Do you want to know how to understand how well your website is performing?
When many people think of website performance, they think of determining how many people enter their website. If they consistently see people viewing any page on their site, they might consider this a huge success, and it is. But the number of people visiting your website isn’t the only important statistic you should heed.
Knowing your website’s user behavior also serves as an important part of managing your online presence. But how does it do this?
Keep reading below to learn more about user behavior analytics and how to use it to improve your user experience!
The Importance of Understanding Your User Behavior
Right now, you might ask yourself, “Why do I need to understand the user behavior on my website? Why should I want to know which pages my users visit?”
Put simply, understanding which pages your users visit–and the sites they come from–helps you trace which elements of your online presence are working and which may require adjustment. When you look at your website’s analytics, do you find that your users usually only go to one or two pages and not necessarily the ones you want them to visit?
This information helps you because it gives you some honest feedback about how well your website actually works. Is the rest of your website feeding into your product pages as you want them to? How much time do they spend on your site, and how many pages do they visit? Where do most of your clients find your website?
If you know all of this, you will be able to understand which parts of your website are accomplishing the objectives you hope they do. While sometimes users will let you know when something on your site doesn’t serve them well, your user experience data gives you consistent and honest feedback on your performance.
How Do You Measure Your User Behavior?
So, how do you measure your user behavior? What tools can you use to tell what your visitors do when they go to your website?
Usually, the website platform you use has a backend portion that outlines your performance statistics. They often tell you how many people visit your website, which posts get the most views, etc.
While this often gives you crucial information, you need to be able to map out their presence on your website completely if you want to get a full picture of what people do and what they experience on your site. To do this, you can use several different methods. Let’s go into a few of them below.
Set Goals
When you first start out measuring your user behavior on your website, you should first sit down with your staff and figure out your goals for your website.
Why is it important to include your staff? If you have other people working with you on your website, they’ll need to know how understanding your website’s user experience will impact their jobs. If you’ve hired qualified professionals, they may also have some valuable feedback for you and help you understand how to implement your goals.
But why are goals valuable for a website to know?
Goals give you something for which to aim. It helps you measure whether or not your website accomplishes what you want it to do.
For instance, if your primary goal is to get people to click on your product pages and make a purchase, you know to look for people going to your product pages and clicking on the “buy now” buttons.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics takes your statistical analysis to the next level. It gives you information on how many people visit your site and the pages they go to, but it also details which of your campaigns they come from, which actions are triggered while they’re on the site, and whether or not they fulfill objectives you set.
In addition, Google Analytics shows you how people interact with your videos, which forms they fill out, and what they download. If you have anything on your site
If there is one thing you want to track more than others, you can set it as the first thing on your Google Analytics dashboard. That way, you can see what is important to you at a glance.
Heatmaps
Have you ever heard of website heatmaps? If so, you might be wondering what exactly they do.
Heatmaps give you an idea of where your user’s mouse goes during a visit to your website. The mouse’s positioning indicates which area of the page draws your user’s attention. If many people have their mouse in the same area, the heatmap will point it out.
This gives you the ability to assess which areas of your website are catching the attention of your website’s visitors. If those areas are the ones you want your audience to be drawn to, then you know your website serves its purpose well.
On the other hand, if your audience is drawn to the less important areas of your site, you might want to reconsider how to redesign your site to point your potential clients in the right direction.
Heatmaps also come in handy when you want to determine whether or not your clients are clicking where you want them to. After all, when they move to click on something, their mouse gets repositioned. If many people do this, it will show up on your heatmap.
Want more information on heatmaps? Try Decibel.
Ready to Understand Your User Experience?
If you run a website, understanding your website’s user behavior is a huge step.
When you use user behavior analytics, you get the opportunity to see what works on your website and what doesn’t. By defining your goals and then using tools like Google Analytics and heatmaps, you’ll be able to see which areas of your platform are performing exactly how you want them to and which aren’t.
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