Tracking users

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Tracking users

• Analyzing how people use your site

by Dylan Tweney www.tweney.com
dylan_at_tweney.com
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From Web logs to customer databases

• Web servers record massive amounts of data
• Making that data usable is another thing
  altogether!
• Web data is an integral part of e-business
  intelligence -- learn to love it
• If a Web site goes down and theres no one there
  to hear it, does it make a sound?

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A sample web traffic log
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Log file details

• net124.infoworld.com - - 15/May/2000135450
  -0400 "GET /weblog.shtml HTTP/1.1" 200 21583
  "http//www.tweney.com/" "Mozilla/4.0
  (compatible MSIE 5.0 Windows 98 DigExt)"
• j101.inktomi.com - - 15/May/2000135459 -0400
  "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 17931 "-" "Slurp/si
  (slurp_at_inktomi.com http//www.inktomi.com/slurp.h
  tml)"

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Finding useful information

• Forget hits
• Concentrate on pageviews and unique visitors
• Examine paths through site
• Relative page analysis (home page vs. other
  pages top pages on site)

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Referer log data

• How do surfers find your site?
• Search engine query terms - whats working?
• Whos linking to your site?

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Other important metrics

• Click-throughs (on banners, product offers, etc.)
• Conversion rates (sales!)
• Other business metrics Cost per customer, cost
  per sale, repeat customer rate, average
  transaction size, etc.

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Software that can help

• WebTrends
• Accrue Hit List (formerly Marketwave)
• Macromedia Aria (formerly Andromedia)

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Outsourcing options

• I/Pro
• Service Metrics
• Keynote
• WebCriteria

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Traffic analysis demo

• Sample WebTrends report
• click here

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Slicing and dicing

• Page views by section of your site
• Page views by day / hour
• Host domains / companies (AOL, etc.)
• Browsers / operating systems used
• Visiting robots

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Design / implementation / analysis loop

• Design for your customers
• Build and deploy -- then examine usage data
• Make sure data finds its way back to site
  builders!
• A/B testing (per Jeff Bezos)

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Demographics the holy grail of Web analysis

• (Its arduous to find, only the pure in heart can
  bring it home, and it usually arrives too late to
  help)
• More specifically Moving technical metrics to
  business context
• Integrating customer information with Web
  behavior
• Accrue Insight
• net.Genesis

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Specific customer behavior

• Identify your best customersand treat them
  accordingly!
• Requires some kind of user identification
  registration, login, cookies, unique URLs

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Security and privacy issues

• Dont do a DoubleClick
• Privacy statement Draft, and post
• Let users decide whether or not to share their
  data

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How to capture more valuable data

• Surveys
• and, as bait contests and giveaways
• Incentive programs for frequent customers /
  visitors (CyberGold, Beenz, Flooz)
• Search engine logs
• Email newsletters
• User registration
• Personalization

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Survey services/software

• Zoomerang
• CoolSurveys
• PinPoint

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Analyze your own search engine logs

• What are people searching for on your site?
• What searches turn up zero results?
• What searches turn up more than 2 screens of
  results?
• Close the loop with enhanced metatags,
  manually-crafted search results, jump keywords

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Using email to track usage

• A page view doesnt have to happen through a
  Web browser
• Opt-in newsletters are a terrific indication of
  interest
• Use unique URLs to track click-throughs on
  mailings
• HTML e-mail lets you count whos actually opening
  the messages

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User registration strategies

• Deliver real value in exchange for personal
  information / registration
• Cookies -- simplify subsequent identification /
  login
• Follow up with registered users after sale -- or
  non-sale -- via email survey
• Track registered users traffic vs. known data
  (e.g. purchase history, ZIP code)

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Personalization!

• Let your customers tell you what they want
• Completes the design/implement loop with
  customer-specific feedback -- automatically
• Example Amazon.com Recommendations (demo)

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Benchmarking

• Compare your site to the rest of the Web -- and
  your competitors
• Media Metrix
• BizRate.com
• Keynote Systems

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Conclusions

• The best designed-site in the world still needs
  real-world testing
• Listen to your users -- and watch them. Theyll
  tell you whats working -- and what needs to be
  fixed.
• Continue enhancing your site based on feedback
  traffic analysis.