Hey Don't Look at THAT, Look at THIS!

In the world of web analytics, there is probably no other statistic that is more overused yet misunderstood than page views. According to the Web Analytics Association, a page view is, “the number of times a page was viewed.” (Web Analytics Association, 2008). At face value, this is an easy to understand quantitative value. However, a website’s success should not be measured in quantitative measure alone.  The results of page views are only significant when measured with qualitative values like KPI, Goals, Targets, and Conversions.

In my professional experiences, I cannot count the number of times a client has asked me, “How many hits did I get this month?” Sure, your site traffic is important. But what about which pages received page views?  What lessons do to take away from the reports? What strategies can be created to take advantage of the site traffic? Increasing your monthly hits does not qualify as a successful web engagement strategy if you are doing nothing with those hits.

According to Chris Lucas of Business2Community.com, forty percent of marketers say that they use intuition (not data) to make decisions. (Lucas, 2014). Rolling dice on your marketing strategy may work for you, sometimes… At least you think it does… But how do you know? Website design should be more than pretty graphics and gut feeling. This is your business and a direct reflecting of you! 

I do not consider myself an analytics expert by any stretch of the imagination, however, I am an experience web designer with a marketing background who has used Google Analytics since it launched in the mid-2000s. I understand the importance of things like determining cost-per-page view, or the significance of conversion rates. For me, counting page views is not a measure of success, but rather a starting point to finding success. The most important lesson that I have learned in web development, is that no matter how hard you try, web visitors will look for the information that they want, not what you think they should want. And for me, this is where page views come in handy.

I have a few focal points when I look at page views in a monthly analytics reports. This is where I take the quantitative data, and apply the qualitative meanings:

Quantitative: What pages are receiving the most page views?
Qualitative: Your qualitative lens should look at WHY are these pages receiving the most page views. Is this the content your customers are looking for?  Are these landing pages from search engine queries? Or are these just pages that are really easy to find because navigation is clear?  Determine the WHY, and you can then optimize the customer experience for these pages.

Quantitative: Are “important” pages being viewed as much as they should?
Qualitative: Your qualitative lens should look at WHY aren’t your important pages being viewed as much as they should? Are your key pages being lost because of poor navigation or a lack of keywords in your content? Are you not making conversions because no one can find your email signup form? Think about why pages are not being viewed and how to improve this.

Page views should never be used as a single “catch-all” for analytics success. Yes you want to increase your page views, but more importantly you want those views to happen on pages that matter. Your goal should be increased traffic to your landing pages, sales pages, or conversion points.  An increase in hits does nothing for you if you are not putting valuable information in from of your viewers and enticing with a call to action.

References

Lucas, C. (2014, September 23). 5 Key Takeaways From The Google Analytics Report. Retrieved November 3, 2014. from http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/5-key-takeaways-google-analytics-report-01016399.

Web Analytics Association. (2008, September 22). Web Analytics Definitions. Wakefield MA.