Using metrics to improve website engagement
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Brad Smith presents on using metrics to increase website engagement. He discusses defining key metrics like visits, bounce rate, and exit rate to measure success. The Red Cross measures these using Google Analytics. Testing different page designs and calls to action can improve conversions. Internal search data shows what users search for and if they find relevant results.
Using metrics to improve website engagement
- 1. Using metrics to increase website engagement Brad Smith
- 3. Brad Smith - @bradman – Nearly 7 years at the Red Cross – Assistant digital media manager – Search engine optimisation/ pay per click specialist – Analytics expert – Manage our mobile apps – Bit of a geek
- 4. What I’ll cover – Defining your metrics – What we measure at the Red Cross – How we improve conversions – Top tips to take away
- 5. Preamble
- 6. Why metrics matter – You can measure your success – Tells you what’s working well – Tells you what’s working badly and if to stop – Helps you prioritise your workload – Helps you contribute to the big picture – Focusses your internal clients on what really matters – Helps you win friends and influence people
- 7. How we measure at the British Red Cross: Google Analytics
- 8. Google Analytics > Free statistics package > Tells us what our users are doing on the website, and where they’ve come from > Tells you see the popularity of our web pages > Informs us as to financial data (but not 100 per cent accurate) > Throws up the odd surprise
- 11. YOU MAY USE THIS BACKGROUND OR INSERT YOUR OWN PICTURE See notes on ‘View’ ‘Normal’ for instructions on changing pics. You may need to expand the notes window to see them fully, especially if you are on Office 03. You’ll find this template easier to use if the view is set to ‘Fit to Window’.
- 16. Ideas for use > Get a yardstick of what users want > Prioritise work on particular projects – find out what needs promotion and what doesn’t > Find out which of your pages are most popular > Measure the impact of your work!
- 19. Some ideas…
- 20. Website visits
- 21. Website visits > Simple, but effective > You’ll hopefully see an uplift over time > Don’t forget to measure desktop vs mobile
- 23. Bounce rate
- 24. Bounce rate > For any given page, indicates how many people are bouncing straight off your page > High number (> site average) could indicate people less engaged > Low number (< site average) could indicate people more engaged
- 25. But look at bounce rate in conjunction with other stats.. > Low bounce rate and high exit rate means people are leaving your site at this point. > High bounce rate + clear call to action may mean the user has found what they’re looking for.
- 26. Some examples… Unique Avg. Pagevie Time on Entrance Bounce Page Title Pageviews ws Page s Rate % Exit Test your first aid skills | First aid tips from the British Red Cross #quizResults 1572 1257 82.45 1 100.00% 38.74% Emotional support for someone who is distressed or upset teacher briefing 948 885 250.20 840 92.62% 89.03% Ride London 100 | British Red Cross 506 475 146.19 388 91.75% 79.05% The social model of disability teacher briefing citizenship 726 646 282.91 612 89.87% 85.40% As easy as alfa bravo charlie citzenship lesson resource nato phonetic alphabet quick activity 596 538 137.90 438 88.13% 72.32% Greater Manchester Marathon 2013 | British Red Cross 917 837 148.36 768 87.76% 79.72% First aid and whisky - British Red Cross blog 707 609 71.84 609 86.70% 86.14% Road safety activities based on the shared space approach to Exhibition Road in London 560 521 224.15 504 86.11% 86.79% Vomiting and diarrhoea | First aid tips from the British Red Cross 561 504 83.08 104 83.65% 28.88% Sponsored silence | British Red Cross 534 465 91.13 431 82.13% 76.78% Pupil, Citizen, Life-saver | Support the British Red Cross campaign | Step 2 1555 1457 134.75 11 81.82% 74.73%
- 30. Exit rate
- 31. Exit rate > Tells you the pages where people are leaving your site most > …but you need to review it in context. > Are visitors at a natural exit point? > If not, tell them what you want them to do!
- 32. Exit rate Emotional support for someone who is distressed or upset teacher briefing 948 885 250.20 840 92.62% 89.03% Road safety activities based on the shared space approach to Exhibition Road in London 560 521 224.15 504 86.11% 86.79% First aid and whisky - British Red Cross blog 707 609 71.84 609 86.70% 86.14% The social model of disability teacher briefing citizenship 726 646 282.91 612 89.87% 85.40% Letters home from a First World War nurse - British Red Cross blog 651 539 270.04 537 79.52% 82.33% Greater Manchester Marathon 2013 | British Red Cross 917 837 148.36 768 87.76% 79.72% Ride London 100 | British Red Cross 506 475 146.19 388 91.75% 79.05% Road safety worksheets | British Red Cross 712 597 854.26 586 25.94% 76.83% Sponsored silence | British Red Cross 534 465 91.13 431 82.13% 76.78% Earthquake and tsunami in Japan: lesson plan and teaching activities for schools 784 668 273.10 602 77.91% 76.40% Mobile phone recycling | British Red Cross 1448 1167 256.51 1096 57.12% 75.14% Pupil, Citizen, Life-saver | Support the British Red Cross campaign | Step 2 1555 1457 134.75 11 81.82% 74.73% In figures: east Africa one year on | In figures 2811 2599 308.38 2126 21.50% 73.39% RedRoom and Redmail | British Red Cross 16501 12969 332.09 10489 20.14% 72.36%
- 33. What you should do > Put a call to action on the page if there’s not one there – e.g. sign up for an alternative event > Alter the design/ make calls to action more prominent > A/B test alternative layouts for increased conversions
- 34. Website speed
- 35. Why it matters > Big search ranking factor > Visitors don’t hang around – you have seconds to impress them > Slow sites don’t lead to conversions
- 37. Conversion rate
- 38. Small gains make a big difference > Increasing a conversion rate of 2 per cent by just 0.1 per cent could mean £100,000s > Use A/B testing to measure what works for you and optimise accordingly
- 40. A/B testing ideas > Call to action on left of page vs right > Single page form vs multiple page form > Red button vs black button > One version of copy vs another > One image or another
- 44. ClickTale > Professional usability tool > Tracks mouse moves, mouse clicks and more > Can also tell you what fields are causing users to drop out of forms
- 47. Internal search
- 48. Do you know what your users are searching for on your site? > If not, it’s dead simple to set up in Google Analytics > High results page view per search figure, that could mean users aren’t finding what they’re looking for > If users use search from a landing page a lot, they’re not finding what they’re looking for
- 49. Page views per search > Indicates how many search results pages users are viewing to find the result they’re looking for > Look at your most searched for items, and check whether they’re showing up in the search results or not.
