WEBVTT - How Web Analytics Work 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.760 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.320 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer and 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:21.000 how Stuff Works and I love all things tech and 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.960 tech stuff. Listener Wrath wanted me to do a show 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:31.240 about web analytics, and specifically about web analytics and your 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.320 personal data. Your data being the general you out there, 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.360 like how much of your personal data gets wrapped up 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.280 in web analytics. This is actually a really big topic, 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.199 so I'm going to take a couple of episodes to 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.559 cover it, and this first one we're gonna talk just 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.599 about web analytics, what they are, why they are necessary 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.640 in the web that we know and love today, And 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.480 in the next episode, I'll go more into detail about 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.880 the sort of data that they can gather are about you. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.920 So there's a lot to consider. Some of it gets 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.240 a little technical, but we're gonna go light on that. 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.760 Will will explain what the technical aspects are, but we 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.720 won't get too bogged down because it would involve talking 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.640 about lines of code and that would get pretty awkward 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.560 without visual aids. Uh. A lot of this can get 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:24.560 a little scary because web analytics are valuable, and they 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.400 really do chip away at your privacy. But let's start 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:31.880 from the top. What are web analytics. Well, at their 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.800 most basic level, web analytics would be a collection of 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:41.520 tools and strategies that allow people to collect and measure 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:48.560 Internet data, specifically user generated Internet data, typically as a 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:53.960 way to understand user behavior, and that is done so 0:01:54.040 --> 0:02:00.400 that the website owner can optimize experiences and leverage that 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.600 user behavior in some way that ultimately corresponds to making money. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.080 If I'm gonna be and entirely honest about this, it's 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.200 all about figuring out how to make the most compelling 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.280 experience to maximize the most return on an investment, that 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.880 investment being the time, money, and effort you put in 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.560 to creating a website. So this is not necessarily the 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:26.920 owner of the website and might be the advertising company 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:31.720 that brokers deals with various companies to place ads on websites. 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.160 But somewhere there's a person who's analyzing, or more likely 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.120 a system that's analyzing this information in an effort to 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.160 maximize that return. Now, in many ways, this is kind 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.960 of following a long tradition that's been effective in meat space, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.200 you know, in the real world. If you go to 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.160 a brick and mortar shop regularly, you've probably noticed that 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:56.720 sometimes stuff gets moved around the shop might reorganize. Most 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.560 of the time, this is because the shop owners are 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.919 trying to change things up in order to encourage more purchases. 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.840 So grocery stores are a great example of this. The 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:11.160 layout of your basic supermarket in the United States tends 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.400 to be fairly standard. No matter what type of store 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.000 you go to. It could be a Kroger or a Wegman's, 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.200 or a Whole Foods or a Piggy Wiggly or a 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.600 safe Way or whatever, they all tend to have a 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.880 similar layout. So you walk in, you probably will see 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.280 flowers very frequently grocery stores and supermarkets. While flowers near 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.080 the entrance, this sets a pleasant scene. It reminds people 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:40.120 of freshness, bright colors. Behind that you typically find the 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:44.360 produce that contains fruits and vegetables and vibrant colors, and 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:46.840 that again engages your senses. It makes you think of 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.080 the food is being fresh. Over in the bakery section, 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.640 you've got an area which typically creates a lot of 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:58.160 very pleasing smells that will often make you feel hungry. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.760 That means that when you're hung greet you you tend 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.080 to buy more than what you need. Right. So, if 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.080 you've ever had this experience, you know what I'm talking about. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.040 You go into the grocery store, you've got a list, 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.320 You've got three things on your list, You walk by 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.960 that bakery. Next thing you know, you're in the checkoutline 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.360 with eight things in your cart. Instad of the three 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.200 things that you had planned. Happens to the best of us, 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.000 and it happens by design, by the design of the 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.920 grocery stores. They people figure this out. They said, well, 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.000 let's put this here because we'll make more sales. This 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:27.800 has all been studied, by the way. I'm not just 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.920 spit balling here. This is why grocery stores are laid 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.960 out the way they are. Uh. You also see this 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.680 in various types of box stores where the big ticket, 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.159 very popular items, maybe very far from the entrance that 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.359 requires you to walk through the rest of the store 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.400 in order to take a look at those things. These 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.640 areas that have a high interest level, and the hope 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.000 is that along the way you'll see something else that 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.080 catches your eye and you'll pick that up. To Now, 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:59.560 stores will experiment with where certain products should sit on shelves. