The Impact of Website Analytics on Design and Development

What is the impact of website analytics on design and development? A LOT! First, let’s identify the different types of website analytics and how you can benefit from them. This is important information on a website’s analytics that point to areas that need to be enhanced, removed, or replaced in a website’s design, structure, and features.

What are the different types of website analytics?

Looking at a website’s analytics may be very overwhelming, especially for those who do not like numbers or are allergic to see graphs. It takes years of study and practice to be an expert in reading and interpreting website analytics. But it shouldn’t daunt entrepreneurs from at least learning the basics, especially with so many tools and guides now available online unlike how it was two decades ago.

Of the many tools or providers available, I preferably use Google Analytics since it has been the pioneer in the field and ranks first among the tools available. Google Analytics is also easy to use and provides you with already digestible information upfront that is helpful for decision-making.

There is a lot of information that you can derive from website analytics. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Collat School of Business identifies these as the data of users, the behavior of users, consumer purchasing journey, user navigation, search engine keywords, and advertising campaign results.

1. User data

This pertains to a variety of information including the demographics (age and gender), location, frequency of visit, and interests of the users of the website. This gives an idea of how many users there are on your website for a certain point in time, which includes new or unique visitors and returning visitors. I previously touched on the basics of web analytics by discussing what a unique visitor is to a website. You might want to check it for further reading.

With Google Analytics, this is already sorted out into subsections that make it more digestible under its Audience reports. The bulk of web analytics is found in this section since it is the most important.

2. User behavior

Besides grouping website visitors into segments, website analytics also track what users do on your website. It shows how they got to your website, what pages they viewed, how long they stayed per page and other relevant information that shows how they are engaging with your company including what they use to access it (desktop or mobile).

Google Analytics has placed such information under its Behavior reports that include the total number of pages viewed for a certain period, how many users viewed it, how long was it viewed, and what particular pages were most viewed during that time.

The interesting part about this report is it visually shows you the path users took from the website’s Landing Page to the other pages of the website. This also shows the last page they accessed before they left the website.

Analyzing the behavior of your website’s visitors will highly determine the content you need to provide on the website to retain them in it for a longer time.

3. Consumer purchasing journey

This data shows the path users took to buy your products or avail of your services. It also shows how long it took to make a purchase, what payment facilities they used, and the instances they abandoned the purchase.

Google Analytics Conversion reports specifically show this data and the goals or key performance indicators you have set for a particular period or a certain marketing campaign. It shows if the goals you have set are being attained by the website’s actual performance. This includes your target conversion rate and goal value (also known as your target return from marketing efforts).

4. User navigation

On the other hand, this data shows the path users took to move around your website, the pages they accessed, the pages or content most accessed, and others.

5. Search engine keywords

Website analytics also show what keywords led people to the website and the actual searches they made on your website.

6. Advertising campaign results

Meanwhile, website analytics also show if users were able to access the website through the advertising campaigns you rolled out in other channels of communication and whether this achieved the targets set for it.

The search engine keywords and advertising campaign results could be found in Google Analytics Acquisition reports. This contains all the information on website traffic, activity from social media platforms, marketing campaigns, and search engines.

Besides that, Google Analytics has a Realtime report. What’s nice about real-time reports is you get data as it happens, which would be most useful if you are monitoring ongoing marketing campaigns such as product launches or promotions.

Now that you have an overview of what information web analytics provide, let me now identify how web analytics impact a website’s design and development.

How does website analytics impact design and development?

The different information businesses can harvest from website analytics is most helpful in the direction a website’s design and development will take. Studying your website’s periodical performance in terms of traffic and reach helps toward a more efficient and user-friendly design and structure.

I can not but reiterate that customer experience has become ever more powerful these days–driving businesses to amplify their website design and structure along with enhancing their products and services to achieve this goal. How? Let me enlist them for you:

1. A website’s analytics can point out disruptions in user flow or navigation

When you look at your website’s analytics you will see the broken links through 404 errors and non-loading images. This could have been prevented if you conduct regular site testing and debugging. But if you don’t, your analytics is another way to become aware of it.

According to Polish software developer Tidio, websites with a lot of bugs or non-functioning links and features often lead to frustrated customers. A study they made showed that 90% of their GenZ respondents attribute buggy websites as the top detractor to their staying on a website.

