WEB ANALYTICS

&

MAKING YOUR WEB SITE

STAND OUT
 WEB ANALYTICS

Web analytics is the process of collecting “data about the

activities of people accessing your website (visitors)--how they found

you, when they visited, what pages they looked at, what they bought

or downloaded, and so on--and mining that data for information that

can be used to improve a website”1. The type of data that is gathered

includes information about how a visitor navigates pages or sections of

a web page, click and conversion rates, data regarding utility of

different sections of a page which can then identify sections in need of

improvement or re-designing. What all this information does is help a

website owner identify strengths and weaknesses of the website,

identify trends, and with this information, enable them to maximize

their return on investment. Data collection is normally done through

embedding of code on a web page. As the visitor navigates the page

using the mouse, relevant data is tracked and reported to the website

owner.

A recent report by the Forrester group states that web analytics

will help companies derive greater insight from their data, aid in

gaining a competitive advantage by having more dynamic and

targeted content, and through the evidence of past performance, help

companies develop more effective online programs2.

MAKING YOUR WEBSITE STAND OUT

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 A website, whether personal or business oriented, is an entrance

into one’s space on the internet - an invitation to outsiders to come in

and stay a while. For businesses, it is a place to lure customers into

making purchases and even more than that, satisfy them and make

them loyal. The same goes for personal web sites such as blogs. A

successful blog will have many followers who repeatedly visit and read

what the author has to say. It is therefore important for websites to

have high eyeball appeal.

When visitors navigate to a website, they need to know how

things are organized and where to find what. An efficient and easy to

use sitemap is important as it helps show where product/information is

located and provide ways to get there. Content is another key factor.

A website author needs to deliver specifically what clients need – be it

information or products. There is no point in having a web site that

does not afford customers what they are looking for. As Simon Cowes

puts it, for a website stand out, a designer needs to pay attention to

the website’s “audience, objective, layout, navigation, content and

imagery...” 3. Knowing who your clients are enables you to customize

an interface that caters to them. For example a fashion house

designing an online store front targeted at teen girls might choose to

use damask patterns, color palettes that stay in the purple/pink family,

and whimsical fonts since this type of design appeals to girls in that

age group. Another example may be a mother blogging about post-

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partum depression, who, in the process of capturing her audience with

personal life stories might incorporate ads for treatment drugs or

information regarding where and how to find support.

Attention to the architecture, layout and design of a website is

also important. Positioning of elements such as text, images,

containers, decisions as to which fonts, sizes, and colors also

determine if a website stands out. Take color for instance: Color is

one design attribute that gives visitors a first impression regarding

what the website is all about. Studies have shown that color has a

huge impact on emotion, moods and behavior so using the right

combination of color(s) can create harmony and greatly help attract

and retain visitors, or on the flip side, if used incorrectly, can distract

from content and repeal visitors.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) & SEARCH ENGINE

MARKETING (SEM)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the “process of choosing

targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site

places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search” 4.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is “the process of marketing a web site

on search engines, including search engine optimization, submitting

your site to the search engines and directories for organic listings, pay

per inclusion, pay-per-click, banner ads or any other marketing

programs offered by search engines. 5” HTML contains elements

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known as Meta tags that allow users to describe the web page content,

list key words among other details. Meta tags play a role in SEO in

that some tag elements, such as keywords, were designed so that

search engine crawlers would find your website through keywords

defined in the html meta tag. However, major search engines have

lessened the impact of meta tags on their page rankings algorithms or

discontinued meta-tag use altogether as in the case of Google due to

websites that practiced deliberate insertion of misleading keywords

with intent to boost page rankings.

The impacts of SEO/SEM on making a website stand out are not

clear cut. While SEO can increase page rankings and possibly rank

very highly, keywords placed in meta tags on sites that do not

necessarily contain related content, or having too many keywords

(known as keyword stuffing) is a practice that is frowned upon by

search engines and can result in having a website banned from search

engine indexes. A practice known as ‘spamdexing’ or ‘black-hat SEO’

“attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the

search engines, or involve deception. One black hat technique uses

text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, in

an invisible div, or positioned off screen. Another method gives a

different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a

human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking.”6

Dependence on SEO/SEM as a marketing tool might be detrimental to a

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site since search engines change their algorithms constantly and there

is no guarantee of rank should the site be removed or fall in page rank

as in the case of Kinderstart who sued Google for removing their name

from their search index. This resulted in a loss of about 70% of traffic

to their site. 6

Advantages of SEM include helping a company “reach a targeted

audience, can have branding effects even in the absence of click-

throughs, and has a higher conversion when compared to SEO”7.

Other benefits include no limit to your reach, because the higher your

page rankings, the more people are looking at your site which may

generate more traffic and business, and that search engines do not

charge you every time a visitor lands on your site through high page

ranks. Disadvantages of SEM include “costly pay-per-click advertising,

a highly saturated competitive market, bias toward larger brands, click

fraud, and limited reach”7, costly fees to procure a company that

specialize in SEO/SEM, and results, if any, generally take time.

