Final Web Analytics ReportMatt Leap

Web Analytics3/20/13

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Table of Contents

I. Executive Summary ............................................................................... 3

II. Background ........................................................................................... 3

III. Purpose ................................................................................................. 4

IV. Data ....................................................................................................... 4

V. Recommendations ................................................................................. 8

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Executive Summary:

The Instrumentation and Model Facility noticed poor performance from a page that had recently undergone a basic search engine optimization project. Despite the assumed increase in traffic, the page was not generating leads. The IMF wanted to know the reason for the page's lack of success and steps to correct the problem.

Further investigation of the page's analytics revealed that traffic had indeed increased; however, visits proved to be of low quality – evidenced by a high bounce rate, low time on page, and low pages per view. Analysis of keywords showed that visitors were by in large coming to the page in search of antibiotic bead molds, but there was no keyword stood out as preforming particularly well or poorly. A location breakdown of all traffic revealed that nearly all the traffic was coming from outside of IMF targeted area. The IMF would have a difficult time serving cross-country or international customers and they would likely have better local alternatives. This began to explain some of the bounce issues. Through traffic flow reports and in page reports, the page's content was shown to be confusing for visitors. The text was overly worded and important facts could not be picked out. There was also no clear call to action or indication of where to move on from the page. This lead to incoming traffic failing to move through the page and traffic through the website to merely scan through while browsing.

The recommendations began with supporting the page through referrals. The website as a whole gains a lot of traffic from uvm.edu referrals, but the antibiotic bead mold page does not. The second recommendation was to better geo target customers through services like Google Places. The third recommendation was to restructure or even break up the page to make finding relevant information faster. The final solution was to introduce web forms to the site. Forms should be available to request more information or order. They would be linked on the page a give interested buyers a more clear way to move forward.

Background:

I am currently interning at the University of Vermont Instrumentation and Model Facility (IMF). As part of my internship, I monitor the website traffic of the IMF website (http://its.uvm.edu/IMF/), using the Google Analytics code I installed. The IMF in a nonprofit subsidiary of the University that takes on custom design and fabrication projects both within UVM and from independent sources in the surrounding area. Using traditional machines and a new LaserJet 3D printer, they work primarily creating custom instruments, models, prototypes, and intricate replacement parts. The IMF is expanding to offer prefabricated versions of some of the better selling instruments. Two such products are the micro vessel profusion chambers (myographs) and the antibiotic bead molds.

Recently, the company noticed that the antibiotic bead molds page was not getting very much traffic. Albeit, IMF was aware that antibiotic bead molds are a very niche market, so no one was expecting a huge volume of traffic. A very basic search engine optimization project got the page up to around 20 visits a month (in relation to the 152 visits for the entire site).

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Through the flow had improved, IMF wanted to know the reason for the lack (actually complete dearth) of leads generated in addition to methods for further improving traffic flow. The IMF is not currently set up for E commerce or even web interest/order forms, so the only conversion gauge is the leads generated through calls and emails (information from the contact section of the website). They were particularly concerned with the lack of leads from the organic search traffic gained through the SEO project.

For a little background on the product, antibiotic bead molds are used to create antibiotic beads out of various mixtures of materials. The antibiotic beads are used in almost all hospitals and surgical centers to help prevent infection following specific surgeries. The beads are inserted before the wound is closed and prevent infections and bacterial growth.

Purpose:

To discover the reason(s) for the lack of interest generated in the antibiotic bead mold products by its page on the IMF website. Once discovered and analyzed, submit recommendations for correcting the performance of the page and generating leads.

Data:

My first step in analyzing the page was to look at the baseline report of organic search traffic to look for obvious issues. I limited the view to data from between February 19 (a week after the SEO project was completed) and ending at an even month on March 19. As Table 1 below shows, the page was in poor health. Views were slightly below desired at 13 – only 8% of the total website views. What was more concerning was the low average visit duration at 28 seconds, well below the site average of nearly three minutes. Additionally, the page was a full page below average at 1.85 pages per visit and the bounce rate was also significantly above average at 62.54%. These numbers demonstrate visitors that were: (1) Unengaged – demonstrated through the low visit duration and numbers of pages per visit – and (2) possibly directed to the wrong place – demonstrated by the high bounce rate and low visit duration. All of this data was in line with the lack of leads that the IMF had been receiving about the molds.

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As demonstrated in the data above, there was an issue in the traffic being attracted. For whatever reason, visitors coming to the page did not move forward into the website and did not stay long. My attention turned the keywords that were bringing these users to the page.

I knew from information about the SEO project that the page had been optimized for the keyword “antibiotic”, “bead molds”, and “musculoskeletal”. As the Table 2 notes, there were three visitors that came upon the page through “(not provided)” keywords (np - /imf/products/beadmold.aspx is a filter I found to apply the end of the landing page URL in

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Table 1: Baseline Organic Search Data

Table 2: Keyword Breakdown

place of the normal “not provided”). Looking at the results, we see the top keyword is “antibiotic cement bead molds”, which is exactly what we are selling. Bone cement is a material from which the beads are often molded. Other keywords that drew results were “antibiotic beads” and “antibiotic bead molds”. The related “ebi bead molds” also drew visitors. Some visitors specifically included “University of Vermont” in their search for beads or antibiotic beads. By in large, the visitors who were getting to the page were there looking for relevant information; however none of the keywords stuck out as preforming definitively better or worse than the others.

