Using Analytics to Improve User Experience
So your company is growing and your website isn’t cutting it anymore. You’re simply not converting users into customers. Don’t panic! There’s effective ways to understand what needs to be part of your website.
If you built your website a while ago and haven’t been actively tweaking it, chances are you’re missing out on customers. One key component to your website (or data for that matter) is Google Analytics. This is an absolutely crucial tool for tracking data from your website visitors. This information is especially helpful for re-building or re-working your website.
Most companies agree that improving conversion on your website is most important. But a key component to conversion is user experience. Using Google Analytics to find data can show a clear path to improve user experience on your website. Let’s look at 3 important drivers from your analytics that will improve your website user experience.
1. Data – how it drives change
There are some straight-forward factors to consider in your Analytics to determine what to change—bounce rate being one of the most obvious along with conversion rate. Form Completions are another important element to consider. How often does the user abandon the form or (shopping) cart?
Matt McManus wrote a great article regarding how PBS uses data to drive change with their ongoing media production efforts in UX Magazine. Check out the article here.
2. Mobile
Ah yes, the ever changing landscape of mobile. If you think your audience isn’t meant for mobile, think again! You may see in Analytics that your bounce rate is high because your website is not yet mobile responsive. Or perhaps your responsive website is terribly executed. That said, mobile is crucial to your users and, therefore, improving your website’s user experience.
Repeat after me: mobile users will do anything and everything desktop users will do, provided it's presented in a usable way.
— Brad Frost (@brad_frost) March 5, 2012
3. Optimization for Landing Pages
This is a user experience make-or-break opportunity here. Due to the execution of your user interface and proper user experience, you might be overdoing it and losing users. So you have to consider your users and how they navigate through the site. The data in your analytics should tell you a lot about this.
Google created a hilarious video about poor and overly optimized landing pages. Check it out below.
What a gas huh? Don’t be that person! Be intentional and consider your user when working on optimizing your landing page or website to improve the user experience. Is your head spinning? You don’t have to be the expert. Allow an expert to guide you through.
