Draft Motif: Analytics

Showing newest posts with label Analytics. Show older posts

4Q Survey Helps Answer Why Visitors Come

Posted on 6:00 PM comments (4)
Labels: Analytics, Survey, Tag Clouds, Web

If you have not tried the free 4Q Survey tool by Avinash Kaushik and iPerceptions then you are behind the game. The 4Q Survey is designed to help you better understand "Why" people are coming to your site.

Well, who better to explain what 4Q is all about then Avinash the original creator himself. To hear Avinash's explanation visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2LJliORQPQ.

So the video leaves out one simple thing to help the sales pitch for any tool, results. Therefore, we'll be going over the Arkansas Alumni Association's results for the survey loaded on the www.arkalum.org (only domain loaded on as we have others too). Since the tool has only been online for a few months we’ll go over September 2008 as we have full statistics for.

Since I'm a designer at heart lets start out with the important part, how it works and looks on my site (after all their logo is green).

So it is pretty simple looking and will fit into almost any site. Also since they co-brand it to your organization it appears to come from you and looks rather good.

Last but more importantly is our results. After all why bother unless you can actually get something out of the tool. Well, they claim that you can get the answer to "Why" and that you can and so much more.

First we can get a simple view of our overall participant satisfaction and even get a satisfaction trend over the life of the survey. This can tell us if our site needs improvement and even what needs improvement.

Next up is the Task Completion score (comparable to Goals in Google Analytics). This is probably the most significant score you can get on the tool as it helps answer tell if visitors completed the goal they came to the site for.

Last up is probably the most complicated portion of the survey but also the very best part too. The "purpose" distribution helps us tell "why" a visitor came and if it was successful visit. Not only based on our predefined purposes/goals but also allowing for the user to define their own.

Although the free version is lacking in exporting tools for the data a little time on ones part and all the collected qualitative data can be pulled out in a usable form. After we get all the data pulled out we can run it through a Tag Cloud generator like www.tagcrowd.com and start learning what is really important to our visitors.

Update: Sarah-Jane Morris, Marketing Manager at 4Q/iPerceptions pointed out that there is a new data export feature available in the 4Q Survey results section.

Below we see the top user defined purposes (for those completing their task) for September 2008. The top three are: scholarship, information, and alumni.

Also, we can see the top user defined purposes (for those not completing their task) for September 2008. The top three are: scholarship, information and alumni.

The above two clouds can defiantly help us to determine what is important to our site visitors and possibly what we should be promoting in the months ahead. Also the clouds can be generated for each of the specific purpose responses (open-ended comments collected).

All in all, this is a great tool for understanding "Why" a visitor is on your site and better yet if they are able to accomplish their goal/task. If you have not tried this tool out yet then I would strongly recommend it, as it has helped us learn that information "news and other" is very important to our visitors (but previously was at the bottom of our list).

"Why" not try it today!
http://4q.iperceptions.com

Get More by Tracking URL Redirects

Posted on 8:56 PM comments (3)
Labels: Analytics, Web

Well you've probably got a URL Redirect out there already, but are you tracking it? Why not? There is so much that you can learn and it can be quite simple, especially with Google Analytics and a little code.

The most common reason for a redirect is a "Short URL" this is merely turning a really long/confusing website address like www.dartmouth.edu/~alfund/ into something like www.dartmouthcollegefund.org. These are also known as a "Print URL" as they are much easier to "print" on publications or tell someone on the phone. Also a redirect can be used to help show partnerships with other programs like www.uclalumni.net/MasterCard.

Time to Start Tracking with Google Analytics:

Now that you have a redirect going to a page on your site and you are using Google Analytics, I recommend that you follow Karlyn's Fast Tip Friday: Google Analytics URL Builder. Also check out Kyle's Free Destination URL Builder and Tracking Tool. This is going to defiantly improve your knowledge on where they came from and what they accomplished.

