Visitor bikeshare usage: tracking visitor spatiotemporal ...
Analyzing Real-time User Visitor Searches
41
-
Upload
nick-denardis -
Category
Technology
-
view
1.063 -
download
1
description
Higher education websites always have a steady supply of visitors. It's great to see the numbers in Google Analyics fluctuate each day and trend upwards over time, but are your visitors finding what they came for? This talk is a high-level-to-in-depth look at tracking what visitors are searching for in real time from your site. We'll go beyond the consolidated "popular keywords" list to an actual trend list with grouped phases and pages. The goal is peer into the visitor's mind and figure out why they are searching for "address" on the Contact Us page or "Professor Smith" on the Faculty Information page. Higher education websites always struggle to accommodate two audiences, internal and external. Search results based on location don't lie, it's easy to combine real internal searches with reasons why quicklinks and extra menus may or may not be functioning as optimally as they should. It's time to go beyond pageviews and user paths and look at real-time search analytics.
Transcript of Analyzing Real-time User Visitor Searches
Nick DeNardis
Associate Director of Web Communications at Wayne State University http://wayne.edu/
Host of EDU Checkup http://educheckup.com/
Writer for .eduGuru http://doteduguru.com/
Driving Decisions with Data
Why does your institution have a website?
Blinders on our eyes
Source: http://xkcd.com/773/
wayne.edu
The Numbers
2,706,348 External Visits 6,060,138 Internal Visits = 8,766,486 Total Visits
669,875 External Searches 299,780 Internal Searches = 969,655 Total Searches
11% of all visitors use the search 25% of external visitors search
From September 10, 2009 - 2010
We used the standard tools to analyze our site stats • Google Analytics • Google Webmaster Tools • Crazy Egg • Woopra
We weren't happy They only gave us half the picture
Every visitor tells a story
Summaries of top search terms were not cutting it
It starts with a first impression
External vs. Internal
10 Second Test
General Capability
External
Notice the visuals, orient with the navigation, scan
and be disappointed
Internal
Another day, another dollar.
Need to find a list of xyz
Never seen it on the main menu
I don't have time to explore
I'll search for it.
Do you think you know what the typical visitor is searching
for?
“what is wayne state zip code”
(It's on the footer)
“print out my application i already filled out”
“2010 cost of tution and expenses”
“what happens if i dont apply for graduation”
“how to prepare for career fair”
“how to register for permission required classes”
“where to send transcript”
“clifford clark”
How often have you seen these in your Google
Dashboard?
Our Solution
• Most notable patterns – People search for existing sites – People search for other people (faculty)
• Unexpected patterns – Searches for obvious information on the page
Watching the search spy all day
Categories of Search Terms
• 28% Department/Office • 21% Program/Requirements • 15% Faculty/Staff Member • 12% Location • 24% Other
Auto Suggest
35% use auto select
(skip the results page)
First Week Resources
Class Schedule Campus Map Academic Calendar Bookstore Driving Directions
3 hours 43 mins later
10000 visits 10698 clicks total
Did it work?
777 – Class Schedule 683 – Campus Map 445 – Academic Calendar 342 – Bookstore 293 – Driving Directions 2,540 – Total Clicks (0.13%)
From September 1–7, 2010
The typical search experience
It’s all in the results
It’s all in the results
Web Communications Blog
http://wcs.wayne.edu/blog/
Now it’s your turn.
QuerySpy
http://queryspy.com/
Data Driving Decisions • Start collecting, start watching • Share your numbers
• Higher Ed Analytics http://higheredanalytics.com/analytics/ @karinejoly
• Trending Upward http://www.trendingupward.net/ @shelbythayer