BLOG METRICS

To measure analytics for a blog, some other tools that may be

used include traffic volume, which refers to how much traffic is

generated by your blog. Traffic can be further broken down into new

versus returning visitors, from which loyal customers and the growth

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rate of readers can be determined. Knowing the number of lost

readers and the rate/period of departure can also be a way to measure

a blog’s success. Another tool that can be implemented is the number

of comments left by different visitors, which could further be divided

into positive and negative feedback. This information may provide

insight as to whether the author’s writing content is in line with what

readers are looking for or if adjustments need to be made. If a blog

should contain advertisements, revenue generated through these ads

or click data can also be used as a metric. Inclusion of favicons on

blogs that allows users to vote on success, such as Digg.com, can also

be another tool implement on blogs to measure success.

So in an attempt to make my course blog more attractive, I

referenced an article by Michael Martin which lists structure, balance,

color, emphasis & clarity, uniqueness and functionality as the seven

elements necessary to make a blog more attractive8. For structure, I

chose a template with dynamic grids built into it. Content was moved

around to ensure that it was well organized. To ensure that my blog

site was well balanced, and to add a unique element, I moved my blog

roll (which contains my class mates’ blogs) to the left of the main

content and customized it with html, such that it would not just be a

list that goes on and on to the bottom of the page but integrates well

with the main content. An animated image was also embedded to

make the web site easy on the eyes. Its size was kept small so as not

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cause a distraction. To increase functionality, hyperlinks associated

with content were created so facilitate interaction with the user. For

background color, a turquoise green was used in the hope of evoking a

tranquil, relaxing mindset. No advertisements were incorporated in

the blog as these were perceived as a distraction that would repeal

visitors. Feedburner, an application tool by Google Inc., was installed

as a measure to help generate more traffic for my blog. Feedburner

helps “websites large and small to distribute their content well beyond

just visitors using browsers. Feeds permit subscription to regular

updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in

some cases good old email”9. Google Analytics was used to monitor

and track traffic as well as gather statistics. Details of information

captured include number of visitors within a given time period, site

usage that details the number of visits, how many pages were viewed

per visit, average time on the blog, and bounce rate (the percentage of

visitors who did not click on any links). This measure is somewhat

skewed as a visitor who arrives at my blog and only reads the material

without clicking on any links would be included as part of the bounce

rate, when in actual fact, they did visit and make use of the site. Other

metrics include the types of visitors broken down into new and

returning visitors, which can be further drilled down to date ranges,

geographical regions from which my blog was accessed, how much

traffic was as a result of referring sites versus search engine find, what

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browser was used to generate the traffic and which pages/links were

viewed or visited the most. Below are some captured screenshots of

data gathered from Google Analytics Report:

1. Dashboard:

2. Content Overview:

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3. Traffic Sources Overview:

Research into web analytics and website improvement expanded

my knowledge about these fields of IT. I was intrigued by tools and

technologies available to website owners to aid in data mining of

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website content and make pages stand out. The jury is still out

regarding the impact of the changes I implemented. Best case

scenario, I will have more readers on my blog than I know what to do

with and worst case scenario, status quo stays and for now, that is

alright by me.

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 Works Cited:

1. Peterson, Eric T. "What is Web Analytics". O'Reilly Media Inc. 14

October 2009.< http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/10/12/what-is-web-

analytics.html >

2. September 2009. Forrester Consulting Group. Appraising Your

Investment In Enterprise Web Analytics Forrester group. N.p.: n.p.,

2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2009 <http://www.google.com/analytics/>

3. "How to Make a Web Page Stand Out". Intra-Focus Inc. 14

October 2009 <http://intrafocus.wordpress.com/2006/10/03/how-to-

make-your-website-stand-out/>

4. "Glossary of Common Terms in the Internet and Online

Industries". KeyWordMktg Inc. 14 October 2009

<http://keywordmktg.com/Glossary.aspx>

5. "Search Engine Marketing Glossary". GetOn.com Technologies

Inc. 14 October 2009 <http://www.getonsearchengines.com/kb-

search-engine-marketing-glossary.php>

6. "Search engine optimization." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

14 Oct 2009, 01:47 UTC. 15 Oct 2009

<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=Search_engine_optimization&oldid=319737726>

7. Chaffey, Dave. "Advantages and disadvantages of paid search

marketing." Web. 14 Oct. 2009. <

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http://www.davechaffey.com/guides/paid-search-marketing-

strategy-guide/advantages-disadvantages >

8. Martin Michael. “7 Elements to Make Your Blog Look Great.”

Web. 14 Oct. 2009.< http://www.problogdesign.com/design/7-

elements-to-make-your-blog-look-great/>

9. Google. “Feed Burner Help”. Web. 14 Oct. 2009.

<http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?

answer=79408>

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