Going one Step Further and Tracking External Links:

Wait we are not done yet; I've got one more URL Redirect type for you to track. How about we track those 'partnership' redirects. That is right we can and should track the www.uclalumni.net/MasterCard redirects so that we know what kind of traffic we are referring to our partners (albeit some will share that info). Since Google Analytics is not an option here we'll have to switch to the Server Pages as I mentioned in the Making URL Redirects 508 Compliant post.

<?php
//Tracking the User First
$mail_body = "Redirect: ".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']."\n".
"IP Address: ".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."\n".
"Date & Time: ".date("l, F, j, Y h:i:s A")."\n\n".
"Referer: ".$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];

mail("you@school.edu", "redirect name", $mail_body, "From: Redirects <redirect@school.edu>");

//Redirect the User Next
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://www.draftmotif.org");
?>

So there you have it now we can track all sorts of redirects both to our site and going to a partner site. Also, since I'm going to be writing a MySQL version of the above script soon if you've got tips, ideas or want a copy just let me know.

Now What? Stop and Think!

Having trouble thinking how you can put this to use (not a chance)? Before you print your next appeal or add a link like http://chancellor.uark.edu/13226.php to a magazine consider a "Short URL" and track it too. Got a TV advertisement running soon; why not track it and get a more accurate response rate. Also, visit Kyle's post on Using Redirectors for Offline Campaigns for a list of Offline Campaign Types.

Happy Tracking Everyone!

Making URL Redirects 508 Compliant

Posted on 8:00 PM comments (1)
Labels: 508 Compliance, Analytics, Web

So as you may well know I've been looking for an answer to the question on "How to Make URL Redirects 508 Compliant". The odd thing about it was that the answer was staring me right in the face to begin with.

To being with we first need to understand the 508 Compliancy priority 2 that we are actually discussing as the 508 Compliancy guide is really big and this is just one small part. This ironically also holds the key to our answer.

"7.5 Until user agents provide the ability to stop auto-redirect, do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead, configure the server to perform redirects. ~www.w3.gov"

In short the above states that URL Redirects cannot be done by the visitor's browser. That means that the HTML Meta Refresh & JavaScript options are out (don’t use them). However, it does say that you are permitted to use Server Level functions to perform URL Redirects. That leaves us with two options:

.htaccess redirects which can be done like so:

Redirect /OldDir/old.php http://site.com/NewDir/new.php
Redirect /link http://www.MerchantDomain.com/affil.cgi?12345

Pre-Executed Server Pages (ASP or PHP):

<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://http://site.com/NewDir/new.php");
?>

The last important thing to make sure is that your Redirects are giving back the right HTTP Request responses (aka the 404, 301 or 302 response). This will make all the difference in getting search engines to update your links.

If you'd like to see what Response Codes your links are giving out then I'd suggest using this Check Server Headers Tool by SeoConsultants.com. Keeping the number of responses low is always recommended; get to the page in one shoot don't redirect to a redirect.

So after the long and exhausting research we now have an answer. Yes, URL Redirects are able to be 508 Compliant and yours probably already are.

Understanding Google Analytics Benchmarking

Posted on 7:08 PM No Comments
Labels: Analytics, Google, Web

So you are sharing data and administration is asking you for all those amazing benchmarking reports that they were after. Well maybe we cannot answer all of their questions but there is still a lot of information available.

What can we learn from these new stats?
We will start by reporting what we can and look forward for more to come.

Selecting Date Range & Vertical Industry!

First off let’s make sure that we set the appropriate date range along with selecting a particular industry for comparison. Otherwise you will be looking at an even larger group of sites then you would probably want (all sites sharing data of a similar size).

You will notice that for Draft Motif we are comparing to the broad category of “Internet” but that will change as a better option becomes available and I change it.

