Judy Njoroge
Reaction Paper 2
USING GOOGLE ANALYTICS FOR IMPROVING LIBRARY WEBSITE
CONTENT AND DESIGN: A CASE STUDY BY WEI FANG.
Introduction
This article reports on a case study on the application of Google Analytics
to improve the design and content of the Rutgers-Newark law Library (RNLL)
website to better fit its visitors’ needs. The objectives of the study were to: (a)
track the usage of the library main website, (b) track visitor’s behavior, (c)
determine the efficiency of the website menu system, (d) make suggestions for
improving user experiences, and (e) establish the most effective way to redesign
the website.
Fang (2007) adopts the definition of web analytics that had been coined by
Web Analytics Association in 2006 “as the measurement, collection, analysis and
reporting of internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing web
usage.” The Web Analytics Association changed its name to Digital Analytics
Association in 2012 “to account for the analyst's changing role of weaving
together data from multiple sources and channels” and now defines web analytics
as “the study of data collected exclusively on websites” (Digital Analytics
Association, 2012). Examples of web analytic tools include VisiStat, StatCounter,
ClickTracks, and Google Analytics.
1
Google Analytics was made available to the public in August 2006 as free
yet powerful utility to help improve website development. Once a Google account
holder signs up for a Google Analytics account, Google sends a confirmation
email and provides a code to be inserted into webpage to be tracked. The code has
to be inserted right before the </body> line in the HTML code of each page to be
analyzed. Tracking starts as soon as coded webpages are online although the
reports average a two hour delay.
Summary
The library took advantage of the following features of Google Analytics:
keyword comparisons across search engines to get insight into popular keywords
that brought visitors to RNLL’s website; visualized summaries to explain
complex data in a simple and easy to understand manner; trend reporting feature
to compare data from different date ranges before and after website redesign;
defined funnel navigation to find out how many users were following the path the
library had designed to reach a target page; content by titles to figure out what
content was attracting visitors; site overlay showing instance clicking to find out
if a link had been clicked and the number of clicks on each link; visitor
segmentation to find out the demographics of users e.g. country or region; and
data export feature.
By monitoring its website from July 29 to September 10, 2006, the library
realized that: 85% of visitors used high speed internet but 15% still used dail-up
2
or other low speed connections; 85% used the internet explorer and 11% used
Firefox; 55% used screen resolutions of 1024 x 768 and 21% of them used 800 x
600; the links on the right hand menu of the main website which took up about
20% of the webpage layout generated very few clicks; the research portals on the
left hand menu had fewer clicks than the library had anticipated; quick links such
as contact us , library hours all pointed to different portions of the same webpage;
and website visitors’ were drawn from all over the world but majority were from
the US.
Based on the findings, the library decide not to change the layout and style
of the website for example, it did not add more graphical content as some of the
visitors still used low internet connection speed. The following changes were
made: adding a most viewed items section to the right hand side menu to better
promote popular content that had been previously buried which could also help
retain first time visitors; developing a new section called “Other links of interest”
to further promote popular pages; and reorganization and reformatting of the
menu to better meet needs of visitors and librarians.
After the redesign, the traffic on most viewed items section increased,
popular pages were further promoted by their addition to the other links of interest
section, clicks to reorganized links increased, the number of new visitors and
return visitors increased while the number of visitors who visited the website only
once decreased. The library therefore concluded that its website visitors were
3
satisfied by the new design which was achieved with the help of Google
Analytics. The library also plans to use Google Analytics to track catalog visitors
and to redesign NJDLL website.
Discussion/analysis
The library resulted to use of web analytics as a method of analyzing web
traffic and usability because the previous methods the library had utilized had
many limitations. In contrast paper based and online surveys web analytics
offered the library the following advantages: no location based limitations
inherent in paper based surveys; high accuracy of data representing events as they
actually occurred; data is collected automatically so no need to worry about
wording of questions which could affect results; some are free e.g. Google
analytics therefore relatively in expensive for libraries; software installation is
relatively easy e.g. in Google Analytics just pasting the tracking code in each
webpage in the source code; few resources required to gather data; it can capture
user technical and demographic information e.g. browser, operating system,
screens size, resolution, navigation paths, and so on. Another advantages of web
analytics Fang (2007) fails to mention is that because recording of transaction
data occurs in the background, data capture is unobtrusive and therefore more
objective in representing user behavior (Wildemuth, 2009).
Fang also fails to mention several limitations of web analytics including:
failure to collect contextual data in which the events occurred e.g. motives,
4
intentions, and satisfaction or dissatisfaction; difficulty in distinguishing
individual system users as specific identifying information cannot be collected;
unobtrusiveness raises concern of ethical issues associated with collecting data
without informing participants (Wildemuth, 2009).
I was surprised that the library did not solicit any users’ input in
redesigning the website and only mentions involving the digital services librarian,
the reference librarians and library administrators (p.10). Both faculty and
students would have provided useful insight on improvements.
I also had trouble believing that the use of Google analytics could by itself
support the hypothesis that “reorganizing and reformatting the menu would better
meet the needs of visitors and librarians” (p. 14). Just because clicks to links
increased doesn’t necessarily mean the users were satisfied with the content the
links contained. The library would more authoritatively come to this conclusion if
they had interviewed or surveyed users after redesigning the website.
Conclusion and recommendations
In this electronic age library websites are an important portal through
which access to the library is gained not only by its targeted users but by the
whole world in general. As Turner (2010) states for many libraries, the balance
between their physical facilities and virtual presence leans more toward more
access through the web as majority of library resources are electronic. It is
therefore important for libraries to be able to demonstrate to the funders that the
5
resources they have invested heavily in are actually being used and this can be
achieved through an understanding of user behaviors realized through application
of web analytics such as Goggle Analytics.
Based on the valuable insights that the RNLL got from utilizing Google
Analytics and also due to the fact that it is free, I see why this web analytics
software is popular with libraries. However the issue of privacy which this article
pays little attention to is an important consideration for libraries so as not to
infringe on the rights of library users. One way in which libraries using Google
analytics can protect users’ privacy is by obscuring the final octet of the user’s IP
address using a method available in Google Analytics tracking script (Loftus,
2012). Libraries can also to set up their computers to erase all browser cookies
with each reboot. These two options will make the percentage of new users seem
much higher than it is in actuality disrupting an accurate tally of unique visits.
The librarians will therefore have to decide what they can compromise depending
on the kind of data they need to collect. Most libraries just inserting disclaimers
so that visitors know the website is being monitored.
References
Digital Analytics Association. (2012). About us. Retrieved from
http://www.digitalanalyticsassociation.org/?page=aboutus
6
Fang, W. (2007). Using Google Analytics for improving library website content
and design: A case study. Library Philosophy and Practice, LPP special
issue on libraries and Google.
Loftus, W. (2012). Demonstrating success: Web analytics and continuous
improvement. Journal of Web Librarianship, 6(1), 45-55.
Turner, S. (2010). Website statistics 2.0: Using Google Analytics to measure
library website effectiveness. Technical Services Quarterly, 27 (3), 261278.
Wildemuth, B. M. (2009). Applications of social research methods to questions in
information and library science. West Port, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
7