Web Analytics
MBA 590
Spring 2016
Introduction
• Syllabus
• Course content
• Attendance
• Grading
• Groups
One-Slide Course Summary
•
•
An online presence is indispensable for businesses
of all sizes
Websites enable two-way information flows:
•
•
•
A means for customers, employees, business partners
to obtain information and services
Businesses gather data about activity on their site and
draw implications from it
Web analytics is the set of tools and methodologies
businesses use to learn about their website traffic
The Role of Websites in Business
•
Multiple functions:
•
•
•
•
•
Convenient for most customers
•
•
•
•
Automating routine business activities
Enable transactions
Inform customers about products
Inform businesses about actual and potential customers
No travel, available 24 hours a day
Site search capabilities
Facilitates price comparisons
More informative for businesses:
•
•
Can gather data unavailable to physical stores
Examples?
Basic Website Design
•
•
•
•
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
Links
Content:
•
•
•
•
Text
Images
Videos
Interactive (registration, polls, etc.)
What is Web Analytics?
•
Studying patterns in Web traffic
•
•
•
•
•
Who’s visiting my site?
Where are they coming from?
What are they doing?
Can be measured at every page of a site and every stage of a
purchase process
Linking demographics and behaviors allows:
•
•
•
Assessing website performance over time
Identifying opportunities and shortfalls
Devising and refining business strategies
Evolution of Web Analytics
•
•
•
•
•
•
1995: Focus on page hits, search engines relatively
primitive
1998: Google starts selling search terms
2000:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyEGgbrJBw
2005: Google Analytics released
2008+: Explosive growth in smartphone use has
driven tracking mobile users
2014+: Shift from Web access to proprietary apps
Terminology
http://www.epower.com/google-analyticsglossary.php
Visitor and Visits
•
Visitor: A person who visits your site
•
•
•
•
•
Cookies are used to establish visitor histories but may be blocked
or deleted
Visitor session: The time a visitor stays on your site
Visit: Each time your site is visited
•
•
•
New visitor: Visiting the site for the first time (maybe)
Returning visitor: Is known to have already visited the site
Users may view multiple pages during a visitor session
Different from page hits
One user may visit the same site using multiple devices and
appear to be different users
Channel
• Channel: How visitors get to your site:
•
•
•
Search engines
Referrals from other sites
Direct: typing in a URL or linking from a user’s
own favorite sites entry
• Transactions are commonly attributed to the
immediately preceding source
• The relationship between sources and purchases
is not always clear
Goals and Conversions
• Goal: Something you want your visitors to do
when they visit your site:
•
•
•
•
Purchase products
Download files
Watch videos
Click on links
• Conversion: When a goal is reached
• Goal conversion rate: What fraction of visits
result in that goal being achieved
Funnel
•
•
•
Funnel: Series of steps a visitor must follow to reach
a goal
Typically involve at least two pages: Find a product,
then check out
Tracked to see where visitors leave the site:
•
•
•
•
Many will likely leave at the initial page
After reading product description (if browsing or not
yet ready to buy)
Sticker shock
Poor site design
Bounce
•
•
Bounce: When a visitor only sees one page of your site before
leaving
May indicate:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Your site does not meet the visitor’s needs
The visitor found exactly what was needed
The visitor continued directly to external link
Misaligned visitor tracking across pages
Can be reduced by better ad targeting, internal links
Typical bounce rates vary by category, e.g.:
•
•
Often over 80% for blogs
Around 30% for retail
Branches of Web Analytics
• On-site tools track:
•
•
•
Visitor sessions
Traffic sources
Goal conversions
• Off-site tools track:
•
•
•
Comparisons across competitors
Potential audience
Buzz
Why is Web Analytics Important?
• Maintaining a significant online presence
can be expensive but is often vital
• Analytics supports better decisions about
how to spend limited funds wisely:
•
•
•
Ad rates
How much to pay per click?
More generally, estimating value of any
marketing campaign
Why is Web Analytics Important?
• Case 1: Bausch & Lomb
• http://www.thenetimpact.com/webanalytics-case-study-bausch-andlomb.aspx
Why is Web Analytics Important?
• Case 2: Sensient Food Colors
• http://www.thenetimpact.com/webanalytics-case-study-sensient.aspx
What Can Web Analytics Do?
•
•
•
•
Gather customer data
Help quickly identify site errors
Measure results of system changes
But:
•
•
Data is often ambiguous
Web analytics technology can’t interpret the
data for you
Learning about Customers
•
•
•
Demographics
Product preferences
On-site activity:
•
•
•
•
Search patterns (internal and external)
Visitor paths and exits
Viewing site content
Link with transaction histories to estimate
value of visitor actions
Identify Problems
• Site Design:
• Bad links
• Inaccessible pages
• Product:
• Sticker shock
• Insufficient information
Measure Results
• Marketing efforts:
• Short-term: temporary discounts, isolated
major ads, being in the news
• Long-term: Partnerships, other channels
• Changes in site design
• Differential pricing (Amazon, 2000)
Web Analytics Methods
• Server logs:
•
•
Server-side model
Record all site activity and store it locally in a (very
large) logfile
• Page tags:
•
•
•
Client-side model
Collect data through JavaScript code on all pages
being tracked
Send data to remote servers
Server Logs
• Automatically collects all relevant data:
immune to tracking code failures
• Combines the entire history of all
visitors to the site
Page Tags
• Gathers data almost in real time
• Easier to learn user activities in detail
• Typically implemented as SaaS (Software as
a Service); outsources data management
• Requires users to have JavaScript enabled
and accept cookies
Project: Building Your Website
•
•
•
•
Create account at yola.com
Create pages
Create links
Generate web traffic
Create yola.com Account
•
•
•
•
Free
Mostly painless
Provides content management tools
Each yola.com site allows multiple pages
Create Pages
•
•
Please, only SFW content
Add some search terms, like:
•
•
•
Static content:
•
•
•
Your name
UIC, MBA 590, Analytics
Photos
Text
Interactive content:
•
•
•
Surveys
Comments
Shares
Create Links
• Plan your funnel
• Connect pages:
•
•
Within your site
To other student sites
• Add hyperlinks by:
•
•
Text widget
HTML code
Generate Web Traffic
•
•
•
•
•
Target: 500 hits, eventually
Help your friends!
E-mail, but avoid spamming!
Social media: facebook, twitter, etc.
Look for your site via search engines