Brian Alpert July 14, 2010 Leveraging Web Analytics and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Project Workshop

2 Agenda What is the project? Where do we want to go? Starting the Conversation

What is the project? 3

4 The Project and SI’s Strategic Plan Assess and recommend improvements relating to two of the Strategic Plan’s six priorities –Measure Outcomes (web analytics) –Broaden Access (search engine optimization - SEO) Examine a cross-section of the Institution’s internally hosted, public-facing websites Interview web practitioners for those and other SI sites Summarize SI and industry best practices

5 SI Web Analytics Challenges Data collection & reporting silo’d Data may not inform website improvements –i.e., it is “non-actionable” Quantity of data unmanageable Strategy to leverage both WebTrends and Google Analytics not fully articulated –Resources to program analytics code are limited Pan-institutional benchmarking –Varied formats prevent apples-to-apples comparisons

6 Project Results: Web Analytics Foster understanding of what’s being done; gaps Educate web practitioners on using “actionable” data to drive improvements, experiments Understand what are the common “most desired behaviors” across multiple SI sites Explore opportunities for benchmarking and pan- institutional commonalities Create prototype for a pan-institutional dashboard –Measurements relevant to most (or all) Units –This won’t be enough – individualized metrics will still be critical

7 SI SEO Challenges Level of SEO knowledge / awareness Degree of SEO implementation Standards for SEO tagging and content SEO benchmarking across SI and competition SEO analytics

8 Project Results: SEO Immediate goal: clearer understanding within SI –SEO factors –Best practices –Current gaps –Set the stage for creating more “search-friendly” sites Next step: improved “findability” of SI websites –Broadened access to SI web content –Reaching new audiences –Enable them to find “hidden gems” –Higher user satisfaction

Where do we want to go? 9

10 Avinash Kaushik Google’s “Analytics Evangelist” –Author, Web Analytics 1.0 / Web Analytics 2.0 –Blog, “Occam’s Razor” A holistic approach to analytics –Identify business (i.e., Unit) objectives –Improve the site to support them –Understand and implement site user segmentation –Design metrics which focus less on what is occurring; more on why

11 “Web Analytics 2.0” Framework Source:

12 Web Analytics 2.0 Framework (cont’d) The What – Clickstream Analysis –WebTrends, Google Analytics –Foundational data –Website User Segmentation The How Much – Analyzing Outcomes –Most Desired Behaviors (a.k.a. conversions) Buy something Join a group or membership View a video Download something Sign-up for newsletter Register for an event Submit contact form

13 Web Analytics 2.0 Framework (cont’d) The Why (1) – Experimentation and Testing –A/B and/or multivariate testing –Google Website Optimizer The Why (2) – Voice of the Customer –Qualitative data –Satisfaction, loyalty, willingness to recommend –ForeSee Results –Focus Groups The What Else – Competitive Intelligence –Peer Sites –Sites doing better on search engines –Compete.com, Hitwise Use these together to get to… The Gold – Insights

14 “Web Analytics 2.0” Framework Source:

15 User Segmentation Website users can be segmented by types of website behavior –E.g., people who spend >X min. on the site –People who come from a specific place (Search engine, *.edu, Wikipedia, Google images, etc.) –People who look at specific site sections or content types Website “user segments" are different than audience segments (students, scientists, teachers, vacation planners, etc.)

16 Avinash Kaushik on User Segmentation “Segmentation is the primary (only?) way of identifying actionable insights.” “Segmenting your data is key to your success.” “All data in aggregate is “crap.””

17 User Segmentation Video From Occam’s Razor blog post –Videos: Actionable Web Analytics Tips – web-analytics-tips.htmlhttp:// web-analytics-tips.html Or… search Google for “actionable web analytics tips”

Starting the Conversation 18

Starting the Conversation 19 Web practitioner survey ‘Food for Thought’ handout discusses Actionable data “Most desired behaviors” a.k.a. conversions Discussion The current state of web analytics and SEO at SI Your needs and challenges Feedback re the proposed approach Questions?

Thanks! 20 Brian Alpert

Backup 21

22 Project Steps: Web Analytics Interview selected web practitioners (4 weeks) –Provide project overview –Conduct survey –Gather feedback Workshop / SharePoint survey (2 weeks) –Incorporate feedback from first group –Send linking to SharePoint survey –Collect in-use dashboards Assess tool usage and dashboards (4 weeks) –Google Analytics instances –WebTrends custom reports Compile materials (2 weeks) –Dashboards –Data elements Write and present recommendations (4 weeks)

23 Project Steps: SEO Interview selected web practitioners (4 weeks) –Provide project overview –Conduct survey –Gather feedback Workshop / SharePoint survey (2 weeks) –Incorporate feedback from first group –Send linking to SharePoint survey –Collect in-use dashboards Perform SEO site audits (4 weeks) Compile site inventory/characteristics (2 weeks) –Site inventory –SEO best practices –Recommended analytics –Other recommendations Write and present recommendations (4 weeks)

24 Project Deliverables: Web Analytics Report summarizing current tools and methodologies Collection and assessment of current dashboards Summarize Institution and Industry best practices Recommend improvement in tools and/or best practices Recommend standards for actionable data Prototype pan-institutional dashboard

25 Project Deliverables: SEO Report summarizing SEO characteristics assessed Inventory of websites analyzed and how they conform to these characteristics Recommend improvements in website SEO findability Recommend improvements in tools and/or best practices Recommend SEO-related dashboard measurements Summary of current industry and Institution best practices

26 Project Schedule Information gatheringJune 1 – July 23 –Interview web practitioners –Workshop(s) –Survey Assess tools, dashboard, sites July 26 – Aug 20 Compile materialsAug 23 – Sep 3 Write and present recommendations Sep 6 – Sep 30