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Measuring Web Site Success Jim Feck, Union College Rachel Reuben, SUNY New Paltz Ned Stankus, Hamilton College On the Agenda • How to set measurable goals for your site • Tools/methods to measure your site’s success – – – – Log file analysis Focus Groups Surveys Usability studies • Best practices for using those tools • What to do with the “data” once you have it Guiding Principles • Your numbers are wrong – Trends are important – Consistency is key to everything • Set specific (and realistic) goals – Need to accommodate both the technology and the end user • Use quantitative data to back up qualitative data and vice-versa • Look for trends in resources accessed Analytics: Log File Analysis • How it works – Definitions • Tools available – – – – – WebTrends Urchin ClickTracks Analog “Hosted” Solution (Embedded JavaScript code) • “Myths” • Best practices • Success/failure stories/gotchas Analytics: “Other” • Mass e-mail effectiveness • Search engines • Third-party and legacy systems – Virtual Advisor – ChatU – Webcast • Homegrown apps – News – E-Newsletter • Error tracking – E-Mail Notifications Focus Groups • What are they? • When to use focus groups? • How? – Target audiences – Open discussion • Outcomes • Focus groups yield qualitative (subjective) data Usability Testing • What is it? • When to use usability testing? • How? – Target audiences – Open discussion • Outcomes • Usability testing yields both qualitative AND quantitative data Surveys • What are they? – Types • When to use surveys? – Each type • How? – Target audiences – Tools • Outcomes • Surveys can yield both qualitative AND quantitative data (depending on questions) Summary • Focus groups – Broad strokes – Subjective – Easy to perform • Usability testing – More granular – More defined • Surveys Metrics We Can’t Live Without – – – – – – – – – – – – – Page/site popularity - comparing date ranges Click paths (to and from) Internal search terms Referrals/referral search terms Browser (user agent) tracking Dynamic page query data Downloads for non-html files Entrance/Exit pages Unique/Repeat visitors (more reliable with cookies) E-mail clickthrough Admissions Surveys Time on site Error reports Promoting yourself and your office • Summarize findings regularly to key administrators – Analytics of all types educate you and everybody else – Keeps the Web on the radar screen – In the long run, this education helps build support for the work you do every day. Reading List Web Usability • Don’t Make Me Think! (Steve Krug) • Designing Web Usability (Jakob Nielsen) Log File Analysis/Visitor Tracking • Web Metrics (Jim Sterne) Other: • Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results (Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg) Questions? [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]