Google Analytics for Higher Ed: #heweb2010

Seth Meranda
User Experience Architect, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Associate Consultant, Noel-Levitz
1

Analysis and synthesis ordinarily clarify matters for us about as
much as taking a Swiss watch apart and dumping its wheels,
springs, hands, threads, pivots, screws and gears into a layman's
hands for reassembling, clarifies a watch to a layman.
Author Unknown
2

Answers to difficult questions
What do people do on
my site?
How well are my
marketing campaigns
performing?
Where are people
coming from?
How do people find my
site?
Is my website driving
people away?
Do I have what
people are looking
for on my site?
3

my site?
How well are my
marketing campaigns
performing?
Where are people
coming from?
site?
people away?
Do I have what
people are looking
for on my site?
who?
3

my site?
How well are my
marketing campaigns
performing?
Where are people
coming from?
site?
people away?
Do I have what
people are looking
for on my site?
who?
what?
3

my site?
How well are my
marketing campaigns
performing?
Where are people
coming from?
site?
people away?
Do I have what
people are looking
for on my site?
who?
what?
how?
3

my site?
How well are my
marketing campaigns
performing?
Where are people
coming from?
site?
people away?
Do I have what
people are looking
for on my site?
who?
what?
how?
when?
3

my site?
How well are my
marketing campaigns
performing?
Where are people
coming from?
site?
people away?
Do I have what
people are looking
for on my site?
who?
what?
how?
when?
where?
3

Image credit: http://www.imbimp.com/2009/03/google-analytics-dashboard-cake/
4

"The goal of XXXX.edu is to
effectively provide targeted,
timely, and consumable
content related to academics,
research and service for
prospective and current
students, faculty, staff, and
alumni, which is intended to
present the University as
a prestigious, welcoming and
valuable asset to the
community."
7

“The goal of the
Undergraduate Admissions
ofﬁce website is to provide
clear and concise content to
prospective students and
their parents regarding the
academic and student life
opportunities at our institution
as well as to provide simple
ways to join our community
through online registrations,
applications and social
networks.”
7

TextText
http://go.unl.edu/dov
9

Installing
www.gasitescan.com
10

Pageviews
Pageviews: # of times page was loaded.
Unique pageviews: Number of sessions
during which a page was viewed one or
more times
15

Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate: Rate of visitors that leave
after visiting only one page
16

Time on Page
Time on Page: Page 2 Timestamp - Page
1 Timestamp (bounces & exits = 0)
Average Time on Page: Total Time on
Page/All Visits (excludes bounces & exits)
17

Time on Page
The problem with averages.
18

Time on Site
Time on Site: Sum of time on pages during a
session
Average Time on Site: Total Time on Site/All
Visits (includes bounces)
19

Time on Site
Remember, averages hide what is really going on!
20

Landing Page
Landing Page: First page visited
21

Visitors
New Visitor: User of site who has NOT
visited in the past.
Returning Visitor: User of site who has
visited in the past.
22

Profiles
Account
Proﬁles
Reports
25

Profiles
Set of rules that define the reports available
View reports on custom data elements
Segment External Traffic
‣ Setup filters to exclude on-campus IP addresses
Control report access
‣ Grant privileges for certain users
26

Filters
Modify data and customize reports
Popular uses for filters:
Removing internal traffic
Tracking specific marketing campaigns
Clean up data
Segmentation
28

Reporting Usage
Objectives
deﬁne
Reports
30

Benchmarking
Compare to other Universities
Benchmarking > Law & Government > Education > Colleges & Universities
32

Keywords
Analyze the non-branded keywords for new insights
35

Keywords
Analyze the non-branded keywords for new insights
# Visits w/ Branded Keywords + Direct Visits
Total Visits from Search + Total Direct Visits
% Brand Engagement
source: Brian Clifton, Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
35

Realignment (redesign)?
Browsers
Screen size
Connection Speed
Site search usage
Navigation paths
36

Beyond the basics
Annotations
Goals
Pivot Table Reporting
Weighted Sorting
Analytics Intelligence
38

Goals
Track strategic initiatives
Control leaks prohibiting
conversions
Reverse Goal Path
41

