The New Face of Web Analytics - Drop-Off Pages
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These are pages where users are ending their visit to your site, either by closing the browser window or moving on to another website. With log file solutions, these could only be assumed by an end to the IP trail. But based on how unreliable we’ve established this to be, it’s very difficult to trust these stats.
With ASP solutions, it’s quite reliable. While at first this may seem like just another statistic, it’s very important for two reasons:
- It enables us to examine the pages where people are dropping off, and change them. Are we not providing clear direction or navigation from that page to the rest of the site? Is the content boring or confusing? Making modifications where necessary will decrease drop-off.
- The ASP solution can now build and deliver conversion funnels, which I’ll describe next.
Conversion Funnels A conversion funnel is basically a representation of the following: how many visitors, originating at point X, end up completing conversion event Y. Very importantly, it also tells us how many drop out along the way, and at which stage.
You could very easily set a certain paid keyword as the point of origin, and depending on how many people come to your site and eventually buy DVD players after clicking on that keyword, you could determine the value of each click. This will help you strategically decide in which keywords to invest the most.
You could make comparisons between channels (email, direct mail), see which are generating the highest conversion rates, and determine where to invest marketing time and money.
When you look at the funnel, you can examine where in the process people are dropping off, and make necessary modifications to keep them from leaving. Are instructions too lengthy, or form error messages too frustrating? A conversion funnel will enable you to have this kind of insight. In fact, some of the more advanced offerings even enable you to see which fields in a form people are getting to before abandoning the process!
Next: Content/Landscape Analysis >>
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