Stephen Cronin: Actionable Analytics

Everyone uses a web analytics package on their website – but how many people do anything beyond check the number of page views and where the traffic is coming from? Analytics packages are packed with so much more information – information you can take and do something with that will improve your site. You just need to work out where to find that information and what to do with it. I’ll show you how you can action your analytics data, giving you a better site.

Transcript

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2. How many of us use web
   stats to actively improve
   our websites?
   

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3. Pageviews
   up ↑
   Pageviews
   down ↓
   

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4. Analytics should be
   more than just
   monitoring the data
   

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5. It should be about
   the insight you can
   gain from that data
   

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6. Insight that can
   lead to action
   

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7. Action that can
   improve your site
   

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8. Question Time
   

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9. How many of you use
   Google Analytics?
   

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10. Do you have a team
    looking after your site?
    If so, do you have an
    analytics expert?
    

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11. Is it just you looking
    after your site?
    If so, do you spend a lot
    of time on analytics?
    

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12. An analytics expert is a
    luxury that many small
    to medium websites
    don't have
    

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13. The benefits of acting on
    insight can be huge
    

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14. GA and WP
    

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15. Google Analytics for
    WordPress by Joost de Valk
    Google Analyticator by
    Video User Manuals
    *Recommended Plugins*:
    

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17. Mobile Device
    Support
    

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18. Understand what devices
    your visitors are using
    

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20. Do you have a responsive
    design or mobile plugin?
    

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22. Investigate devices with
    very high bounce rates
    

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23. Make sure your site is
    usable on the devices
    that your visitors use
    

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25. Mobile Site vs
    Responsive Design
    

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26. Which is better for
    *your* situation?
    

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27. Is the same content
    popular on both
    mobile and desktop?
    

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28. If so, then responsive
    design is your best bet
    

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29. If not, you may need a
    separate mobile site
    

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30. Or at least separate
    navigation via a plugin
    

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34. Build separate mobile
    site / navigation if
    content is different
    

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36. Site Speed
    

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37. Do you know how
    fast your site is?
    

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38. In different locations,
    on different devices
    and network speeds?
    

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39. View Slide

40. Speed of individual
    pages, ordered
    by load time
    

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42. Pages load times with
    very few samples may
    be inaccurate
    

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45. Fix any pages that are
    consistently slow
    

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47. Speed By
    Operating System
    

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50. Trouble shoot your site
    on any operating system
    that’s slow
    

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52. Site Speed
    By Country
    

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55. Solution: removed an
    Amazon widget that was
    having trouble loading
    

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57. Resolve speed issues
    for target audiences that
    are important to you
    

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58. View Slide

59. What You Rank For
    

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60. Identify keywords you're
    ranking for, that you
    don't have content for
    

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61. Search Queries: data on
    when your site appears in
    SERPs (vs actual visits)
    

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62. Only goes back 90 days!
    Download it if you want
    to track it over time
    

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63. May be better viewed in
    Google Webmaster Tools
    

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65. Add content for these
    (and related) keywords
    

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67. Keywords With Low
    Click Through Rate
    

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68. Why aren't people
    clicking through?
    

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69. Does the snippet suck?
    

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70. Does our content match
    searcher intent?
    

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72. Check SERPs & optimise
    snippet to improve CTR
    

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73. Add content to match
    intent (if appropriate)
    

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75. Keywords With
    High Impressions
    

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76. Opportunity to increase
    traffic if we can move
    up a few positions
    

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78. Apply SEO efforts here
    

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80. Visitor Location
    

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81. Where are you getting
    traffic from?
    

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82. Do visitors from
    different countries need
    different content?
    

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83. Do your call to actions
    work for visitors from
    different countries?
    

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86. Maybe the site doesn’t
    have enough job listings
    for Hong Kong…
    

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88. Identify new opportunities
    Add appropriate content
    Customise calls to action
    Check goals & conversions
    

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90. Bounce Rate
    

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91. WTF is bounce rate?
    

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98. Troubleshoot pages
    with high bounce rate
    and fix them!
    

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99. Rapid Fire
    

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100. Browsers
     Support the browsers
     your visitors use
     11
     

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101. Low Traffic
     Repurpose or retire
     low traffic content
     12
     

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102. Tag Pages
     Remove or promote
     tags that get no traffic
     13
     

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103. Site Search
     Make sure people can
     find what they want
     14
     

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104. Trackbacks
     Ask them to optimise
     anchor text or URL
     15
     

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105. In Page
     Remove links that
     aren’t being clicked
     16
     

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106. Social Traffic
     Replicate content
     that is working well
     17
     

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107. Intelligence
     Monitor problems &
     investigate them early
     18
     

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108. Custom Alerts
     Set up alerts for key
     info and action ASAP
     19
     

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109. Homework
     

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110. Action the above
     Investigate the following
     • Event tracking
     • Goals
     • Campaigns
     • Website Optimizer
     

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111. Thanks
     

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112. Questions
     @stephencronin
     http://scratch99.com
     /analytics
     

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113. Image Credits
     • One_way_Ticket_to_the_Moon_0089 (2).JPG by Alvimann - http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/614234
     • Italian Masks by Peter E. Lee - http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldpatterns/3331534873/
     • Question mark, Ipswich, 21 January 2012 by ed_needs_a_bicycle - http://www.flickr.com/photos/omcoc/6751047205/
     • web analytics washing by brockvicky - http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickyb/2430043983/
     • Wordpress Button Closeup by Titanas - http://www.flickr.com/photos/titanas/3199323703/
     • Money by aresauburn - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aresauburnphotos/2678453389/
     • Playing with Nexus 4. (Day 29/365) by RidwanJaafar - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ridwan326/8449370112/
     • Nexus 4 by Colin ZHU - http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinzhu/8378670977/
     • motionBlur by pippalou - http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/854241
     • DSC_0015.JPG by digidreamgrafix - http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/842628
     • Heavy Load by lincolnblues - http://www.flickr.com/photos/lincolnblues/5778932400/
     • Globe by LukePricePhotography - http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukeprice88/8162093146/
     • Czech Phrasebook, Or, Excitement (98/365) by swimparallel - http://www.flickr.com/photos/swimparallel/3424725513/
     • Exit on the Left by EJP Photo - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejpphoto/6242148088/
     • Women's Freestyle Aerial Medalists by Kyler Storm - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyler/4388043806/
     • Mouse Logitech by antoniolas - http://www.flickr.com/photos/antoniolas/4367543346/
     • Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon by tuis - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuis_imaging/5178653014/
     • Attackers by SteveMcN - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevemac/2436349268/
     • My dog ate my homework. #pug by franklingraves - http://www.flickr.com/photos/27646542@N03/8107647888/
     • End of the road - IMG_0515_72dpi by Kevin Dean (www.betaart.com) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevindean/5836900722
     

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