Common Mistakes: Start Using Web Site Analysis Tools by Nicolas
Buerki
Issue
=====
What are the pitfalls to avoid when starting to measure Web site performance
using Web Site Analysis Tools?
Response
========
Web site analysis tools can contribute to design decisions to improve visitors'
online experience but also to inform site owners, business owners about the
performance of their Web sites. However, in many cases, eBusiness Managers,
Webmasters or Web operations managers, start deploying Web site analysis tools
just as a 'nice to have' tool. Instead of measuring performance and comparing
it to the business objectives, they mostly communicate the raw analysis data to
senior management, without any further explications or any recommendations for
site improvements. To exploit the value that Web site analysis tools can
provide, the following major pitfalls should be avoided:
1. Business objectives not set for individual sections of the site: At most
organizations, business owners responsible for a sub part of the corporate Web
site have not defined their specific business objectives of their sub parts.
For example, a sub part of a Web site could be customer support, which can be
further broken down into self-service tools (e.g. frequently asked questions,
download of drivers, etc.), support contact information, warranties, user
manuals, etc. Measuring the performance of a site or a sub part of the site is
only valuable, if the measured performance can be compared against the targeted
objectives. If business owners do not set business objectives, the analysis
cannot determine the site's performance. eBusiness managers or Web operation
managers that are in charge of deploying Web site analysis tools need to help
business owners defining the detailed business objectives of their Web site's
sub parts (read also,
"Who Should Set Business Objectives", Steve Telleen).
2. Site owners or site section owners are not trained to understand the analysis
reports: At most organizations, site owners or business owners for a specific
sub site can not leverage the reports of Web site analysis tools as many of
them don't understand the benefits of such a measurement's approach. eBusiness
managers need to explain as a first step the benefits and the importance of
this performance measurement as integral part of their Web performance
measurement program. The second step includes explaining of what is measured
and how the measured data can help business owners to further improve their
sub-parts of the site (e.g. changing navigation or cross-linking sections,
providing and updating section with 'most used links', etc.). If business
owners are not sensibilized and/or not trained how to leverage value out of the
Web site analysis report, they most likely will not even start reading the
reports and all efforts in measuring Web site performance using Web site
analysis tools is wasted.
3. Data points of Web site analysis tools are not related to each another: Web
site analysis tools measure data points for a defined time period such as
number of viewed pages, number of unique visitors, number of visits, etc.
However, these data points do not provide any value. For example a high number
of viewed pages may indicate that site visitors are lost within the navigation
and browse a lot of pages to find what they are looking for versus a lower
number of viewed pages, which may indicate that site visitors find directly
their information in few clicks due to effective site navigation. It is crucial
that Web analysts, relate the individual data points to derive value that can
be translated into site improvements and that the value can be communicated to
business owners to inform them about their specific site performance. For
example to measure the effectiveness of online support, Web analysts should
measure and relate the following key performance indicators (KPI):
a. Stickiness = total amount of time spent viewing all pages in the support
section divided by the total number of unique site visitors in the support
section and
b. Focus = average number of pages visited in the support section divided by
total number of pages in the support section.
For online support the stickiness and the focus should be low, which indicates
that the navigation to the specific support is effective (e.g. site visitors
need few clicks and minimal time to get to a specific support page). It is
crucial that the measured data points of Web site analysis tools are related to
each another and that these data points are measured for a specific section on
the site. If data points are not related to each another and not measured for a
specific section, they do not provide any value or at worst if they are
interpreted they may lead to wrong design decision.
4. Not enough skilled human Subscriptions available to analyze the reports: Web site
analysis tools do only track and store the visitor's online behavior. Web site
analysis tools cannot interpret the measured data. To get value out of the
measured data, dedicated Web analysts need to analysis further the collected
data. The main duty of the Web analysts is to relate the individual measured
data to each another to obtain KPIs. These KPIs allow Web analysts to deduce
the design changes to increase site visitors' experience. In addition, Web
analysts need to be able to relate the correlated analysis data with Web site
design (read also,
"When Not to Use Web site Analysis Tools", Nicolas Brki.
5. Web site analysis tools are considered as the only way to measure Web site
effectiveness: Many organizations rely mainly on Web site analysis tools to
measure Web site effectiveness and do not perform any other site performance
measurement approach to improve the visitor online experience. To continuously
improve a Web site, the Web performance measurement program should include as
well, usability lab testing, focus groups analysis, etc.
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About the Author
Nicolas Brki is the founder of www.effinfo.com, a Web research portal
providing pragmatic articles to make your Web sites, Intranet and portals more
effective.
Leading organizations worldwide use effinfo's research and opinions to make
Web-related decisions; our documents are regularly among the top 10 most read
research documents on ITForbes.com and PcPro.co.uk . We are also consistently
quoted on a wide range of IT portals.
Nicolas Brki
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