Back Burner Analytics

Lately, weve been hearing a lot more from our clients (and prospective clients) about website analytics. Everybodys thinking about pageviews, hits, time on site, landing pages, internal and external visitors, and they should be: analytics is a critical part of not only proving the value of the investment an institution makes in its website, but also continually improving that site based on user feedback.

Unfortunately, a lot of what we hear is we have Google Analytics installed, but no one is using it for much of anything. Its one of many things that gets pushed to the back burner when were focused on social media, mobile sites, implementing content management systems, producing videos and writing great content. The good news is that even if you dont have time to focus on analytics this week or this month, theres a lot you can do right now to be sure that youll have something to work with when you move analytics to the front burner and turn up the heat.

Get tracking.
An awful lot of folks are using Google Analytics. Its free, its easy to implement on a site, and it provides some good functionality. If you dont already have an analytics tool, keep it simple and install Google Analytics. But in higher education, be sure to think about more than just the main .edu site—consider tracking on microsites, blogs, athletics, and departmental servers as well. The Google Analytics tracking code is easy to install, and ensures that you have a way to record the traffic to the sites you would care most about, even if you wont use it right away. Once youre ready to consider your metrics more closely, youll already have a baseline set.

Be sure you are collecting data. For those of you who already have GA installed, you want to be sure that youre actually gathering the information you want. The little piece of Google Analytics javascript tracking code needs to be installed on every page on your site. Its easier said than done on sites that dont use a content management system or are scattered groups of pages with different authors using different tools. Try this:

• Log into the Google Analytics site and click view report from the landing page showing your domains/profiles to view your data. 
• Check to see that you have positive numbers that continue up to the present. You can also change the date parameters (in the top right of reports) to look back and check the data that youve been gathering. You cant change the past, but you can be informed about what data you have collected. In higher education it is particularly useful to have a full year of consistent data, because year-over-year comparisons help to compare admissions cycles, the ebb and flow of semesters, and the other cycles that impact your audiences.
• Make sure the number of pageviews passes the sniff test—are the numbers in a reasonable ballpark for the content? Its usually an issue of there being none or only a handful of pageviews which could indicate a problem. Click Content in the left navigation and check the Top Content report and make sure that pages you expect to be the most visited have lots of visits.
• Verify that there are pageviews across a variety of pages. If you arent sure whether tracking code is installed on certain pages, look for those pages in the Top Content report. Analytics are only gathered for pages with the tracking code, so in cases where the code isnt easily added universally on the site, check specific pages to see that data is recorded for them.

Remember, you cant recreate data that was never captured, so dont make assumptions about what Google Analytics is gathering for you now. Be sure youre getting what you need. Even if you arent doing much (or anything) with the analytics now, collecting good data will serve you well whenever you do train your focus on the analytics. 

Own the account that collects your analytics. Some institutions have analytics accounts set up by a vendor and installed on a website for them. They have access to the data, but the account is not controlled by the institution itself, which means all data collected in the account is not controlled by the institution. Historical data cant be moved from one account to another, so its important to own your data. Google stores the data, but the account owner controls access to it.

Higher education institutions should control their own free Google Analytics account and not be under the umbrella of another entity. If you have data going to an account that you dont own, consider setting up your own account and swapping the existing tracking code for your new version. There wont be continuity in the old vs. new account data since it will be in two places, but the sooner you control your data the better. You can still compare data between the two accounts and over time the data collected in the new account will be all you need.

Track site search. One of the simplest customizations you can make to Google Analytics is to enable search tracking, but Google Analytics does not do this by default. After viewing your reports in Google Analytics, click on the Content reports in the left navigation, and click on Site Search. Google will tell you right away if it is tracking search or not and provides instructions if you arent. Gathering data about what visitors are searching for on your site can be extremely valuable. Start collecting the data, even if you dont know when youll get around to doing anything with it.

Get in a proactive frame of mind. When you do start to think about how website analytics can help you, stay away from getting overly excited about how many people are looking at content on your site. Higher ed sites get a lot of traffic—there are built-in audiences seeking you out! Instead, consider a more nuanced approach. Think about what how understanding visitor behavior on your site can help you do your job better—producing more useful content, improving information architecture, directing people to things theyre really looking for, giving key audiences reasons to take the next step with you, promoting events, ideas, people or programs that showcase your best assets. 

Websites analytics are a great tool, and even more valuable when youve got a strong history to look back on. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to be sure your analytics data will be there when you need it—it will repay you in kind when youre ready to move ahead.