When
the Scitylana blog was launched in early June 2012, the reality was it was just
another anonymous website in the vast world of the Internet. Whether it held
some of the world’s best secrets or was simply a repository of random thoughts
(or something in between), no one knew about it. In order to begin generating
traffic, a two-pronged attack was launched that would hopefully drive traffic
to the website: using referral traffic from Facebook and referral traffic from
Twitter. The results show staggering differences in a number of areas. Based on
the analytics data gleaned through just three weeks of data, four areas emerge
that help classify, organize and understand the traffic: the location of the
users, the browsers and devices used to access the site, the mobile versus
non-mobile divide and, of course, the referring sites linking to the website.
Overall 23 unique visitors have visited the site since
its launch. A few multiple visits from the same user make the total number of
visits 26. Within those twenty-six visits lies a wealth of data about the
website and its traffic. One area that represents a very interesting set of
data is the location of the users accessing the site. First off, all the users
are from the United States and that is an important thing to note for a number
of websites that have an e-commerce function. If you are selling a product in
the United States with no international shipping, but you are receiving visits
from all over the world, it is important to start thinking about expansion. In
this case, with no international traffic, the analysis can focus on the more
regional level. The analytics show that 13 of the 26 visits occurred within the
Washington, D.C. area. This percentage (50%) is staggering considering that
exactly half the visits in the world are from this one area. From this data,
marketers, content-producers and more could look to build on the regional
dominance that the D.C.-area has on this blog. Perhaps local D.C. retailers would
be interested in this site strictly because of the proximity of users to this
area.
While regional demographic data helps one decipher
exactly where traffic is coming from, browser data can help deduce the types of
devices used to access the site. In the case of Scitylana, 14 of the 26 visits
(nearly 54%) came from Windows computers and only 9 visits coming from Macintosh/Apple
devices. What is significant in this data is the difference in coding and Web
2.0 technologies that must be present on these sites. While Mac computers can
certainly see Flash technologies, for example, there are some differences in
how that technology is rendered in both Mac and PC scenarios. Therefore, if a
marketer is noticing traffic to their website coming in both Mac and PC
avenues, it is important to test and guarantee that the user experience is
clean and usable in both scenarios.
An easy transition to another area that is affected by
additional technological differences is the mobile versus non-mobile arena.
Much like PC versus Mac, there are areas here where traffic must be handled
differently in the mobile versus non-mobile space. In the case of Scitylana, 23
of the 26 visits came from traditional, non-mobile devices and while that
symbolizes nearly 90% of the traffic, the other 10% was mobile and must be addressed.
For example, going back to the example of Flash, it is a piece of software that
allows consumers to see video and other elements and many mobile devices don’t
support its use. The wildly-popular iPhone has trouble with Flash because, “many
(if not most) current Flash games, menus, and even video players require a
visible mouse pointer. They are coded to rely on the difference between
hovering over something (mouseover) vs. actually clicking. This distinction is
not rare. It’s pervasive, fundamental to interactive design, and vital to the
basic use of Flash content” (Lazar, 2010). So imagine you made a great video about your
product (or blog) in Flash and you want the world to see it, but all of your
users are accessing from an iPad—well, you are out of luck! Understanding where
the consumer is coming from and on what device is paramount if you want to
optimize their experience online.
Perhaps the most valuable area of analysis
to study is the referral traffic to the site. As mentioned earlier, two main
mechanisms were used to try and drive traffic to the site: Facebook and
Twitter. While both of these services are free, each provides users with
something entirely different. In this particular case, it appears that Facebook
was a much stronger source of referring traffic. Of the 20 referrals, eighteen
were from Facebook and two were from Twitter. The remaining visitors came from
direct traffic. While 26 visits isn’t a tremendous amount, it is clear that the
referral traffic from Facebook was strong and drives consumers to the site
actively. This reality has been seen in the news media as more and more sites
are being sent referral traffic via Facebook. “A big
priority for any media property on the Web right now: Trying to figure out how
to take advantage of the traffic Facebook is sending to their site, and trying
to figure out how they can get more” (Kafka, 2011). As more traffic is sent to
the site, understanding which referrers are sending it and how it is performing
is essential. In an e-commerce scenario, this is incredibly important,
especially if you are paying for the traffic.
Whether it’s a small blog like Scitylana or a giant site
like The Huffington Post, understanding where your consumers are coming from,
what devices they are using, whether or not they are using a mobile device and
how they got there is incredibly important. In the corporate climate that
exists today, every dollar is precious and if money is being spent, executives
are going to want to see what it is bringing in. Analytics is where that
reality begins and studying and understanding your consumers is where this process
takes you.
References
Kafka,
P. (2011, May 9) Facebook isn’t the new Google…Al Things D. Retreived June 23,
2012 from http://allthingsd.com/20110509/facebook-isnt-the-new-google-but-its-a-very-big-deal-for-media-sites/
Lazar,
L. (2010). The real reason iPhone and iPod won’t ever support Flash. Cult of
Mac. Retrieved June 23, 2012 from http://www.cultofmac.com/31097/the-real-reasons-iphoneipad-wont-ever-support-flash-they-cant/
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