- 50. Search depth > Tells you how many pages users looked at after searching > Consider in conjunction with other metrics.
- 51. Look at what users want! > If they’re struggling to find something, write some content and link to it prominently. > Tell your marketing teams what users are searching for digital marketing campaign purposes
- 52. Some examples… Total % Search Time Unique Refineme after Search Search Term Searches Results Pageviews / Search % Search Exits nts Search Depth poster 7 3.71 42.86% 11.54% 307.29 3.14 donation 6 3.33 16.67% 20.00% 896.00 9.83 poppies 11 3.09 0.00% 5.88% 635.00 5.45 olympics 11 3.00 27.27% 9.09% 350.18 4.73 policies 10 2.80 50.00% 14.29% 161.40 0.60 news 5 2.80 20.00% 14.29% 338.00 9.00 seizure 7 2.71 14.29% 26.32% 164.14 3.00 war 16 2.44 18.75% 10.26% 319.44 4.13 e-learning 10 2.40 0.00% 37.50% 195.10 4.00 nose bleeds 5 2.40 20.00% 25.00% 171.80 3.20
- 53. What people search for on our website Total % Search Time Unique Refineme after Search Search Term Searches Results Pageviews / Search % Search Exits nts Search Depth redmail 1342 1.19 76.23% 3.69% 195.52 0.58 redroom 893 1.27 2.58% 8.31% 196.86 1.92 jobs 515 1.25 5.05% 9.81% 169.81 3.55 red room 398 1.14 2.51% 7.93% 153.98 1.94 red mail 201 1.18 89.55% 3.80% 121.59 0.23 wheelchair hire 195 1.35 5.13% 4.94% 229.65 6.57 wheelchair 170 1.24 8.24% 9.52% 261.78 6.38 google 152 1.28 90.79% 2.06% 201.35 0.57 first aid 120 1.28 7.50% 19.48% 427.73 7.03
- 55. Document downloads > Sometimes, you just want people to download something > Use event tracking in Google Analytics to measure downloads > May require some intervention from your technical teams
- 56. Be aware: What matters to us, might not matter to you
- 58. When to measure
- 59. When to measure > I look daily > We have funnels set up to act as a good guide – but I prefer getting stuck into the detail > Use custom alerts to monitor for change (but don’t rely on them!)
- 60. When to measure > Report on your KPIs monthly > Share your successes > Learn from your mistakes
- 61. Example custom alerts > CPC spend increases compared to previous day > Bounce rate increases/decreases by more than x per cent compared to previous day > Referrals from your top referring site drop by more than x per cent
- 62. Using dashboards > Good for an overview > Beneficial to business unit owners who may have a specific interest > Allows you to keep an eye on the metrics that are important to you
- 64. Using funnels > Again, good for an overview > Not 100 per cent accurate, so don’t rely on them > I use ecommerce conversion rate for individual conversion paths and use financial reports for accurate figures
- 66. Know what your users want
- 67. Know what your users want > Use Google AdWords keyword selector tool > Use Google Trends to see what your potential audience want
- 68. Google Adwords keyword selector tool > Uses Google’s database > Tells you language your users are using > Should influence what you write, rather than you writing what you think your audience wants
- 69. Set row count = 50000 to get more data out of Google Analytics
- 70. Google Trends > Shows interest for keywords over time > Helps you identify seasonality > Tells you can get ahead of the crowd. > E.g… when does Christmas start?
- 72. Social proof > Look at popularity on social media to find out what people like > Product reviews and ratings sell more products > Submit ratings as search rich snippet data for more traffic benefits
- 76. Tips to take away
- 77. Top tips > Be more social > Use conversion code tracking from marketing providers (e.g. AdWords) > Brush up on your web writing skills > Make your site responsive > Limit your calls to action to ones that are relevant and effective on that page
- 78. Top tips > Define your metrics > Look at them daily, assess them monthly > Report your successes – and failures > Learn from your mistakes > Annotate big events in Analytics for the benefit of other internal users
- 79. Set row count = 50000 to get more data out of Google Analytics