: for example, a “Sign Up Now” or “Buy Now” button.
Dead clicks – Dead clicks are locations on the website where clicks were made that resulted in no action. Dead clicks should be investigated because they could be preventing user action that would lead to conversions. Maybe there is text that users assume is a button. Change that text into a button to enable action.
Desktop vs Mobile
In an increasingly mobile-first world, make sure you uncover the analytics of both the desktop and mobile site.
Although these two sites serve similar purposes, they will have drastically different user interfaces. The process of data collection, analysis, and product improvements for the desktop website will be different from the mobile site.
Taking Action
The entire purpose of these analytics is to provide website owners with data to drive change.
After you have collected an immense amount of data, what do you do with it?
1. Remember Your Purpose
Each desktop or mobile website was developed for a core purpose – what is yours?
Do you want users to purchase a product?
Do you want them to sign up for a newsletter?
Do you want them to contact you?
Whatever your purpose, it should be very easily accessible from a user’s point of view via a clear call to action. This means placing relevant information at the top of the page.
2. Solve User Needs
Users have “jobs to be done” that they are looking to your website to help them complete. This means they will have a series of subconscious questions that your website needs to answer in order to keep them engaged and attract new users via word of mouth advertising. A few questions that each webpage should answer are: What is being offered? Why should I care? What do I do about it?
3. Deliver Efficiency
Most users will spend a very limited time on your website, and then click away, never to return. If you are offering a product, customers may spend less than 1 minute on the website. This means you must drive action from your user quickly. When designing a desktop or mobile site, place buttons where most of the action occurs, and reduce the number of pages that users need to pass through to complete an action.
Final thoughts
Data does not need to be scary at all!
Website analytics are out there to help you make the most out of an organization’s digital footprint.
I hope that with this brief introduction you are now feeling empowered to learn more, to leverage website analytics, and to make strategic improvements to your website.
Zuhair Imaduddin is a labor relations student at Cornell University. He was a Product Management Intern at PNC Bank and is an incoming Innovation Development Summer Analyst at JPMorgan Chase.
Image: Pixabay