who's clicking?
DESCRIPTION
How are visitors finding your website, stories and videos? How did they get to your site? Learn to decipher the charts and graphs of Google Analytics, which key information to follow and how to use the data to make decisions about improving traffic.TRANSCRIPT
SOME VOCABULARY
ANALYZINGANALYTICS
your
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
AUDIENCE
1 • Audience is the umbrella term for people who are visiting your site.
• Subcategories available for:
• demographics
• interests
• behavior
• browser
• device
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION
2 • Acquisition is the term for the various methods that visitors came to your site — how your site “acquired” them.
• Acquisition is broken down by channels, or methods.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
BEHAVIOR
3 • Behavior is the term for the actions taken by visitors to your site — what they looked at and clicked on, how long they did these, when they left and from where.
• Behavior is divided into content, speed and search.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
SESSIONS
4 • A session is the period time a user is actively engaged with your website.
• All usage data (Screen Views, Events, Ecommerce, etc.) is associated with a session.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
PAGEVIEWS
5 • Pageviews is the total number of pages viewed.
• Repeated views of a single page are counted.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
Analytics
•Chartbeat
•On-site page views counter
•Other?
Some Options
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
Analytics
•Chartbeat
•On-site page views counter
•Other?
Our Focus
UNDERSTANDING THE CHARTS
ANALYZINGANALYTICS
your
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION How?
Where visitors were before they came to your site
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION
•how visitors discover your content.
•how visitors navigated to your site.
Determine…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION
This information will help you know how people find your site.
Use this data to make decisions about where and how to post on social media, using Google+ and other methods of finding an audience.
Why?
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION
•Target ranges, based on SNO sites:
• Social should be about 25-40% • Direct should be about 25-35% • Search should be about 30-40% • Referral should be about 10-20%
• If an acquisition method is disproportionate, ask why.
Commentary…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITIONHow?
Increasingly, visitors accessthe Web via mobile devices.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION
•how many people visit your site from a
•phone.
• tablet.
•desktop.
• laptop.
Determine…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION
This information will help you determine how people are accessing your site.
Use this to remind yourself to check how your site looks on mobile devices.
Why?
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
ACQUISITION
•You should view your site on mobile devices (and with multiple browsers) to see what your visitors see.
Commentary…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALSHow?
Low traffic well below 100 pageviews per day
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALSHow?
Solid traffic of about 100 pageviews per day
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALS
•how many visitors come to your site.
• Visitors
• Pageviews
• Pageviews per session
Determine…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALS
This information will help you determine your site’s popularity and when visitors come.
Use this data to determine when to post on social media and what to add to story pages to keep readers clicking on story after story.
Use this data to gain advertisers.
Why?
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALS
•Target ranges, based on SNO sites:
• Meh: 25 pageviews per day • Epic: 1,000 pageviews per day • Target: 75-100 pageviews per day
•Know your typical traffic to identify when you have a viral story.
•Promote to maintain weekend traffic.
Commentary…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALSHow?
Lots of new visitors who only looked at one page then left.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALS
•what percentage of visitors are new.
•what percentage of visitors are returning. (These totals won’t be pure because visitors clear their
browsing history, use other devices, etc.)
•what percentage of visitors enter the site and "bounce" or leave the site rather than viewing other pages within the same site.
Determine…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALS
This information will help you understand your audience.
Use this to evaluate your staff’s promotional methods and goals.
Use this to determine ways of keeping viewers on the site.
Why…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
READERSHIP TOTALS
•The goal should be to have about half returning and half new. Aim for loyal readership.
•This will vary throughout the school year. You many have more new readers at the start of the school year or after a breaking news story.
•Find ways to keep readers on the site: hyperlinks, related stories, etc.
Commentary…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
BEHAVIORHow?
Track the number of hits each story gets.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
BEHAVIOR
•which stories are getting the most viewers.
• the total number of stories viewed per session.
Determine…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
BEHAVIOR
This information will help you determine what stories interest your readers.
Use this data to help guide story ideas and story format.
Why…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
BEHAVIOR
•Be aware of stories that get an abnormal number of views and ask what made it spike. Was it …
• time • topic • method of promotion • search of a popular/viral term
Commentary…
WHAT’S YOUR TARGET?
ANALYZINGANALYTICS
your
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
YOUR TARGET
•Set a reasonable expectation.
•Make a plan to reach that target.
Determine…
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
YOUR TARGET
•Your site will build traffic over time as you become more established.
• More frequent posts • Wider audience
•You want to steadily increase your pageviews.
Details.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
YOUR TARGET
•You want steady traffic. Post frequently and consistently.
•Don’t dump your content all at once.
•Remember to resurface content and to promote with “ICYMI” and “best of” posts.
Advice.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
YOUR TARGET
Avoid this!Infrequent posting
then content dump.
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
YOUR TARGET
Peaks/valleys = little weekend traffic
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
YOUR TARGET
Steady weekday traffic
ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS
YOUR TARGET
Good balance of new and returning visitors
Average of more than 21,000 pageviews per month!
Mostly steady traffic with a few spikes
