Analyzing Website Behavior

So you have a website...
That’s nice.

But what good is a website if
you don’t care who visits it?

Nice to meet
you!
Your new
best friend:
Google
Analytics
https://analytics.google.com

What it does:
Tells you WHO, WHERE, WHAT, WHEN.
Who is looking at your site?
When are they looking?
Where are they looking from?
What site did they visit immediately before?
How much time did they spend on your site?
How many links did they click?

What you see:

Why check analytics?
• To know if you’re reaching people
• To know who you’re reaching
• To know what people are actually reading on the
site
• To know how people got to the site (google search,
direct, link from another site, etc)
• To know what’s NOT working and make changes

Two Types of Websites with
Different Analytics Goals
Company Page
What: your official website
Goal: Spread information
about the company
Landing Page
What: the page an online ad
links to
Goal: Give people a way to
become customers

Things to Think About:
1. website usability
2. traffic sources
3. visitor profiles
4. conversion statistics
- Pageviews
- Time on Site
- Behavior Flow (Click Path)
- Referral Websites
- Search Engines
- Online Campaigns
- Keywords
- Time of Day
- New Visitors
- Returning Visitors
- Conversions
- Goals

1. Website Usability:
How easy is it to find something on your website?

Pageviews
What: a general indicator of demand for /
popularity of pages within your website

Time on Site / Bounce Rate
What it means: high bounce rate (percentage)
may mean people aren’t finding what they want on
your page
It matters because: by comparing bounce rates for
different pages, you can see what’s working and
what’s not
Why you should care: if people don’t find what
they are looking for, they may not ever return to
your site

Behavior Flow (Click Path)

2. Traffic Sources:
How are people getting to your site?

Referral Websites
What it means: other bloggers and websites
respect you and your content enough to talk
about and link to you.
It matters because: Your influence is reaching
into other sites.
Why you should care: Visitors from other
blogs and websites similar to yours are the
ones most likely to subscribe to your feed,
comment on your posts, or become repeat
visitors in the future

Search Engines
What it means: High % of search engine traffic means you’re acquiring new readers
on a regular basis interested in topics you cover
It matters because: Search engines tend to be a consistent source of traffic over the
long term, and provide an indicator of the trust level of your website.

Direct
What it means: your web address is
memorable enough for someone to
type directly into the web browser
It matters because: increasing direct
traffic could mean you have gained
more loyal, repeat customers

Online Campaign
What it means: You are
running a paid advertising
campaign with multiple ads
It matters because: You can
see how well your landing
page matches your campaign
ads. High bounce rate means
people aren’t finding what
they want when they click
your ad

MUST DO: URL TAGGING
Can help you identify
which campaign’s ad
your visitor is coming
from

3. Visitor Profiles:
Who uses your site?

Keywords
What: People are clicking on your site after
searching for specific keywords
It matters because: make sure the keywords in
the report are associated in some way with what
your company does/offers.

Time of Day
What it means: People are
coming to your site more
during certain hours
It matters because: you
want to update your
content at times when
people will be looking at it

4. Conversion Statistics:
How many people come back again and again?

New Visitors / Returning
Visitors
What: a comparison of new (firsttime) visitors to return visitors
It matters because: knowing the
habits of your site visitors (new vs.
returning) can help you better plan &
target future marketing campaigns
If you aren’t getting any new visitors,
its time to increase your outreach!

Define Goals!
Goals are a
versatile way to
measure how well
your site or app
fulfills your target
objectives

Conversions
What: tracking customer
actions (i.e. signing up for
a newsletter or making a
purchase)
It matters because:
knowing where most
conversions originated
means you can focus on
those channels for future
marketing, etc.

Conversions for ROI Tracking