DATA
BASED DESIGN
by Holly Cumming
This presentation is a case study demonstrating how Google Analytics data can be used to guide website design
What to expect
CONTENTSThe whole pointQuick Fixes (If you’ve only got 10 minutes)Your Audience- Devices- Sources- Locations
UsabilityEngagement
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1 What is the point of my website?
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1 What is the point of my website?
Get more of these guys
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1What is the point of my website?
Get more of these guys
Get people telling their
friends about me
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Get people telling their
friends about me
1What is the point of my website?
Get more of these guys
Get people reading and
thinking
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2 Where does Google Analytics come in?
Google analytics lets us go undercover and see if visitors are doing what we want them to or not - subscribing, telling friends or reading articles.
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3 Okay so.... are they doing stuff?
Attention
We can’t know for sure yet, because we haven’t set up “goals” in your Google Analytics (GA) account. But we could get data on all 3 of the site’s aims with GA:
Subscriptions
Sharing
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Subscriptions
Trigger - which page do they come from just before they sign up?
Failure - how many people start subscribing and then don’t finish? At what point do they stop?
This data will help us design the site to increase subscriptions.
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Set up subscription
goals in GA to find out.
Sharing
Topics - which content topics are people sharing the most?
Engagement - are people commenting and discussing your pieces on the site?
Medium - video vs. articles, which gets more shares?
Platforms - how are people sharing your content?
This data will help us design the site to increase sharing.
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Set up sharing goals in GA to
find out.
AttentionInterest - Did they watch the whole video? How long did they read the article for? Any content with no views?
Appetite - How many pages did they read before leaving? What did they do after reading an article?
This data will help us design the site to keep people engaged for longer.
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Set up attention goals in GA to
find out.
So what do we know for sure?4
And in English
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595 people only looked at one page (suggests didn’t find what they wanted)
321 people spent an average of 90 seconds looking at 2 pages each35%
65%
90 sec
916
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visitors
QUICK FIXES
(if you only have 10 minutes)
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Collect emails on the site1QUICK
FIX
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Collect emails on the site
19% of your visitors return to the site.
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QUICK FIX
To grow # of frequent readers, you could email new visitors to lure them back.
Collect emails on the site1P
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QUICK FIX
This chart shows which pages people visit after they arrive on the home page.
Put a subscribe link on the about us page2P
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Most people go straight to the about us page
because they’re new visitors & want to learn about BF.
2 Put a subscribe link on the about us page
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Once they know about BF, they may be perfectly primed to subscribe (to a newsletter or the magazine).
Putting a subscribe link on the about us page will make it easy as pie for them & therefore more likely.
2 Put a subscribe link on the about us page
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Include links to other content on each article page3
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Include links to other content on each article page3
} < 2 minutes
Most people spend under 2 minutes on your site.
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The links will encourage users to spend longer on the site + increase the time they spend cogitating your content.
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4 Use more social campaigns to attract relevant visitors
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Only the Jan bounce rate stats support this - they’ve changed dramatically since in Feb.
4 Use more social campaigns to attract relevant visitors
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4 What is a bounce rate anyway?
Sidenote
“The percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only one page”-Google
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4 What is a bounce rate anyway?
Huh? It’s people who hit “back” straight after arriving at your site.
Sidenote
“The percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only one page”-Google
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Could be because...● they weren’t interested (wrong audience)● they couldn’t find what they were looking for (low usability)● the GA tracking code is incorrect
or because...● they arrive at an article, read it and then exit (great! But
annoyingly this still counts as a bounce)
Why would they DO that?!
Sidenote
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4QUICK FIX
These are the bits I can help with
● they couldn’t find what they were looking for (low usability)I can redesign the site to improve usability
● they’re going straight to an article, reading it and then exitingI can redesign the site to encourage people to read on
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The social bounce rate has risen from 44% (excellent) to 74% (higher than average) this month.
4 Back to the data...
JanFeb
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What should it be?
Excellent = 30-45%
Average = 45 - 55%
Poor = 55 - 85%
Broken = 85%+
Feb 74%
Jan 44%
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4 Review + adjust your post types
So, fewer people coming from social media links are staying on your website to have a look around this month.
Can you see an obvious difference in the types of posts you did this month?
Can you tweak them to lower your social bounce rate again?
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QUICK FIX SUMMARY
Collect emails on the sitePut a subscribe link on the about us pagePut links to other content on every pageAdjust your social post types to regain your social bounce rate
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YOUR
AUDIENCE:
Devices
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Mobile and tablet use has decreased since Jan.
Desktop use has increased. (This could be due to your funding push.)
80% of visitors use desktops
Jan Feb
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There are 6 mobile device brands to design for
Looking closer at the 16% of people who don’t use desktops...
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The iPad + iPhone are the most common
77% of all mobiledevices
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And no, the ipad data isn’t all Nick!
There are 57 new iPad users this month.
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Our design must work on all devices
Using responsive design will ensure no man is left behind.
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There are 4 operating systems to cater for
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There are 4 operating systems to cater for
Most people use Windows, but the website must work on them all
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YOUR
AUDIENCE:
Sources
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People are mostly coming to the website by Organic Google Search
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People are mostly coming to the website by Organic search or typing in your URL (direct)
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This part of your audience is not stumbling on you by chance.