Knowing that the keywords were not the issue, I moved on to the locations. Table 3 shows the visitors to the website by region. Because working with the IMF usual entails visiting the facility, its service is limited to those willing to make the trip(presumably drive) to Vermont. This makes the primary target Vermont, Eastern New York, and New Hampshire with a secondary target of the greater New England area. As shown above, only two out of thirteen visitors were from this area, meaning that the site was essentially only relevant for 15% of viewers. Areas like California, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin would be difficult to service and are likely searching for closer options. Places like Tehran would be nearly impossible to service between language barriers and distance. This goes a long way toward explaining some of the negative metrics like bounce rate and time on page. It's very feasible that a cross state viewer might see the University of Vermont logo at the top of the page and realize this service might not be an ideal choice.

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Table 3: Visitor Location Breakdown

In Table 3, the targeted locations (Vermont and Connecticut) did not put forward much improvement in terms of time on page, bounce rate, and pages per visit. Though the sample size was small, this may hint that there are additional issues in addition to poor geographic targeting. Table 4 above highlights the traffic through the bead molds page. As indicated, the seventeen unique visitors resulted in seventeen drop offs; visitors are hitting a wall. This conclusion is reinforced by Table 5 below. Table 5 includes traffic coming through other parts of the website and shows all traffic moving through the bead mold page; it illustrates where visitors went after viewing the bead mold page. The pages visited after the bead mold page are the myograph page, the 3D printing page, and the general services page. There is no real definitive flow of visitors. It appears that most are just browsing through the products and services, instead of investigating and individual service. It is also worth noting that none of the interactions lead to the contact page, meaning that there were no near conversions.

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Table 4: General Visitor Flow

Recommendations:

To improve both traffic and lead generation from this page, a two part plan must be enacted involving both the targeting and the content of the page. The data has demonstrated: (1) the bead mold page is not keeping attention, (2) only a small percentage of search traffic is coming from targeted buyers, (3) those who land on the page are not moving on, and (4) traffic through the page has no direction and push toward conversion.

A simple way to generate traffic from interested visitors in the targeted area is to develop referral traffic similar to that of the rest of the site. Table 6 shows the overall traffic sources for the website. As shown, referrals account for the largest portion of general traffic, yet they are essentially a non-factor for the bead mold page (the only referral during the period came from mywebsearch.com). University of Vermont website is a great resource for IMF; currently receives a vast majority of its referrals through the University from a combination of the

University's site search, the IMF's listing in the directory, and through UVM news articles. As shown in Table 7, referrals from uvm.edu are largely from target markets (specifically Vermont). These visitors are engaged, with a strong visit duration of about two minutes, over three pages per visit average, and a below average bounce rate at 30.23%. It is important to recognize that the UVM website is not just for UVM researchers, scientists and Fletcher Allen Health Care Staff to whom molds have already been sold; grad students, alumni, and other community members also search the website and may be in need of such molds. To generate referral traffic to the bead mold page, the effort starts by updating the IMF entry to include a section about antibiotic

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Table 5: Visitor Flow Through Bead Molds Page

Table 6: Overall Traffic Sources

bead mold services and a link to the page. The next step is ensuring the the bead mold page appears on the uvm.edu internal search, topping desired keyword sets. Similar strategies to those used to boost Google presence can be employed. The final step is to keep UVM media up to date with IMF projects. Try to make a presence in medical department newsletters and ask for reviews, testimonials, and case studies form satisfied customers at UVM.

To correct the issue of visitors beyond the serviceable area, focus on optimizing the page for local searches. The simplest method is to register the IMF on Google Places. Make sure to list antibiotic bead molds in the description and fabrication under the business type. Follow the steps to verify your location with Google. Once complete, Google will associate IMF with its particular area boosting its ranking in local searches and lower its ranking in distant searches. It will also boost its results with relevant location keywords like “Vermont” or “Burlington”. Adding antibiotic bead molds in the description will give a reference to the bead mold page and boost its Google credibility and thus search rank. It could also lead to referrals from those searching Google Places for similar services. Another method to boost local results is to include a physical address in the header and or footer of the website, placing this information on every page. The address includes city, state, and zip code that search engines use to connect local searchers. This can be taken a step further by adding regional keywords to the page title, meta tag description, and body copy of the page.

The second set of changes are those needed to be made to the visible content of the page. As Table 8 indicates, the most clicked link on the bead mold page, at 31% of clicks, is the link titled “Antibiotic Bead Molds”. This shows that users are looking for more information on the bead molds. This problem is created because product information is split between the page and a .pdf brochure accessed through a bottom located under the picture. Additionally, the

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Table 7: Referral Traffic Breakdown

information that is displayed on the page is buried in a series of relatively long, wordy paragraphs. It is simple logic that many visitors do not have the desire to comb through long body text for a specific piece or two of information. The information in the brochure and page should be combined into a single page or series of pages. As much information as possible should be complied into charts and graphics to convey information quickly and efficiently. Key pieces of information (ie. prices, sizing information, usable materials, customization options, care instructions, etc.) should be discernible at a glance. Use bulleted lists and bold headings to convey important items that would otherwise get lost in paragraphs. Short paragraphs can be used in conjunction with these formats to highlight a competitive advantage, provide further detail, or give context.

The final change to improve this page is the implementation of web forms. A “Request More Information” form and an order form should be added under the Contact Us tab of the website. Both forms should be linked on the antibiotic bead mold page menu. Both Table 5 and Table 8 demonstrated that visitors to the bead mold page have a lot of confusion as to where to move on from the page. Each form provides a clear way to move forward with the product. The request form should ask for name, email, department (product or service), and a block for the actual question. The order form should have name, company, email, phone, desired model(s), and payment information. Both forms should be kept concise and simple to complete. Each provides value to the company; order forms are, obviously, sales and the request for information forms provided valuable leads. The “Thank you “ page after submitting one of these forms could then be tracked as a conversion in Google Analytics, allowing better analysis of the most valuable customers and the channels which brought them to the website.

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Table 8: In Page Click Report