The same study highlighted that 54% of customers regarded websites with poor navigation as twice as frustrating than typo errors in a website’s content. More than a quarter or 37% of satisfied customers regard good website navigation as a positive experience.

It is important then that dead and broken links and other navigation errors be attended to immediately. If you need help on how to fix these errors, feel free to check this post about it. You might also want to look at these inspiring website examples.

2. Website analytics can determine the need to optimize visuals

Looking at your analytics will also show the time it took for a page and its contents to load. The longer the loading time, the higher the possibility of people leaving your website. This is why I highly suggest, as I do here on my website, to always make your photos load faster. Optimizing the visuals–photos, movies, clipart, illustrations, and CTA buttons–is the key to increase not only your website’s performance but also enhancing your customer experience rating.

With this regard, the Tidio study showed that a majority of or 55% of GenZ shoppers find slow-loading websites along with low-quality product photos intolerable and rate it as a negative customer experience. While more than a quarter or 29% of US adult shoppers regard slow-loading websites as very frustrating.

If you have optimized visuals, good navigation, and 100% working pages and linkages, new visitors to your website would stay longer in it. Otherwise, your analytics will show you have a high bounce rate.

3. Website analytics identify the type of content needed on a website

A healthy website analytics converts to a healthy search engine optimization ranking, too. The website analytics will show you the keywords people used to get to your website. If you are not leveraging on these words and integrating them into your content and features, the tendency is your search engine ranking also suffers–not to mention your website not being maximized for satisfactory user experience and your return on investment.

To help you better understand how this works, I suggest you check out this complete guide for beginners on SEO Analytics and Keyword Research Statistics. This will better help you identify and chart your next steps of designing and redeveloping–if needed–your website.

4. Website analytics defines the need to revamp a website’s design

Website analytics provide real-time data to designers and developers on the need to revamp the website’s particular or entire design, as well as, to simply replace the photos and images accompanying its written content. That is on top of considering creating a new website.

Great visuals attract more website visitors and increase purchases. Study shows that 15.3% of visitors prefer aesthetically pleasing websites. Almost half of GenZ and GenY consumers (42%) would refuse to purchase from websites with ugly visuals.

Constant redesign and redevelopment then are done if this is what your analytics point to. So, if you need more tips on website design and development, feel free to check our blog on it.

5. Website analytics can refine a website’s online shopping process

Data on the purchasing journey of customers on your website would show if the shopping experience you have structured is pleasant or not. Most female shoppers (83%) and male shoppers (77%) would leave a website if the checkout process is complicated. This is often seen if you have a high number of customers leaving items in their shopping carts.

This might also mean that the website’s shopping process has not been adjusted accordingly for those who prefer to use their mobile phones instead of their desktops. Data show that more than half of adult customers in the United States (3 out of 5) refuse to purchase a product when mobile navigation is difficult.

Consider checking these website examples on CRO optimization confirm orders and checkout designs for ideas on how to tinker with your website to have a better online shopping process.

6. Website analytics also identify the effectiveness of your branding

Branding online is important because that is how you create an edge over your competitors. The data from website analytics will help you figure out if your efforts to establish that identity are working or not, beginning with your domain name.

The analtyics will also show you how brandable your domain name is, which prevents your website from having problems with dead links and lower search engine ranking. The tags and keywords you also associated with your brand and integrated into your design could be seen in the data as effective or not.

In summary

Taking time to sit down and analyze your website’s traffic and data helps your company avoid unnecessary risks such as negative customer feedback that would easily go viral in these modern times. Website analytics is key to better serving your customers and creating long-term relationships with them when you continuously enhance website design and development with it.

FAQs

1. How much do I invest in web analytics?

Investing in web analytics is worth your time and money because it has big returns. Investment costs could entail simply creating an account with an online tool or website analytics provider such as Google for free, working with several tools, and hiring an agency to digest the data for you. Google Analytics comes in free but premium access can cost as much as $100,000 a year. On average, this ranges from $300 a month. You might want to try this calculator to assess your specific needs.

2. How do I set up my website for analytical tools?

The first thing you need is a Google account if you want to set up your website in Google Analytics. Then sign in to Google’s Marketing Platform and follow the instructions given in its website.

3. Is using one website analytics tool enough?

Experts suggest using a combination of website analytical tools since using one tool tends to provide you with limited information. The benefit of using a variety of tools is you get to enhance various aspects of your website’s analytical data to come up with better results.