analyze your analytics

ANALYZING

School Newspapers Online www.snosites.com

ANALYTICSyour

http://www.snosites.com

VOCABULARY

ANALYZINGANALYTICS

your

ANALYZING YOUR ANALYTICS

AUDIENCE

1 • Audience is the umbrella term for people who are visiting your site.

• Subcategories are available for demographics, interests, behavior, browser and device.


ACQUISITION

2 • Acquisition is the term for the various methods that visitors came to your site — how your site “acquired” them.

• Acquisition is broken down by channels, or methods.


BEHAVIOR

3 • Behavior is the term for the actions taken by visitors to your site — what they looked at and clicked on, how long they did these, when they left and from where.

• Behavior is divided into content, speed and search.


SESSIONS

4 • A session is the period time a user is actively engaged with your website.

• All usage data (Screen Views, Events, Ecommerce, etc.) is associated with a session.


PAGEVIEWS

5 • Pageviews is the total number of pages viewed.

• Repeated views of a single page are counted.

UNDERSTANDING THE CHARTS

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ACQUISITION

•How are visitors discovering your content?

•How did they navigate to your site?

Determine…


ACQUISITION

•Knowing this information will help you determine how people find you.

•Use this data to make decisions about where and how to post on social media, using Google+ and other methods of finding an audience.

Why…


ACQUISITIONHow?

What visitors were on before your site


ACQUISITION

•Target ranges, based on SNO sites:

• Social should be about 25-40% • Direct should be about 25-35% • Search should be about 30-40% • Referral should be about 10-20%

• If an acquisition method is disproportionate, ask why.

Commentary


ACQUISITION

•How many people visit your site on a phone?On a tablet?

•How many are on a desktop or notebook computer?

Determine…


ACQUISITION

•Knowing this information will help you determine how people are accessing your site.

•Use this to remind yourself to check how your site looks on mobile devices.

Why…


ACQUISITIONHow?

Increasingly, visitors accessthe Web via mobile devices.


ACQUISITION

•You should view your site on mobile devices (and with multiple browsers) to see what your visitors see.

Commentary


READERSHIP TOTALS

•How many visitors come to your site?

• Visitors

• Pageviews

• Pageviews per session

Determine…


READERSHIP TOTALS

•Knowing this information will help you determine your site’s popularity and when visitors come.

•Use this data to determine when to post on social media, if efforts to attract attention and clicks are working, to gain advertisers.

•Determine what to add to story pages to keep readers clicking on story after story.

Why…


READERSHIP TOTALSHow?

Low traffic well below 100 pageviews per day



Solid traffic of about 100 pageviews per day


READERSHIP TOTALS

•Target ranges, based on SNO sites:

• Meh: 25 pageviews per day • Epic: 1,000 pageviews per day • Target: 75-100 pageviews per day

•Know your typical traffic to identify when you have a viral story.

•Promote to maintain weekend traffic.

Commentary


READERSHIP TOTALS

•What percentage of visitors are new?

•What percentage of visitors are returning?

•These totals won’t be pure because visitors clear their browsing history, use other devices, etc.

Determine…


READERSHIP TOTALS

•Knowing this information will help you understand your audience.

•Use this to evaluate your staff’s promotional methods and goals.

Why…



Lots of new visitors who only looked at one page then left.


READERSHIP TOTALS

•The goal should be to have about half returning and half new. Aim for loyal readership.

•This will vary throughout the school year.

•You many have more new readers at the start of the school year or after a breaking news story.

Commentary


BEHAVIOR

•Which stories are getting the most viewers?

•This also affects “bounce rate” (whether a reader looks only at the one page) and the total number of stories per session.

Determine…


BEHAVIOR

•Knowing this information will help you determine what stories interested your readers.

•Use this data to help guide story ideas and story format.

Why…


BEHAVIORHow?


BEHAVIOR

•Be aware of stories that get an abnormal number of views and ask what made it spike. Was it …

• time • topic • method of promotion • search of a popular/viral term

Commentary

WHAT’S YOUR TARGET?

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YOUR TARGET

•Set a reasonable expectation.

•Make a plan to reach that target.

Determine…


YOUR TARGET

•Your site will build traffic over time as you become more established.

• More frequent posts • Wider audience

•You want to steadily increase your pageviews.

Why…


YOUR TARGET

•You want steady traffic. Post frequently and consistently.

•Don’t dump your content all at once.

•Remember to resurface content and to promote with pre-scheduled “ICYMI” and “best of” posts to maintain traffic over weekends and breaks.

Why…


YOUR TARGETHow?

Avoid this!Infrequent posting

then content dump.


YOUR TARGETHow?

Peaks/valleys = little weekend traffic


YOUR TARGETHow?

Steady weekday traffic


YOUR TARGETHow?

Good balance of new and returning visitors

Average of more than 21,000 pageviews per month!

Mostly steady traffic with a few spikes

School Newspapers Online [email protected] schoolnewspapersonline.com

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