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Understanding your audience through Web analytics

Understanding your audience through Web analytics. Henry M. Lopez Editor, Santafenewmexican.com hlopez@sfnewmexican.com Twitter: @henrymlopez  Today's hastag: #hmlweb Facebook: /henrylopez. Goals of this Session.

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Understanding your audience through Web analytics

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  1. Understanding your audience through Web analytics Henry M. Lopez Editor, Santafenewmexican.com hlopez@sfnewmexican.com Twitter: @henrymlopez  Today's hastag: #hmlweb Facebook: /henrylopez

  2. Goals of this Session • Familiarize both editorial and business sides of your brain with why analytics are important and what they can tell you. • Give you a foundation to understand the language of Web analytics and the ability to discuss them intelligently. •  Raise an appreciation for using analytics data honestly. •  Enable you to find your place in your Web marketplace for both news and revenue potential. • Answer your questions and address your concerns. Otherwise, WHAT'S THE POINT?

  3. Using your analytics

  4. Chapter I What the heck are analytics? And, what can they tell me?

  5. In a nutshell - Alternative story form

  6. From where does the info come?

  7. How does Google Analytics and other direct measures work?

  8. How does Google Analytics work?

  9. Vocabulary Pageviews - The  number of pages you've displayed. Visits (sessions) - A visit happens each time you open a site. A visit can have many pageviews. Sessions may be time limited. Visitor - The user who visits. Can be counted multiple times. Unique visitor - Detects the same USER ID and doesn't count as multiple users. Time on site: Measurement of how long folks spend before taking off. Bounce rate: Those folks who visit one page and leave straight away.

  10. So what does it all look like Santafenewmexican.com Oct. 09 * Pageviews-1,320,202 Visits- 487,901 Unique Visitors: 184,095 Pages/visit: 2.71 Time on site: 3:11 These figures tell a story.

  11. Now, before you do anything rash ... Know that Web analytics have limitations on what they can tell you and some inherent flaws. • We can't identify discrete visitors. • The Starbucks Effect • The Cookie Monster • The Mobile Web

  12. So what good is any of this? • Despite obvious flaws, these tools are the best we have for tracking user behavior online. TV Ratings aren't perfect, either. • The best way to use this information is by thinking of them as trend indicators. • If you're configuring your sites well, you might not have gospel truth coming from the figures but you'll know what content is hot, and what's not.  • Where you're generating traffic & where you're wasting time. • Your advertisers can make decisions on this data.

  13. Chapter II Putting what we know to use

  14. Types of decisions can be made Editorial, online teams • Types of content to feature • Placement of links and prioritizing content • Defining an audience and opportunity • Staffing online  • Social media efforts - Flash efforts Advertising, business teams • Know the best days for advertisers to reach audience • Know which businesses tune in • Know how you compare to competition's reach • Know why prospects don't convert to customers

  15. Discussion: You make the call #1 The most popular article on santafenewmexican.com in 2008 and 2009 was:     LANL scientist makes radio waves travel faster than light    http://www.santafenewmexican.com/HealthandScience/LANL_scientist_makes_radio_waves_travel_faster_than_light The story wasn't A1 nor did it lead the homepage. Less than 1,000 pv in first 30 days.150,000+ pageviews70% exits67% Bounce rateHow is this possible and what should I do?

  16. Discussion: You make the call #2 A vendor approaches your company with a new embeddable widget for your Web site that plays high-definition video, integrates text stories and is optimized for Firefox. The price seems to be on the rim of reasonable.  How can an analytics report help you make that yes or no decision?

  17. Discussion: You make the call #3 An airline just announced it will begin service to a nearby airport and wants to advertise online with you.  How can you help them with targeting which markets might be most receptive to the airlines message?

  18. News folk. 5 Questions to ask 1. What's your source for your figures? Server logs=No 2. Is that visits, visitors or unique visitors? 3. Can I get a copy of that? 4. What do you mean by "hits?" 5. How many pageviews do your users average?

  19. Chapter III Knowing what the other guy's got. Show & Tell

  20. Self-exploration is just the start I can't see your password-protected Analytics reports And you can't see mine unless I let you. But there are tools out there that can help you. Alexa and Compete - don't direct measure but offer their own rankings that you can use for comparison. And then there's Quantcast Exercise!

  21. Toot your own horn This ad comes from a series we ran to highlight the growth we've made during the past year. Each month, we send traffic reports to our marketing and ad departments to make sure they have up to date figures to share. Newspapers usually own their local market. And, no one will know if you don't tell them.

  22. Study Group Let's talk. What's on your mind?

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