Visits & Bounce Rate Benchmarks

Next up is the golden “Visits” which drives the benchmarking service along with the “Bounce Rate”. But what exactly does it tell is? Surprise I’m beating the benchmark... looks like my marketing efforts are working (hey you are reading this). Yet, it looks like my articles and site design is lacking since everyone leaves after reading the particular post.

Pageviews & Avg. Time on Site Benchmarks!

Then we come up to the “Pageviews” and the beloved “Avg. Time on Site” statistic, which helps continue the assessment that marketing is working but that maybe it’s not the right type of marketing. Then again people do tend to skim through information online. However, compared to the available data users are spending more time reading so I guess I’m doing good with my articles (let me know what you think in the comments below).

Pages/Visit & New Visits Benchmarks!

So now we come to the last currently available benchmark data the “Pages/Visit” and “New Visits”. Well assessment confirmed looks like my site is not doing to well at passing visitors from one article to the others. But at least it is grater than 1 page/visit. Also, compared to others my site has a greater new visits percentage but this is a good thing since my site is still so new. Hopefully, it will soon come to an even match (after all this is a resource site and return visitors are the goal) with a slightly positive percentage. Remember that for most sites (not portal/Facebook sites) 70% new is typical.

Keeping it in perspective!

The most important thing will be to remember the goals of the site and comparing with those in mind. After all the Admissions site will likely want more “New Visits” them an Alumni Association or the main University.

Last thing is putting the information to work!

That is right use the information to make changes and improve the site; review and repeat. What’s the point if you don’t act on what you learn? And don’t give me that the statistics were too small to matter – I’ll defer you back to the Adopting Google Analytics Benchmarking to prove that wrong.

Did you catch that it was learning in action and next I’ll be working on a related articles feature. Then it’s back to the drawing board for more/better marketing efforts.

Adopting Google Analytics Benchmarking

Posted on 5:03 PM No Comments
Labels: Analytics, Google, Web

Well, if you haven’t heard yet Google Analytics has launched a much needed new feature called “Benchmarking”. The feature is designed to allow site administrators to compare their site to that of the industry verticals (a least as Google sees them).

Understanding Google Analytics Benchmarking

First things first let’s persuade administration that they don’t have to fear the new benchmarking service. The following comes from the FAQs on Google and answers administration top questions:

What does it mean to share my Google Analytics data anonymously with Google and the benchmarking service?

If you only choose the anonymous data sharing option, Google will remove all identifiable information about your website, then combine that data with hundreds of other anonymous sites in comparable industries and report them in an aggregate form. Google will use this anonymous data to improve the products and services we provide you and enable benchmarking in your account.

Key point to notice is the anonymity of your site and the collective category combination. Therefore, no one would be able to directly compare University A to University B.

How many sites are in each category?

There are a minimum of 100 accounts in each benchmarking category. The number of actual websites can vary since a single account can contain multiple websites and we are always in the process of accepting more participants for our benchmarking service. Therefore, each category can have anywhere from 100 to hundreds of thousands of websites per category.

So basically you cannot do benchmarking comparisons unless there is at least 100 other sites (that assumes the minimum of one site per account – and I’ll tell you that I have more than one site in my account) to compare against.

How do I choose which industry vertical to compare my site against?

To change the industry vertical you want to compare your site against, navigate to the category picker from the Benchmark report.

Yes, although you might be in the Educational industry you can compare to other vertical industries of “sites of similar size”. Although, I’m not sure what good it would do.

What does "sites of similar size" mean?

Based on the number of visits each site receives, sites of similar sizes are grouped together under three classifications: small, medium, and large. This way, you can compare yourself to other similarly sized sites. You are not able to view benchmarking data for sites in other size classifications.

Well there has to be some limitations in beta! So now we come to the first and biggest down side – we cannot compare to “larger or smaller” sites currently. At least we have something to look forward to.

Why does my benchmarking data appear to refresh over time?

