Jul 6th 11 Posted by CJ Cunniff

The Value of Behavior

In a webinar I gave recently, entitled “Understanding Website Usage,”,  one specific question was asked several times. “If most of the reports you are suggesting require values to be relavent, how do we assign values to our site activity?” That is one of, if not the most, important questions you can ask regarding  your analytics endeavors.  And once you understand this basic principle... read more

Jun 8th 11 Posted by CJ Cunniff

SIM Tech 2011 Appathon

The introduction Mobile strategies are becoming more important than ever, and there is absolutely no indication that mobile use is going to be slowing down any time soon. In fact, the use of mobile devices for consuming digital information is expected to continue to grow at an exponential rate. An article on MediaPost recently announced that ad spends for paid online search have now reached the 10%... read more

Feb 2nd 11 Posted by CJ Cunniff

Remove the Data That Doesn’t Matter

As promised from my last post I’m going to talk about something that sounds very “advanced” but is actually one of the easiest things to understand in the world of analytics.  Advanced segments are a tool that Google has created to allow us to view a subset of all of our data.  This is a very important topic for us to understand because data in aggregate tends to be one of the root causes... read more

Jan 25th 11 Posted by CJ Cunniff

Sometimes Data Can Lie?

I am an absolutely huge fan of utilizing analytics data to make sound business decisions.  I honestly can’t imagine trying to make very many decisions based on pure gut instinct (maybe I have trust issues with myself?).  With that said, it is important to realize that what most people refer to as sound data for business decisions is potentially a lie (or, at the very least, a stretching of... read more

Jan 18th 11 Posted by CJ Cunniff

Goals… And Values… And Funnels… Oh my!!!

In my last post I told you that we would look two important aspects of tracking the value of your website. Determine the value of each goal that is completed. Setup the paths or actions that a user must take in order to complete the task Part 1:  Determine the value of each goal that is completed. This can be one of the easiest steps or the hardest depending on how accurate you want to be.  The... read more

Jan 11th 11 Posted by CJ Cunniff

You have goals, but is your website aware of them?

Recently, I have been noticing a trend where my clients are confused by the question, “What are the goals of your site?”  Generally, they can tell me what their institutional goals are which they assume are the same for their website.  There is, however, an extremely important distinction between institutional and site goals.  The institutional goals are your end goals.  A website’s goals... read more

Jan 4th 11 Posted by CJ Cunniff

Tip 3: Increase Perceived Website Credibility and Value

In the last two QuickTAKES articles, we have looked at “standardizing your tasks” and “formatting information for reading and printing first, search engines second.”  In this last tip on optimizing for the user experience, we are going to look at different methods for increasing the perceived value of your site.  According to the Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines report,... read more

Oct 27th 10 Posted by CJ Cunniff

Part 2 – Three Simple Tips to Optimize the User Experience

In the last section of this series on optimizing the user experience, we looked at different ways to standardize common tasks that you want your users to take.  In part two of this series we are going to be looking at ways to create and present content to your audience in a way that will meet their needs and yours at the same time. Tip 2:  Format Information for Reading and Printing First, Search... read more

Oct 11th 10 Posted by CJ Cunniff

Optimize for the User Experience Part 1

As the web has evolved, it has gotten increasingly more complex to manage. We tend to get inundated with the technical minutia of things like search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click campaigns, animation, graphic design, HTML, CSS, and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately in our efforts to try to optimize for all of these technical elements we sometimes lose sight of the ultimate goal of... read more

Sep 13th 10 Posted by CJ Cunniff

Optimizing the User Experience with Web Analytics

In the marketing world, we are constantly faced with conflicting priorities. In higher education, those conflicts might look something like this: President: Our institution should grow in number, quality, and ethnic mix of students. User: I’m expecting to see information about student life, academic quality, financial aid, etc., and I’m expecting to see it in a certain way. Marketing Department:... read more