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.080 Sometimes you might display one product a shelf higher than 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:06.839 what it was on before, and that's all it will 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.800 take to move more units. Large chains might use certain 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.200 stores as test sites and they'll work on a new 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.760 layout configuration on this test site to see how well 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.200 it plays out in that market before they make a 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.240 decision about whether or not they'll roll it out to 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:25.400 everybody else. This is essentially what we call a B testing. 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.560 So a B testing is something that you see in 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.680 website design where you've got someone creating a website layout 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:38.000 typically and they deploy that layout so that some users 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.839 when they come to visit the site, see version A 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:45.280 of a website. Some users see version B, and then 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:49.400 they analyze the behaviors of users on A versus B 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:54.040 and see if there is a measurable difference in behaviors 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:56.960 so that you can determine well, it turns out that 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.760 version A people are not sticking around very long, the 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.920 version B people are engaged much more with the content 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.920 of the website. So this is a way of testing 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:12.040 out different approaches, different design layouts in order to determine 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.119 what is the most effective one. And it's the same 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.960 thing that we see in the real world. Uh, they 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:23.159 scrutinize web ALEXA is scrutinized Internet user behavior to get 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.920 a deeper understanding of what people want and what they 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:31.520 like so that website designers and advertisers can tweak their 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.080 approaches to tap into that and get the best result. 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.320 That result might be to get people to subscribe to 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.880 a service, to purchase products, to support a nonprofit, or 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.080 just spend more time on the web page. So let's 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.960 talk about how this might play out using actual web 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.120 pages as an example. And I'm going to use how 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:53.200 Stuff Works dot Com as an example because I used 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.640 to write articles for that site and I was in 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.640 meetings where we were talking about site design and what 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.280 was in iportant and the elements that we're going to 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.280 go into play and how that was going to change things. 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.640 And so I've seen a lot about the ways that 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.040 people will analyze traffic data and try to use that 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.800 to help guide decisions for form and content. So How 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.600 Stuff Works, like many websites, generates revenue from ads placed 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.080 on the page. This is at the very heart of 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.680 why web analytics are so important. It's because of the 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:32.160 revenue model for making money on the web. The very 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:36.280 hard and soul of that is web advertising. So ads 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.960 can be based on a per click basis. That means 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.480 the advertiser only pays the web page for the actual 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.239 number of clicks the ads generate. So if the ads 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:48.640 do not get many clicks, the web page does not 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.640 make very much money. There are other variations of this, 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:55.520 but it's a general approach. There are things that you 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.960 can do to help engage more clicks. The positioning of 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:00.960 the ad on the web page but comes really important. 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.880 But the other important element is making sure the ads 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.440 actually appealed to the site's users. If you have a 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:10.280 fan page set up for a cartoon show, for example, 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.600 and you show ads that are for a professional video 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.960 conferencing service for medium to big businesses, that might not 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.480 get very many clicks because the ads that you're displaying 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:27.040 don't necessarily appeal to the audience coming to your website. Now, 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.160 the other approach besides this per click basis is to 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.440 have a fixed rate ad. Now, these ads have a 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.920 set rate, as I just mentioned, and typically that is 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:42.120 defined as per impressions or page views. So if you 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.040 hear people talk about impressions, they're really talking about how 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.360 many times has a device loaded that page. That is 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.480 an impression. The more page views a site gets, the 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.079 more money it will make off the ads that are 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.760 on those pages. And typically we measure this in the 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:02.440 thousands using the unit CPS. That's cost per meal meal 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.880 being one thousand m I L l E. So it's 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.079 not one million, it's one thousand. So if a website 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.760 charges advertisers or rate of two dollars CPM, that means 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.319 the advertiser will pay the publisher two dollars for every 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.760 one thousand impressions or page views that page generates that 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:25.120 has the ad on it. Right, So the ideas that well, 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.880 we've we've shown that this page has been loaded one 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.199 thousand times. Uh, that means your ad has been viewed 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:36.839 one thousand times on on various