32. “This year however, we have been required to follow up
via phone (which is a big drain on resources) as many of
our students can't find where their email is. In the
onversations with them I had to walk them through going
to the ualberta.ca homepage then clicking on
'apps@ualberta.ca'to find their email account. It has
become clear thatapps@ualberta.ca in no way translates to
'hey- that is where my email lives' to our students-
especially those new to the U of A.”
- collecting: just getting whatever data we can. make sure it’s valid - high level: visits, pageviews, demographic data - advanced collecting: click tracking, filtering, events, custom variables - detailed metrics: sources, segments, search, behaviour based on segment - useful/actionable: info from data on how users behave helps make the decisions about content and design
Many sites using different GA accounts viewed as completely separate sites Attribution model is incorrect other data also incorrect: search terms, pages/visit, new and returning, landing pages
rollup account solves this separate accounts can be used to do path tracking
what it looks like
sources to all ualberta sites - much more accurate than many different accounts
we have 100’s of accounts. also need to take into account how to manage
- what it looks like - managing users and access - maximize what you can do with accounts, profiles, filters etc - central account with admin means data is never lost
- GA in a good place - add other tools - Crazyegg: where are users clicking - KISS Metrics: what are users doing. paths, funnels, cohort - KISS Insights/Qualaroo: valuable qualitative data
- planning is key to capture the data you want - document what you’re doing. have something that team can refer back to
- must have goals set up - without goals, how do you know if you’re successful - old saying “if you can’t define success, you can’t measure success” - define it, measure it, improve it
- for us, the goals are obvious - match up to the University’s overall goals as per the president’s Dare to Discover
- it’s on all our pages. - new version, it will be even more prominent and consistent - track all of these - how are users converting
- goals in GA - can be used to measure full conversions or even an ‘almost conversion’ - almost means as close as we can get to final conversion, but we don’t have the tech or access to fully complete the cycle with analytics
- almost ready to launch institutional refresh. - looking at our past data (1 year) and making changes based on what we’ve seen - clicks, usability, patterns, SEARCH
- define our funnels. how to users get from entry to goal completion
- document each major section/page
- here’s what’s in the summary document
- metrics that matter
- search - i believe search is huge. - look at Google Trends - how they predict flu trends - GOA using Google Search Appliance
- nearly half our traffic comes via search - very search-centric society
- more so now that address bars double as a search bar
you can see it in contributions to conversions - from FOI 2012
- and conversion rates
- search is intent - tells you exactly what people are looking for or how they see you - look for branded search - people who want to find you
- where users come from determines behaviour - not everyone is the same
- site search - what can’t people find - what are you not making available
- search rates from specific pages - how hard is a page to use - people searching for links that are right on the page - convocation example
- email
- webmail to apps - people on campus over the last 2 years were communicated to - new people - NO IDEA
- document it
- what are the goals and how will we determine success
