Monday, March 10, 2014

Web Analytics

Similar to the Business Intelligence life cycle, in web analytics we set goals, collect data, report, analyze, and optimize. Using a web analytics program such as Google Analytics, we can track every action on a website in real time. By setting goals we can begin determining the KPI that are relevant to our websites and then create dashboards and widgets to help us better analyze and understand performance trends.



Recently I've been using Google Analytics to explore http://www.westcoastfix.com/. West Coast Fix is a music blog that focuses on thoughtful in-depth coverage of new music regardless of popularity or buzz factor. All WCF staff members are heavily involved in their own creative outputs and offer a greater context for the topics covered. By providing discourse on deserving music and music related media, WCF sheds light on undiscovered artists and continuously produces meaningful content for its viewers through its interviews and music reviews.

With the goals of the site in mind, I decided to look into where their audience was coming from in terms of audience demographic and in terms of traffic sources. I also looked into which key words were bringing users to the site from search engines such as Google and which types of devices, browsers, and operating systems were being used to access the site. After performing an analysis on the site's content, I was able to determine average page view duration and bounce rate per page.

I came to the conclusion that West Coast Fix is a well designed music blog. Its minimalist interface allows users to effortlessly navigate through content on different browsers and operating systems. WCF provides meaningful content according to its average page duration and average bounce rates. The only advice/critique I have is to bring back the search bar and the about/contacts page. The majority of site traffic flowed through the contacts page and the search bar was convenient. It will be interesting to see how their new site affects user interaction.



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