devices, not necessarily by 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.640 one thousand people, because if you have a website that 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:44.880 reloads frequently for some reason or another, then those uh, 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.960 those impressions could represent fewer than a thousand people, but 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.760 it would still be one thousand impressions you would get 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:57.040 the two dollars. Page Views and people are two very 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.360 different things. If you can rack up a large number 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.000 of page views with a limited number of people, that 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.520 still counts towards CPM. And this is why so many 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.720 web pages have things like quizzes or image galleries or 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.640 slide shows. Each time the page refreshes to give you 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.679 a new question or a new hilarious cat meme, that's 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.959 an impression. That's a page view. So if you've ever 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.040 gone to an article where it's not really an article, 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.240 it's a slide show and you have to click next 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.960 after each thing. This is largely why because it's a 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.240 way to engage the user to keep on clicking through 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.280 and refreshing the page, and it's a way to generate 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.840 those impressions. And the math is simple. Why would you 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.360 create a web page with the top twenty comedy movies 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.960 of all time and you put it all on one 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.839 page so you get one impression per visitor when they 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.520 come in to read your article. Or you could do 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.000 the smart thing, you create a slide show, and you 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.800 could potentially get twenty page views per visitor. Now, not 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.800 every visitor is going to stick around for all twenty items, 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.679 but even if they only show up and bounce, like 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.680 they see the first page and they see, oh, this 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:12.360 is a slide show, I don't want to use this, 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.080 and they go away, You're not gonna get fewer impressions 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:18.360 than if they were all on the same page. Right. 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:23.600 If you attract ten thou people, let's say, to your 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.400 one page version of the top twenty movies comedy movies 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.120 of all time, and they read the whole thing, that's great. 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.200 If you attract ten thousand to your slide show and 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:38.720 eight thousand of them just look at that first page 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.240 and they leave, but the other two thousand start clicking 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.960 at least a little bit, You've generated more than ten 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:49.520 thousand impressions. So it is a strategy that works, which 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.880 is why you see it out there now. I am 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.960 not a huge fan of that particular type of web 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.280 design from a user perspective, but from a business perspective, 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.600 I totally get it. It's a page view manufacturing machine, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.240 and if the industry depends upon page views as a 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:11.199 way of measuring engagement and therefore tied to revenue, then 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.080 finding ways to maximize page views is always going to 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:18.080 be a priority. It's not necessarily the quality of the interaction, 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.800 but the quantity the number of impressions. However, quality can 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:25.839 matter too, and that's because websites have to first figure 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.200 out how much do they charge for those CPMs. You know, 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.560 I gave that two dollar figure, but that was just 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.719 a random example. A site that can demonstrate that its 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.439 users feel they're getting a really good quality experience can 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.240 typically demand much higher rates than other sites. If you 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:45.920 have a lot of traffic coming to your website, and 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.400 you can also demonstrate that the people who come to 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:52.120 your website are really engaged, they really stick around. They 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:56.320 often will explore the website or stay on pages for 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.319 a very long time. That shows that you have a 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.000 higher value you then a website that might get a 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.200 lot of people coming in, but then immediately they leave. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.000 So this ties into a concept called bounce rate I 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.480 mentioned bounce earlier. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.920 website visitors who leave or bounce after viewing just one page, 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.920 like a landing page or a home page. You want 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.360 your bounce rate to be really low because you want 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.760 visitors to be engaged in your site. You want them 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.439 to not just come to the landing page, but maybe 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.240 click on some of the links that go to other 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.360 pages in your website, and it shows that your site 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.600 has value. Plus, chances are you want people engage because 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.080 you put a lot of work into a website, and 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:40.480 it would be depressing if no one ever went beyond 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.600 a single page view. You know, why would you go 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:49.880 through the trouble of designing a fully engrossing website when 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.520 everyone just comes to one page on that site and 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:54.800 then they say, no, I'm out of here. That would 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.560 be really upsetting. And so a low bounce rate tends 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:00.480 to look really good to advertise. There's this is a 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.760 signal that says users value their time here, and so 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.880 you're advertising will be featured on a really good website. 