Website Analytics and Marketing

Website Analytics & Marketing January 31st, 2008 Liz Keith Probono.net lkeith@probono.net Benjamin B. Baumann Isovera, Inc. bbaumann@isovera.com Session Objectives • Think strategically about your website’s effectiveness and performance • Obtain and digest intelligence pertaining to site usage • Basic guidance for increasing website productivity and usage Internet consulting for non-profits 2 Web Metrics: A collection of data and interpretation of that data relating to the usage and practices associated with a particular website. Internet consulting for non-profits 3 Why Use Web Metrics? • • • • • How well does my site reach its intended audience? What is the effectiveness of our outreach? How do we know how well we're doing vis a vis our peers? How well is the content on our site serving our visitors’ needs? Obtain datapoints for LSC grant reports: – – – – – Page views: # of web pages accessed by all site Unique visitors: # of ―distinct‖ users who accessed the site Visits: # of times users accessed the site Duration of visits (mean average for all visits each month) Total number of file downloads each month (―resources‖ accessed Internet consulting for non-profits 4 General Sources for this Information • Webtrends, Google Analytics or other analytics program (website usage reports / web server log files) • Search engines • Database logs/reports • A site’s user login system, feedback forms, third party systems/services (donations service, cc processing co, etc.) • Qualitative surveys (with caveats) Internet consulting for non-profits 5 Setting up a “Dashboard” • Figure out what you want to track systematically and use a simple spreadsheet. Internet consulting for non-profits 6 Populating Your Dashboard • • • • • • WebTrends (or other analytics program) "linkto:" search engine query to measure inlinks Page rank to measure site’s significance within SEs. Alexa to measure overall site popularity on the WWW Search engine positions under key terms? Which statistics are generally most reliable and meaningful? – – – – Page Views Visits Unique Visitors Page Views/Visit Internet consulting for non-profits 7 What can you do with such a dashboard? • Coordinate web usage/metrics with off-line activities • Compare your usage vs. total ―market size‖ (e.g. people below poverty line in your state) • Comparing statistics temporally to identify trends and estimate cause(s) • Validate/invalidate qualitative data Internet consulting for non-profits 8 Reporting on Metrics: What’s the Story Behind the Numbers? ―Use of the site by pro bono attorneys continues to grow….of pro-bono related page visits, over 60% were to the statewide pro bono guide...‖ - OLAF Technology Quarterly Report Internet consulting for non-profits 9 Reporting on Metrics: What’s the Story Behind the Numbers? Top 3 Library Downloads in Probono.net/MS in 2006 Probono.net/MS (www.probono.net/MS) FAQ [Overview of FEMA Benefits] Sample Pro Se Letters April 2006 FEMA Appeal Deadlines and Timelines Downloads 907 834 567 Most Popular PBN News Content (site-wide) in 2006 Most Popular News Content in 2006 Appleseed Officially Launches Hurricane Response Project Bankruptcy reform may hinder court, pro bono work Burke chosen to serve on state workshop A great pro se idea ABA Section of Business Law 2006 National Public Service Award Winners Area KatrinaLegalAid.org Multiple Areas SelfHelpSupport.org SelfHelpSupport.org Multiple Areas Views 1,455 1,344 1,289 1,259 1,250 Internet consulting for non-profits 10 Ways to Effect these Metrics Internet consulting for non-profits 11 Ways to Effect these Metrics • Fundamentals: URL on letterhead, business cards, staff awareness of what is on site, etc.) Lots of good content! Keyword Research Search Engine Optimization Strategic linking (forging inlinks) Pay-per-click advertising • • • • • Internet consulting for non-profits 12 Search Engine Marketing (SEM) • The practice of addressing search engines in ways that are likely to generate a positive effect on web traffic or usage • Part art, part science “Search engines are companies. One of its most protected assets is its algorithm that ranks pages. This “secret sauce” is kept well-hidden forcing people to characterize it through trial, error, and deduction.” • 2 components: 1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) • Getting your site’s pages to rank highly with ―organic‖ means 2. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) • ―Buying‖ your way to the top Internet consulting for non-profits 13 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) • Keywords are the foundation of any sound SEO strategy. – Keyword research • Brainstorm comprehensive list • Obtain popularity statistics (WordTracker, Overture) – Keyword selection issues • Popularity • Relevancy & purity • Competition • Select the shortest possible list Case Study: Dog Shelter in Maryland Keyword dog pets animal shelter beagle dog adoption dog shelter Maryland dog rescue Maryland dog shelter Score 1,170,147 525,668 160,646 63,219 21,681 17,023 227 59 Internet consulting for non-profits 14 Q: What are you going to do with these keywords? A: Incorporate them strategically throughout your website Internet consulting for non-profits 15 SEO: Keyword Density • Analyzing your website’s pages • Things that matter (at the moment) – – – – – Domain Name/URL Page copy Title tags (up to a certain number of characters) Image ALT tags Other metatags (description, robot, keywords, etc.)? Sort of, but not really. • Your density relative to that of your competition – Competitor: a site with which your site vies for a top ranking for a given keyword Internet consulting for non-profits 16 SEO: Keyword Density (2) Sample (simplified) keyword density competitive analysis Keyword: Child Advocacy | Score: 1,024 Top Sites www.childrennow.org www.nationalcac.org www.caichildlaw.org Times Mentioned 0 5/271 5/870 Density 0 3.69 1.14 Google Links 486 55 42 Yahoo Links 12,700 747 392 • Inform keyword selection and help determine strategy • With this research you can make copy changes to your site necessary to put it in the running Internet consulting for non-profits 17 SEO: Strategic Linking • Strategic Linking: A fundamental SEO technique that refers to developing ―inlinks‖ to your website. Inlink: a link on an external website that points to a page on your site Why is strategic linking important? 2. Referral traffic 1. Google! • • • A market hypothesis for determining a website’s value and relevancy Internet consulting for non-profits 18 SEO: Strategic Linking (2) • How to cultivate inlinks – Do searches in Google and Yahoo for your optimal keywords – Make a list of the top X sites (sites with a higher Google pagerank make for better inlinks) – Contact those site’s webmasters requesting a referral link, or link exchange • Maximizing value from inlinks – Provide webmasters with HTML they can paste in their sites – Encourage text links which use your keywords (as opposed to image links) – Be systematic Internet consulting for non-profits 19 Monitoring Your Inlinks • See who’s already linking to you: – Google query: ―link:http://www.yourdomain.com‖ – Yahoo! query: ―link:http://www.yourdomain.com‖ • Keep a spreadsheet or database – – – – – URL Title tag Webmaster Name & Email Status Latest communication Internet consulting for non-profits 20 Sample Inlink Candidates TexasLawHelp.org’s Candidates: Libraries/Universities: • Travis County Law Library • Texas State Law Library • Fort Bend County Libraries • City of Austin Public Library • Tarlton Law Library Public Legal Information page • Plano Public Library • Texas A&M University Student Life • City of Arlington Public Library • University of Houston Law Center • Harris County Public Library • Taylor, TX, Public Library • City of Austin Telephone Reference Staff Favorite Links Other groups: • Transition Resource Action Center • Houston Bar Association • Judge Advocate General (JAG) • State Bar of Texas • Harris County District Clerk • ARC of Dallas • Grandparents Raising Grandkids • Texas CASA • National Center for State Courts Internet consulting for non-profits 21 Other SEO Techniques • Site map • Placing search engine friendly copy higher within the tags on web pages • Creating microsites • Employing blogs • RSS feeds • Discussion forums Note: Your SEM efforts are likely to be much more successful if you ―play by the rules‖. Search engines have become quite intelligent and can easily detect ―spamming‖ behavior. Think of your site’s relationship with search engines as symbiotic. Internet consulting for non-profits 22 SEO: Search Engine Submissions • You can proactively submit your site to most search engines • How to go about doing submissions – Increase your odds. Pick several different pages, each highly optimized for your top keywords. – Do it by hand: • http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl • http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request • Commercial sites should also make a paid submission to submit to the Yahoo Directories, as other SE’s crawl this. • How often should you submit? Internet consulting for non-profits 23 Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Internet consulting for non-profits 24 Internet consulting for non-profits 25 Introduction to PPC • It’s an industry, it’s huge, and it’s getting a lot huger. • Two main players: – Google AdWords (www.adwords.google.com) – Yahoo! Search Marketing (www.yahoosearchmarketing.com) – …and soon Microsoft • Why is it so big? Because it works. Internet consulting for non-profits 26 LSC’s Google AdWords Campaign • Google Grants recipient • 2007 Campaign Snapshot: – – – – – – Domestic geography, Google search engine only About $100,000 of free advertising Ads shown 3,941,189 times 123,804 visits Of 1,500 keywords Term ―legal aid‖ generated 509,286 impressions and 2,168 clicks Internet consulting for non-profits 27 Case Study: TexasLawHelp.org Case study from the field: TexasLawHelp.org • Project summary from Lisa Rush, Travis County Law Library:  In 2007, project partners spent $1,800 on online advertising with Yahoo (included being listed in the Yahoo! directory and keyword ads.)  ―We asked for ―link love‖ from gov’t, library, nonprofit and other ―quality‖ sites.‖  ―We tried to use words that users would type into search engines. For example, a divorce in Texas is really called a "dissolution of marriage." No one uses that official term, so we didn't. Sometimes what we did to appear in the engines just looked weird. For example, if you look at the bullet list of topics on the family law page you see Divorce / Free Forms. Nowhere else is this construction used. That was so we could get the words "free forms" and "divorce" together that users searching "free divorce forms" or "free forms" would find us.‖ Internet consulting for non-profits 28 SEO Strategies TexasLawHelp Yahoo Keywords and bids: • Child Support Texas – Bid: $.26, placing us 7th • Legal Help Texas – Bid: $.15, placing us 8th. • Legal Aid Texas – Bid: $.22, placing us 7th • Child Custody Texas – Bid: $.36, placing us 9th • Restraining Order Texas – Bid: $.04, placing us 4th Internet consulting for non-profits 29 PPC: How it Works • The fundamentals: – Each service operates differently but the premise is the same – You specify how much you’re willing to pay to get someone to click on a link and end up on your site if they do a search for a certain keyword – Searches can take place at search engine or content partner sites – You are charged only for each click generated – Still something of an art, can take time and experience to learn what works • Quality control – Automated and human agents review ads submitted – Ads are frequently rejected due to poor design or poor performance – The SE’s algorithm plays a role in determining which ads are served Internet consulting for non-profits 30 PPC: Why it Works • Advertisers can control their ―acquisition costs‖ with great precision – Example: The ABC Association • Costs $20 to acquire new member via traditional outreach • 1 of 100 users to the site joins • ABC has no reason not to do a PPC campaign where they pay up to $0.20 per click for quality traffic to its site • • Trigger feature to indicate a ―success‖ (submission of form, purchase, etc.) Leverage—as media companies like Google and Yahoo! grow you can target people with a great degree of granularity across more and more channels – Content partners – Print publications – DVR/Radio? Internet consulting for non-profits 31 More on PPC When is PPC appropriate? • • • • Advantageous acquisition cost Need additional channel To obtain top rankings under terms it doesn’t make sense to build an SEO strategy around Branding – potentially huge amount of exposure for relatively small cost. Handy PPC Provider Features • • • • • • Geographic targeting Auto-bidding (Google) Daily, weekly, or monthly budgets (Yahoo!) Pre-paid account (Yahoo!) Conversion trigger Javascript (Google, Yahoo!) Ad hoc reporting interface (Google, Yahoo!) Internet consulting for non-profits 32 SEM and You? • Avoid trying to ―cheat‖ the SE, people have been doing that for a long time and the SE’s are wise to it. • Allow time for rankings to improve, know how to measure your progress, be prepared to adjust your strategy. • Know your CMS – may require special consideration from an SEO perspective. • Stay up to date – SEM is organic and continues to evolve. • Hire a professional to get you started, provide guidance. Internet consulting for non-profits 33 Thank You! Internet consulting for non-profits 34 SEO Resources • Web Position – Desktop software for analyzing search engine positioning. http://www.web-positiongold.com/ • Wordtracker – ASP used for keyword selection based on real-world real-time data. • Google Anayltics – Currently in BETA, available by invitation only • Rusty Brick – Excellent SEO portal http://www.rustybrick.com • SE Watch Forums - Best place for up to date info on SEM http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/ • AW Stats – Powerful web server log analyzer, open source Internet consulting for non-profits 35 General Web Metrics Resources • TechSoup.org – ―A Few Good Web Analytics Tools‖ http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page6760.cfm • TechSoup.org - Understanding Key Reports and Making Sense of Your Data http://www.techsoup.org/fb/index.cfm?fuseaction=forums.showSingl eTopic&forum=2024&id=69806&cid=117 • Boxes and Arrow – ―The Limitations of Server Log Files for Usability Analysis" http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/the-limitations-of • Andy Goodman – Storytelling Resources for Nonprofits http://www.agoodmanonline.com/publications/index.html Internet consulting for non-profits 36