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Initial audit

An organic approach to web analytics may begin with an audit of an existing web analytics solution. An audit would flag any trends, strengths or weaknesses helping to define the direction for further investigation into areas that stand out. An audit would also identify any metrics that are missing and should be included. However, as most analytic solutions provide dozens of analyses and reports and choosing only the metrics to provide suitable measurement over the site would be driven by the overall website objectives and goals.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts" -

If the site does not have a analytics solution in place see Choosing a web analytics solution, otherwise see Putting together a web analytics brief.

First and foremost: What do you want to get from an analytics solution?

What are the objectives of the site?

• Ecommerce (objective is to increase sales.... measure overall sales, sales per visitor, average order value, sales by campaign, conversion rates, conversion funnels, abandonment, cost per visitor, % new visitors, ratio of new to returning visitors, page "stickiness")
  
• Content (objective is to increase readership, level of interest, time spent on site.... measure visit length, page views, number of subscribers, length of visit, average page views, heavy user share, percent returning visitors)
  
• Lead generation (objective is to increase and segment leads.... measure time spent on site, opt-ins, conversion rates, conversion funnels, ratio of leads to close, % new visitors, length of visit, ratio of new to returning visitors, page "stickiness", % of visits by entry page)
  
• Self service (increase customer satisfaction... measure as above)
  

Define key performance indicators across the site

KPIs are quantitative measurements that help measure progress toward objectives and goals. Expressed as counts or ratios, comparing KPIs with defined web goals would provide a sense of a websites performance. KPIs that are below target would act as early warning signals to suggest areas that need improving.

KPIs can not come from the bottom up - Management should always participate toward defining what the KPIs are.

Example KPIs

• volume of online sales
• form submissions, newsletters, etc.
• number of downloads, documents, applications, etc.
• registrations, new accounts, etc.
• enquiries via online, customer services, tickets, etc.

Basic traffic overview

• Visitors
• New/ returning 
• Frequency of visit
  
• Unique visitors
• See the number of different people which viewed your web site during any given period.
• Identify anomalies - such as hosting problems.
• See when peak/off-peak times are - know when to make changes to your page.
• See recent traffic patterns and how promotions are affecting unique visitors to your site.
  

• Visits
• Avg per day
• Avg visit length (on a page/ overall on a site. Time how long it takes to complete an action to define your KPI base)
• Time on site
  

• Pages
• Page views
• Avg page view per day
• Avg page view per unique visitor
• Document views
  
• Top pages
• Bounce rates (for key pages), For example home page (No. of one time visits to home pages / number of visits beginning on home page)
  

Acquisitions

• Source
• Direct traffic (typing in a url, bookmarks, traditional adv response)
  
• Referrals (by knowing what external pages are directly linking to you, you can determine the best ones to place advertising or focus your SEM link building)
  
• Search (what keyword phrases are bringing the most clicks and conversions)
  
• Organic
• Pay per click
  
• Campaigns (is this configured?)
• Banners
• Affiliate schemes
• Emails
• Acquisition marketing costs
• Cost per lead (is this configured?)
• Cost per order (is this configured?)

• Navigation analysis
  
• If visitors leave campaign focused pages, where do they go? are there content groups or products that interested them?
  

Conversions

A measure of users performing a desired action. For example purchases, registrations, downloads.

• No. of downloads
  
• No. lead conversions
• No. order conversions
• Visitors per conversion, lead or order (how many visitors does it take for your website to achieve it's goal?)
• Conversion rate (% conversions/ unique visits)
• Conversions from campaigns
• Conversions from new visitors
• Conversions from returning visitors
• Conversions from first time customers
• Conversions from repeat visitors
• Funnel conversions (is this configured?)
  
• Abandonment rate (is this configured?)
• Also see navigation analysis
  

Tips...
filter by new and returning visitors to compare what they do


Retention ("site stickiness")

• Popular pages
• Duration on site
• Time of day/ day of week/ etc., on site

ROI

• Revenue from campaigns
• Revenue from new visitors
• Revenue from returning visitors
• Revenue from first time customers
• Revenue from repeat visitors
• Revenue per visit
• Revenue per visitor
• Average order value
• Average number of items per purchase

Navigation analysis ("user journey's")

Before a site is built the design phase would incorporate various disciplines such as human psychology, scenario design, usability testing, information architecture, etc., to create an optimized navigation of site pages. After the site has been built web analytics can be used to identify what drives users to navigate a path or where blockages might be within a site that could hinder the completion of a goal.

• Pages viewed
• Links clicked on
• Paths taken
• Business scenarios completed or abandoned

Navigation analysis can be broken down to five key areas

Popular content

• Top viewed pages (identifies most popular content)
• Top entry pages (First page of a users visit. can give you an idea on how to optimize the architecture of your site and internal links based on where visitors are entering).
• Top content groups/ sub content groups (highlights content interests by grouping related pages.)

Questions answered...

• Are there particular pages visitors are gravitating toward that were not expected?
• Is there an opportunity to reorder, re-prioritize or remove under-utilized pages?
• How much time do users spend viewing my core content?

Black hole content

• Single page visits (the only page viewed during a visit to the site. Did the page load too slowly? where they overwhelmed by information? did they arrive at the wrong site? Compare single page visits by new or returning visitors. Compare single page visits with top exit pages to identify the pages with the most concern).
  
• Top exit pages (highlights where users are dropping from your website by the pages that they exist)
• Exit ratio (%... the number of exits divided by the number of views... measure Top Exit Pages against Top Pages)

Questions answered...

• From which content do visitors mostly leave?
• Is there something about the page that encourages them to leave?
• What pages cause the most single page visits?
• Can these pages be redesigned to prevent this?
• Do new visitors have accurate perceptions about what the page offers?
• Are search engine links/ ads giving the correct impression?
• Is your unique values proposition clearly explained on top single page visits?
  

Page performance

• Overlays (can provide link analysis of a page by visually displaying a measurement of each design element users click on, such as a link, graphic, button).

Questions answered...

• What links are the most popular on my page?

Path performance

• Top paths (most popular paths)
  
• Forward paths (paths from a specific page)
  
• Reverse paths (paths to a specific page)
• Single level paths, forward and reverse (identifies pages most commonly viewed immediately before and after a specific page. or otherwise previous and next pages)
• Content path analysis (how users move through sections of the site. )

Questions answered...

• What are most common paths traveled through the site?
• Is my site architecture leading visitors to my core destination pages?
• How many pages does a visitor typically view before reaching a destination page?
• Are there unnecessary steps that I am asking my visitors to take in reaching a destination page?

Business scenario performance

• Scenario analysis/ conversion funnels (scenarios that have been configured to represent steps users take to complete a goal or objective.)

Questions answered...

• For my given scenario, how do users typically get there? Are they coming in through relevant marketing campaigns?
• What percentage of my users make it through the conversion process?
• Is my conversion rate higher for certain products or campaigns?

KPI's can be measured against,

• Targets
• benchmarks