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.000 And again, another important quantity to measure is the amount 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.559 of time people will spend on a web page. Do 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.400 you want that number to be high so you want 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.480 the bounce right to be low. The amount of time 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.640 spent on a web page to be high. That shows 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.760 people are spending more time on your service. That's attractive 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.160 to advertisers. It's a great way to demand higher CPM 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.120 rates if you can demonstrate that users come to your 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.440 site and spend a lot of time there. For one 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.760 thing that tells advertisers your site is a good spot 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.560 to reach people. If the time spent on your pages 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.520 is low. That might tell advertisers, hey, you know, maybe 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:42.560 don't put ads here because no one is spending enough 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.400 time on an individual page to even register that there 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.280 is an ad. If the average time spent on a 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:50.200 page on your site is half a minute or less 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.720 and you have lots of long articles, that indicates that 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.200 most users aren't actually reading the content you've created, and 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.920 that is not a good thing. So you want your 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:01.800 once right low. You want the amount of time you 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.600 spent spent on an individual page on your site to 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.520 be high, and that will keep advertisers interested in your 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:09.960 site as a place where ads may be most effective. 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.960 Beyond that, knowing that your users like one thing over 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:16.680 another in general is really helpful because it can help 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:22.200 you match up advertisers that are most appropriate for your demographic. Again, 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.360 let's going back to that fictional fan page I talked 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.000 about creating a fan site for a cartoon show. Let's 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.360 say you've done that and you've got great engagement, You've 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.280 got a really low bounce rate. People are spending a 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.160 good amount of time on your page and they're exploring 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.600 the various links on there. Then maybe you reach out 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.960 and you find an online store that sells merchandise related 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.400 to the show that your site is a fan site of. 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.760 That's a no brainer. That's a perfect relationship, and you 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.000 could probably demand decent CPMs for that, and ideally everyone benefits. 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.240 The advertiser gets a good spot to show ads, visitors 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.640 to the website have the opportunity to purchase merchandise related 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.200 to the show they love, you earn money from the impressions. 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:09.800 That's the idea. So generally speaking, it's not the worst 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.080 thing in the world, right this web analytics. It's the 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:16.040 idea of not just the advertising part, although that plays 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.880 a big part of this, but also what do my 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.600 users like? And how can I make my website more 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:24.560 of what my users like? How can I get rid 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.800 of stuff they don't like? How can I emphasize stuff 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.560 they do like and make a better experience so that 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.480 the work I put in is rewarded and I feel 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.320 good about what I've done, right, Like, I feel a 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:41.960 sense of accomplishment because I've created something that people value. Uh, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.800 It's a very powerful feeling. Now, I got a lot 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.120 more to say about web analytics, but before I get 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.320 into any more of that, let's take a quick break 0:16:50.360 --> 0:17:02.000 to thank our sponsor. Right to actually measure stuff like 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.480 bounce rate, time spent on pages, user preferences. We rely 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.520 on web analytics, and there are companies that specialize in 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:14.320 providing web analytics tools. Google is one of the big ones. Uh. 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.439 These services provide a ton of information to website owners 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:19.320 to help them keep an eye on how things are 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.399 going and how to react nimbly when an opportunity or 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:27.000 a crisis arises. The web analysis depends not only on tools, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.640 but also some assumptions, and one of those assumptions is intent. 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.879 When you look at an analysis, you are assuming that 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:40.600 the behavior you're studying was intentional. So let's say again, 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.040 let's let's start with how stuffworks dot com. That site 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.880 has a lot of individual pages, hundreds hundreds of pages. 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:52.280 There are thousands of articles about all sorts of different subjects, 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.840 from technology to culture, to finance, everything else. There's a 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.840 home page which features links to new articles. There's probably 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.359 older articles up there that are maybe timely because of 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.680 something that's going on in the news, or maybe there's 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.560 some classic articles that are mixed in because they've consistently 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.920 performed well over time, so they're they're dependable whatever the case. 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.480 There are several links on the homepage that go directly 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.000 to articles, so you click on that and you're in 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.720 an article. There are also links that go to channel pages. 