5 web design decisions that cause big analytics problems

@crestodina #DNNevent


Does your site

work with or against

your Analytics?

How Google Analytics Works

Javascript and Cookies


How Google Analytics works


1. No cookie? No data

2. JavaScript disabled? No data

3. Time on page? Or time on tab?

4. Same device, different user

5. Same user, different device / browser

When Analytics doesn’t work

@crestodina #DNNevent@crestodina • #CMWorld

URL problems...


URL problems...


The click doesn’t count!

@crestodina

Carousel / slideshow advancingAnchor/jump linksRollover contentDropdowns expandingOffsite links / social media buttonsSocial sharing buttonsVideo playsLivechat interactions

Embedded map interactionsTabsFiltersScrollingComment / review submissionMailto: linksPDF, PPT, Word downloadsLightbox interactions


Products, Services and Pages


Many services listed on one page...


The high ranking pages

are not home pages...


Google doesn’t rank websites.

Google ranks web pages.


Acquisition > Search Engine Optimization > Landing Pages


The problem with multi-topic pages...


Analytics blind spot!


Behavior > Site Content > All Pages


Thank You Pages vs. Messages


1. Leads

2. Subscribers

3. Ecommerce Customers

4. Event Registrants

5. Donors

5 types of conversions...

#winning

Thank you messages ...not good for Analytics


Email links...not good for Analytics


Thank you!

Forms / thank you pages...perfect for Analytics

The Goals report

Setting up goals is easy ...if there are thank you pages

Admin > View > Goals

Conversions > Goals > Funnel Visualization

Where you visitors are coming from

The Channels report ...with conversion rates

Social channel conversions!


What about event tracking?

That’ll work, right?


Remember those “non-pageview” interactions?

...they are trackable

41.4%of top marketing sites use

Google Tag Manager

source: Orbit Media

https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/gtm-tracking-codes/


...so let’s use thank you pages

...because that was kinda rough.


Another reason to have

a thank you page...


Thank you!


Good Bye.


Thank you!


Subscribers from ‘Thank You’ page


1. They see a Thank You page (additional messaging)

2. They get an auto-response email

3. Sends an email notification to you

4. Saves to database or CRM

5. Records as a conversion in Analytics

5 Things that happen when visitors submit...


Which posts

inspire action?

Behavior > Site Content > All Pages (filtered)

Conversions > Goals > Reverse Goal Path

Conversions > Goals> Reverse Goal Path > Subscribers


Pageviews Per Blog Post


Subscribers Per Blog Post


Conversion Rate Per Blog Post!


Conversion Rate Per Blog Post


How to Find and Promote Your Top Converting Posts

1. Setup the report using Klipfolio (here)

2. Find the top converting posts

3. Drive traffic to these posts, through social, email,

internal linking, ads, etc.

4. Publish more content on these topics!

https://app.klipfolio.com/published/3fdff8ff435fba761c4d8721642630c8/content-marketing-dashboard


Subdomains... where’s your blog?


Domain Strategy: Where to blog?


...good



...better!



...bad



Which posts are the

most engaging?


Find the posts and topics that readers love most

1. Publish more content on the popular topics.

2. Do more to promote the low-traffic, high value

posts.


URL Structure Best Practices

1. Short

2. Few slashes

3. Includes target phrase


Tracking subdomain traffic

Where are the subdomain.website.com visitors??


blog.website.com

110


Characters designed by Skydesign – freepic.com

Default... two visitors, three visits

visit one visit two visit three

website.com blog.website.com website.com



Ideal... one visitor, one visit!

visit one visit one visit one


112


1. Make sure you’re using Universal Analytics

2. Make full URLs visible in GA

3. Set referral exclusion in GA

4. Set Cookie Domain to Auto in GTM

Setting up subdomain tracking

113

@crestodina #DNNevent114


Setting Cookie Domain to Auto


One visitor. One visit!




133


Site Search


What are people looking

for on our site?

See what they’re looking for!

Secondary Dimensions

Add more data to any report!


1. Search for each phrase yourself. Find it?

2. Your page isn’t ranking? Optimize it!

3. You don’t have a page? Create it!

4. Adjust your navigation to help visitors find

things faster

4 Tips from the Search Terms report


Conversions on 3rd Party Websites


Third Party Conversions

website.com mycart.com website.com

165


Default... two visitors, three visits


visit one visit two visit three

website.com website.commycart.com

166




website.com website.commycart.com

167

With cross domain tracking... one visitor, one visit


1. Make full URLs visible (GA)

2. Set Cookie Domain to Auto (GTM)

3. Allow Linker set to “true” (GTM)

4. Auto Link domains (GTM)

5. Add mycart.com to your referral exclusion list (GA)

Setting up cross domain tracking

168


Now we’re passing visitor info to the 3rd party site...

(client ID, timestamp and browser metadata)

For the next step...

You’ll need to follow the instructions for adding a bit of code to the 3rd party site.


Data-Driven Empathy


Google Analytics Reporting


Google Analytics Analysis


@contentverve


THANK YOU!

Andy CrestodinaStrategic Director @crestodina

bitly.com/contentchem

5 web design decisions that cause big analytics problems

Marketing