% Goal Conversions from X
% Visits from X
Conversion Quality Index
source: Brian Clifton, Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
44

Pivot Reporting?
Instead of a section for this, let’s show how a pivot report is useful.
45

Subdomains
1. Change Javascript Code
2. Setup profiles with filters
3. Understand advantages & limitations
51

Subdomains
Change Javascript code
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1']); //replace with your
unique tracker id
_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.unl.edu']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
52

Subdomains
Setup profiles with filters
53

Subdomains
Understand advantages and limitations
54

Subdomains
Accurate Request URI
54

Subdomains
Accurate Request URI
Site Overlay broken
54

Multiple trackers
The best way to track multiple sites!
55

Multiple trackers
1. Create a Google Account for each site
2. Customize the Tracking Code on each page
3. Create a “Rollup” account
56

Multiple trackers
Customize the Tracking Code on each site
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1']);
57

Multiple trackers
Customize the Tracking Code on each site
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1']);
_gaq.push(['site2._setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1']);
_gaq.push(['site2._setDomainName', '.unl.edu']);
_gaq.push(['site2._trackPageview']);
57

Multiple trackers
Create a “Rollup” account
One account to rule them all
58

Campaigns
Track success of marketing initiatives by tracking inbound requests
Emails, Twitter, Facebook, Ads
Link “tagging”
Campaign Source (newsletter)
Campaign Medium (email)
Campaign Term (march)
Campaign Content (academic calendar)
Campaign Name (parent communication)
http://events.unl.edu/?
utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=march&utm_conten
t=academic%2Bcalendar&utm_campaign=parent%2Bcommunication
59

Shorten URLs
http://go.unl.edu/
http://go.unl.edu/source
60

Custom Variables
Audience Type with Login
_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, ‘Primary Affiliation’, ‘Student’, 1]);
61

Track downloads/external links
<a href="#" onClick="_gaq.push
([‘_trackPageview’,‘downloads/’+this.href]);">Get our
parking map</a>
<a href="#" onClick="_gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’,
‘external/’+this.href]);">Get to another site</a>
62

Track the links to content
parking map</a>
62

Track the links to content
Track the links to external content
parking map</a>
62

Track 404 pages
_gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’, document.location.href + ‘from=?’ + document.referrer);
63

Tracking HTML5
http://go.unl.edu/trackhtml5inga
64

Tracking HTML5
<script type="text/javascript">
featuresToTrack = ['video','audio', 'geolocation' ]; //elements to track
(function(d, t) {
var s=d.createElement(t),x=d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
s.async=1;s.src='js/trackHTML5inGA.js';
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s,x);
})(document, 'script');
</script>
http://go.unl.edu/trackhtml5inga
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Detailed Reporting
From implementation to tracking
66

The Marketer’s Dream Report
68

Site Search
Users tell you what they are looking for!
Determine if content was found
Where do users start their search?
69

Segmentation
Available through two ways:
Custom Profiles
Advanced Segmentation
72

Segmentation
Examples
Visitor Type
Out-of-State
Campaign
User Role (Faculty, Staff, Student)
73

Event Tracking
Track 4 components:
Track Video Example:
_gaq.push([‘_trackEvent’, ‘Videos’, ‘completed’, ‘My Video
Name’, ‘240’]);
COMPONENT EXPLANATION
category The name you supply for the group of objects you want to track.
action
A string that is uniquely paired with each category, and commonly used to define the type of user
interaction for the web object.
label An optional string to provide additional dimensions to the event data.
value An integer that you can use to provide numerical data about the user event.
74

Event Tracking Example
<a href="#" onClick="_gaq.push([‘_trackEvent’, ‘Drawer’,
‘Open’, ‘american.edu/’]);">Open Drawer</a>
75

Event Tracking Use Cases
Videos
Play
Complete
Close
File Downloads
External Links
AJAX Content
76

Custom Reports
Analyze data in non-standard way
77

Discussions
Seth Meranda (UNL, Noel-Levitz)
smeranda2@unl.edu, seth@meranda.org
@smeranda
http://higheredanalytics.com/ (Click on Blog)
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Google Analytics for Higher Ed: #heweb2010

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