We regularly adjust the benchmarking data to help ensure that it is representative of participating sites and relevant for its users. Some of the factors we take into account when we reclassify the data are changes in the site's content and number of visits. We group sites with other similarly sized and categorized sites, so we check the latest number of visitors for each site to adjust the benchmarking data accordingly.

Benchmarking data is also affected by the number of sites that opt in to the service over time. As more sites participate, a wider variety of categories is available for you to compare your site against.

All in all Google plans to make this service grow and improve over time. This leads to the last question...

How much does Google Analytics cost?

Google Analytics is absolutely free! We're very pleased to be able to offer this web analytics solution for no charge, allowing anyone with a website to track conversion data, analyze the flow of visitors through their site, and identify elements of their site that could be changed to improve visitor retention.

This free version is limited to 5 million pageviews a month - however, users with an active Google AdWords account are given unlimited pageview tracking. In addition, Google Analytics is completely integrated into the AdWords front-end and with your AdWords campaign, making it easy to track your AdWords ROI.

So why do I suggest the free version? Well when you think about it if you are actually getting over 5 million pageviews a month then you probably already have a good marketing mix and if it doesn’t include AdWords why not just add it. Plus the free hosted version offers faster updates and less recourse (staff & server) on your part.

I’ve got administration behind me; what next?
Understanding Google Analytics Benchmarking

Mastering Google Webmaster Tools

Posted on 8:10 PM No Comments
Labels: Analytics, Google, Web

So you’ve probably heard about some of the amazing new tools that Google has setup for webmasters to improve sites. No! Well check them out and let me show you some simple tricks to get the most out of the tools.

In less then five minutes and one simple Meta tag you can get access to see your site the way Google does.

Automatically inform Google when you update your pages: Google Webmaster Tools provide you with detailed reports about your pages' visibility on Google. To get started, simply add and verify your site, and you'll start to see information right away.

Discover your links and see how users are reaching your site: View, classify, and download comprehensive data about internal and external links to your site with our new link reporting tools.

Enhance and increase traffic to your site: Learn which queries drive traffic to your site, and see exactly how users arrive there.

Find out more about the cool tools and get started at http://www.google.com/webmasters/start/.

So let’s start the Tricks!

Well if you are like me you’ve added your primary site like http://www.arkalum.org to your dashboard and maybe even a few of the other sites that you work on. But, have you considered adding your sites subsections?

Most sites these days have grown past the basic home page or main site URL and include things like http://arkalum.org/scholarships or maybe you use sub domains like http://scholarships.uark.edu and I’m just guessing but I’d bet you do direct targeted promos to those sections too. So let’s track how well those sections are doing.

That’s right, you can track the subsections of your sites and the best part is you’ve already done all the hard work. Remember that Meta tag? The one Meta tag works for the entire site domain including the subsections. Just go to your dashboard and add the subsection URL and verify with the Meta tag option and you’re done; nothing more to do besides read and learn great marketing secrets from Google.

Why bother; how is Google’s data going to help me?

The more you know the better you can promote your company. Let’s look at the searches "queries" on Google that actually lead to site visits.

http://www.arkalum.org

http://www.arkalum.org/benefits

From the first option we learn that our main site is doing good for the overall goal of “Arkansas Alumni” and overall for the organization. However, the subsection report tells is something a little more important. No! Its not that the magazine is the best benefit the company has.

Rather, this report tells us that the “Arkansas Magazine” is seen as a valuable publication that the company produces. As a matter of fact it shows us that there is enough interest out there that prospective readers are searching for it by name. Name recognition is one of the best things for any product or company.

These reports along with the many others, offer webmasters and marketers great insights on site visitors and potential customers. Use them wisely!

Draft Motif

More About Me...

What it’s all about…

4Q Survey Helps Answer Why Visitors Come

Get More by Tracking URL Redirects

Making URL Redirects 508 Compliant

Understanding Google Analytics Benchmarking

Adopting Google Analytics Benchmarking

Mastering Google Webmaster Tools

MYCATEGORIES

MYTWEETS