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There are a few coming from Bing and Yahoo
Google is the only site sending us traffic
This suggests that any paid search should only be done on Google
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These 2 referrals are from annoying web analytics companies and skew your bounce rate. They need to be filtered out of your data.
The rest are coming from referrals
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Improve your SEO to get more click throughs from organic searches
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You currently rank 8th when people search
“uk business magazine”
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We know the other search results are irrelevant to BF’s offering - they’re just not competition, because they offer a different USP.
Right?
The organic search competition
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The organic search competition
Well, a searcher doesn’t know this.
A searcher has to choose between you and the other search results.
They’re competition because you’re all in the same “category”- the topic of their search.
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Okay... who are the competition?
1. Talk Business Magazine2. Elite Business Magazine3. Business Matters4. The Business Magazine5. Growing Business6. Reel Business7. Director Magazine
}
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For “UK business magazine” search
Why should I try to beat them?
You want to be at the top of the list because if a searcher finds what they’re looking for on another site, you won’t get a visit.
Simple as.
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The solution?
5 Improve your SEO.
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Being here - could get you more visitors through organic search. (people click the first link first!)
Better SEO puts you at the top of the search results
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What search phrases are bringing me visitors?
know your brand
generic uninformed search
know about your article
Most phrases not known
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A note about these bounce rates
Don’t worry about these “high” bounce rates - they’re 100% because people are reading the article and then leaving the site.
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Where do people arrive on the site?
72% arrive on the home page
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What about the other 28%?
28% arrive directly at articles, videos or contact us
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Every page, especially video, article and contact us, must encourage subscriptions and thinking (reading/watching content).
How can does this affect design?
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6TIPPut obvious links to “subscribe” and “more content” on each page.
What are the top 10 landing pages?
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Consider using display ads, email or paid search to increase site traffic
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7TIP
YOUR
AUDIENCE:
Locations
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They mostly live in the UK, USA + Brazil
80%
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Interestingly, only 31% of sessions are in London
{The remaining 69% of sessions are very thinly spread around different
cities.
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Who could the Brazilians be?
Your coders?
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They speak English and Brazilian Portuguese
81% 5%
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USABILITY
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Nobody has used the search box yet
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That’s great news!
It means people can find what they’re looking for on the site.
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Average page load time = 2.75 sec
This is a good load time - which means mobiles can handle it. No action needed!
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How do you know it’s quick enough?
Because the Trilibis study says so.
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Which screen resolutions do we need to design for?
768 x 1024 pixels is the most common screen for you audience.
Use a responsive design to cater for all screens.
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ENGAGEMENT
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24% of your pages are leading visitors to other content
But that means...
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76% of pages are not keeping people on the site
} Top 10 “Exit” pages
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Are exits bad?
Some people exit because their task was completed.
Some exit because the user gave up / lost interest
vs.
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9 Set up “goals” in GA
To check there’s not too many of these guys...
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They’re found in red waterfalls
These “red waterfalls” show where users exit the site. Some will be due to boredom, others task completion.
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1How to kill them
Keep users engaged in content:
include links to other articles/videos on each page
If they read more content, they’ll be more likely to sign up.
have a visible “subscribe” option on every page to keep them coming back for more.
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TIP 01TIP 1
Your most popular pages are...
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So your users are trying to...
● read articles● find out about you● advertise with you● contact you● read news, opinions and
your blog.
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Enable tasks in as few clicks as possible
The design must make these tasks easy
Help users understand the difference between blog, news, articles + opinion.
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1TIP
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1TIP 3
Spot the difference...
Help users understand the difference between blog, news, articles + opinion.
The traffic is split evenly between these three, suggesting they’re all being visited for investigation. One could argue that they’re all the same...!
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The pages people are sharing
Mostly your home page and blog posts.
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The pages people are sharing
Mostly your home page and blog posts.
}But also your campaign page & some articles
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4Put share buttons on every page. (If there isn’t something worth sharing on the page - should the page exist?)
Campaigns, articles and blogs - help them share it all.
Help them share their excitement
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Which social sites are people finding you on?
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Which social sites are people finding you on?
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Interesting that your blog is very popular content, yet it doesn’t drive that many people to the website.
5
Priorities
What is more important to you?
A website that drives traffic to your blog, or a blog that drives traffic to your website?
Design the website for only 1 call to action - it will be more effective.
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1TIP
Tweet more
Post on LinkedIn more
Consider whether you want to interact with your audience on facebook to to up engagement.
61Do more of what works!
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TIPS
7811
Recommendations
Consider having a twitter feed on your website. A kind of testimonial and wall of fame to encourage more engagement.
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19TIP
ENDBy Holly Cumming
About Holly2:1 BSc Chemistry and Management (Hons)
Proficient in Google Analytics + Web Design
● 2014 Projects Coordinator at NearDesk (7 months)
● 2013/4 Marketing Exec. at Working Beautifully (2 months)
● 2013 Business Analyst at Deallus Consulting (3 months)
Check out my Behance portfolio or Linkedin profile
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