Don't throw the baby out with the
bath water...
The need for a website emetrics audit before major design
changes
So you have decided on a design makeover
for the website. Or perhaps it's the boss who thinks it
needs refreshing and a bit of a lift.
Carrying out an emetrics audit before
a redesign, or any major change to a site, is essential
if you are going to assess the benefits of your investment.
It will also enable you to make sure that everything you
change is for the better and that the things that are really
working well don't get swept away.
So what do you look for?
Current overall visitor levels - this might seem obvious but if you don't know how many
visitors are coming to your site before the change how can
you assess its impact?
Returning visitors - how many
of your current visitors have visited the site before. Your
returning visitors usually represent your best prospects,
after all they are interested enough to bookmark your site
and come back. Identifying returning visitors requires the
presence of cookies. If you are using a hosted emetrics
service (one using JavaScript) to monitor traffic this will
be done automatically. If you are analysing log files then
your site must set a persistent cookie in order to recognise
returning visitors.
Conversion rates - how many
purchases, enquiry forms, subscriptions or whatever your
site purpose is, are you getting both in absolute terms
and as a percentage of total traffic?
Search engine referrals and rankings - the more sites that are sending traffic to you the better.
This will depend upon your rankings and overall visibility,
which in turn requires that the spiders are crawling your
site - assuming you are doing your seo job properly. It
is essential you prepare a rankings report on your major
keywords before you undertake any major site changes. It
is equally important to know how well your site is being
spidered before the changes are implemented. This will show
either that the current architecture is spider friendly
or that the design changes need to include better spiderablity
if that is a problem.
Site stickiness - how many
of your visitors leave the site immediately, usually defined
as being less than 5 seconds, without navigating beyond
the entry page. The figure of short visits needs to be kept
as low as possible, and how low is acceptable will depend
on how well you can, and want, to define your target market.
If you have a well established market, such as digital cameras,
then anyone not looking for digital cameras is of no use
to you. You may feel differently however if, on the other
hand, you are working in a new market, photobooks for example.
Here not everyone who is a potential customer is familiar
with the product and therefore looking for it, so you may
decide to try and capture anyone looking for anything on
photography. This is going to reduce your site stickiness
but may be a worthwhile price to pay in order to increase
awareness of a new product or service. Lots of factors affect
site stickiness, for example the graphic design of the site
and the way in which the navigation is structured in particular
will affect how effective a site is in retaining its visitors.
Making sure you have a bench mark before any site changes
are made is vital if you are to assess whether any change
is a success and to what extent.
Entry pages - which pages
are visitors entering your site by? Web designers often
feel most comfortable with everyone entering through the
front door and following the path set for them. However,
if this is what is happening then your site is missing a
huge opportunity. Every content rich page on your site is
potential entry point, and has the potential to be optimised
for specific keywords. Further, conversion rates are likely
to be higher if a visitor enters the site on a page that
offers him the particular information he is looking for.
Navigation paths - the idea
that there is one unique route from home page to order page
is a fallacy. The number of ways of getting from the entry
page to the order page soon reaches infinity for any site
with more than a very small number of pages. But you can
look at how long it takes a customer to reach the order
page and this is a very useful metric. The sooner the visitor
places his order with the least number of clicks the better.
So how do we use all this information?
There are two things it can do for you.
Firstly it will show you what is,
and what is not, working before any changes are undertaken
and this provides an invaluable starting point for the design
team. For example, if you have a high number of returning
visitors, look to see why they are coming back, and make
sure whatever it is stays there after the makeover. Conversely,
if there are very few returners, ensure that the redesign
addresses this problem; perhaps a tip of the month on the
home page is the answer, or a special offer will bring them
back. It may simply be that the home page needs to make
it clearer what the reason to keep coming back is!
Secondly, it provides a benchmark
so that you can measure the effectiveness of the changes
you introduce. If the very worst happens and the new site
performs less well than the original, your website audit
will be invaluable in providing with you the ability to
identify what went wrong. If the traffic increases but more
people leave, you will probably look first at graphic design
issues. If search engine referrals suddenly drop, then the
first place to look will probably be the spiderability of
the architecture.
Web analytics and emetrics give the
webmaster abilities to understand their customers and potential
customers to a degree unimaginable in the offline world.
Failing to capitalise on it is like trying to find the bull's
eye with your eyes shut.
Sally Kavanagh
22nd June 2005
News release: London 26th May
Search Engine Workshops partners with SafeBuy
SafeBuy, the UK’s leading web retailer accreditation
scheme, is to recommend training workshops and seminars
presented by Search Engine Workshops Ltd to its rapidly
expanding membership. The move has been made as part of
SafeBuy’s programme of providing information on all
aspects of web retailing to its members.
As every web retailer knows, promoting a website is key
to online success. However, SafeBuy is increasingly concerned
about the lack of knowledge web retailers have regarding
online marketing. This is leaving them vulnerable to unscrupulous
search engine optimisation (SEO) companies. It also means
that many online retailers are losing potential sales through
poorly optimised sites, as well as spending more on online
advertising than is necessary. As a result of the current
situation, SafeBuy realises the need for its members to
be well informed about website promotion and online marketing
in all its many forms and has found in Search Engine Workshops
the expertise and impartiality it requires.
Search Engine Workshops Ltd provides training seminars
and workshops on the strategies and techniques used in online
promotion and web analytics, information that every marketing
manager responsible for web retailing needs in his armoury.
The knowledge gained on these seminars and workshops is
equally vital when the decision is made to outsource the
online marketing function. This will ensure that anybody
responsible for the online success of a web site will be
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Details of the SafeBuy accreditation scheme and the benefits
it brings to online retailers can be found at http://www.safebuy.org.uk and information on the seminars and workshops presented
by Search Engine Workshops Ltd is available at http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk.
Search Engine Workshops Ltd
Rosedale House
Rosedale Road
Richmond
TW9 2SZ
26th May 2005