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.080 These are broader categories of topics like computers or electronics, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.000 so you can click on that and go to the 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.639 homepage for that channel. And then there's also a search 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.119 engine tool so that you can actually search for articles 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.440 about a specific topic. If there's something you have in mind. Now, 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.760 when you're analyzing web traffic across the site, you want 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.760 to take close look at all the behavior. You want 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.440 to see how many people clicked into an article from 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:52.920 the homepage versus going through a channel link, like something 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.840 that was linked through going through one of those channel 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.359 landing pages or using a search engine. You want to 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.280 see how many people clicked into an article from an 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:07.240 external search engine, or maybe a piece of content somewhere 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.040 else on the web, something that's not on one of 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.960 your web pages but is linked from someone else's to 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.600 your site, or from a social media platform. There might 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:20.280 be social media marketing campaigns that you're running, and you 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.720 want to include a little string of data that will 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.680 let you know if someone's clicking into that article from 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.879 say Twitter or Facebook. All of that is valuable information 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.160 and it helps you figure out how were your well 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.560 your design works. So if most of your traffic is 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.000 coming in through search, it means you perform well when 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.960 people search stuff in in engines like Google. Like they're 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:42.520 looking for a topic in Google and your site is 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.640 popping up. That's great, Hey, you've got great seo. Your 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:50.160 website is is up in the first few uh selections 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.880 in a search engine. And we know from research that 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.359 if you are on the first page, you have a 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:59.640 lot better chance of having someone click on your length 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:04.040 than if you're buried down on page three or lower. Now, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.320 a lot of people don't go past the second page 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.720 if they don't see what they're looking for. But if 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:11.600 that's the case, if most of your traffic is coming 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.199 in through search, that might indicate that your homepage is 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:16.439 not really a popular spot for people to visit just 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:18.880 on their own. So that might mean you should look 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.240 into a redesign for your homepage to attract more visitors 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.480 to say, this is a website you want to check regularly, 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.359 not just come here when you are searching for something, 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.280 and we happen to have what it is you're searching for. 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.200 But no matter what conclusions you draw from this data, 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.280 you're doing it based on the assumption that the users 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:44.000 intended to navigate to those links, Whether they did so 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.879 through a search engine, a link on another site, or 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:51.080 through the home page. Your analysis depends upon that assumption. 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.320 So if people ended up on your site by chance, 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.520 by mistake, that doesn't tell you anything other than there 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.240 may be links to your site that are misleading or 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.600 easy to click on by accident. Um. I'm reminded of 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.640 a lot of older web advertisements that were pop over 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.120 ads that would suddenly show up in front of your 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.159 view on a website, and it was very easy to 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:17.840 accidentally click on one while you were looking at a website, 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:19.320 because it would pop up just as you were about 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.280 to click on something else, and you would navigate to 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.560 whatever the ad linked you to. Well, that's not an 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:30.600 intentional click. That's that's like a shell game. It's smoke 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:34.760 and mirrors. It's it's tricking you, scamming you into clicking, 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.520 not to fool you or not to convince you to 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.080 buy anything, but because that makes it look really good 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.800 to your clients. Right, if you are a company that 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.760 that places ads on stuff and you can turn to 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.520 a potential client and say, here's the number of clicks 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.000 that are last campaign generated. Look how how popular it was, 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:58.240 and you just leave out the little detail that most 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:02.280 of those clicks were gathered by subterviews. Then you might 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.520 be able to land the juicy contract. It's not very ethical, 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.119 but it did happen quite a bit. Doesn't happen so 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.040 much in that format anymore. I'm sure it happens like 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:16.679 crazy and other formats still, So accidental traffic might count 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.640 the same as intentional when you're looking at number of impressions, 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:23.679 but it's not exactly a healthy business strategy because your 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.280 bounce rate is going to be super high, your time 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:28.480 spent on a website it's gonna be super low. That 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:33.879 people are going to associate the destination they went to 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:37.280 as an untrustworthy source, So it is a losing game 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:40.640 in the long run. So intention is a very important 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:44.000 concept in web analysis, particularly when you pair that concept 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.320 with other behaviors. So if you see a lot of 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:48.840 people are clicking into an article from the home page 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.080 of how Stuff Works, but then you see the bounce 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:53.240 rate on the article is very high, and the time 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.919