Visualize goals with your website

The road forward to a well-workable website is to constantly develop the site until it fulfills your goals with the activity it creates. Tools for analyzing web statistics can measure traffic and behaviour - they describe facts and present the numbers in tables.  The trick is to transform the measurements into a clear indication of reachable goals.

The biggest problem with the measurement of visitor traffic is not the lack of data, on the contrary - there are large amounts of data.  The problem is rather that data is stored in an unstructured format and in different, unreachable, storage places. For this reason the first analytical tools were developed, progressed and evolved.

Often, statistics are interpreted for the purpose of deciding if the traffic that a website has is good or bad, and for determining what the visitor does when they are visiting. To set up measureable goals which are possible to influence is an art in itself.  It’s important to define goals and KPI’s (Key Performance Indicator) and then use these to measure development towards the organisation’s goal.

A KPI is always an intersection, a percentage value or similar. It always constitutes a calculation of some sort with a minimum of two values to show how much of a goal was reached.

One example of a KPI is the calculation of a number of page views by visitors. In this example (pictured, right) the goal is that every visitor should view four different pages. The diagram on the right shows that this goal is not reached.

Since the amount of data in tables and graphics which is reported by analytical tools is extensive, it becomes too much information for many report consumers. It is best to limit the amount of information being presented and focus on the measurements which are relevant to every report consumer.

By collecting relevant data in a dash board and presenting it in an easy and “measurable” way increases the possibility that the data will be used.

In many cases the content of a number of report tables and graphs can be summarized with a pair of quick overviews. 

Modern analytics tools for web statistics have this functionality and these can be tailored for each report consumer.

The question is no longer what can be displayed in reports, but rather what would you like to have visualized on your desk for web analysis?

The view of web statistics you get should reflect your Key performance Indicators and goals. You then have the possibility of quickly discovering and influencing what is happening on your web site.


By Fulton Yancy
Visual Sciences, Inc.  
http://www.visualsciences.com