To say that we are in the age of digital and data would be a severe understatement that does not do justice to the power that is at our fingertips. The coming of age of the mobile era has revolutionised the way we think about branding and advertising. No longer should design be at the whim of a creator’s intuition or comprehensive but non-current consumer data.
Instead, data is now widely available from a multitude of sources. Provided the right data collection set up, you would have rich and ready to use insights in real time. This is the key for rapid adaptation and informed design decisions.
Data Collection For Your Website
The most widely used tool for data collection is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free to use tool that can be installed on your website in the matter of minutes. The following setup is easy to perform, requiring no programming knowledge. Moreover, it is capable of be integrated with a variety of Google and other third-party products.
For more advanced users, a paid version of Google Analytics exists, called Analytics 360, which unlocks further analytical capabilities.
Basic Metrics That Should Be Tracked
Many of the traditional marketing metrics apply to web design as well. This includes demographics such as gender age, device used and interests. These can be collected via Google Analytics when you enable demographics and interests reports under the user section.
Other than typical marketing metrics, website specific metrics should be tracked as well. You should closely follow:
- Average session time
- Number of users
- Bounce rate
- Page exit rate
- Entrance pages
- Pages per session
- User flow
These metrics serve to give you a beginner overview of the performance of your website. When integrated together, a story emerges about where your website has succeeded and where it has failed.
User Behaviour Metrics That Can Be Tracked
Through the installation of pixels or tags, user behaviour on your website can be tracked. We encourage the usage of Google Tag Manager, which is a beginner friendly tag managing interface. Behaviours that can be tracked include:
- Click patterns
- Scroll behaviour
- Video viewing related metrics
- Funnel movement
These metrics help to inform you if your current web structure and user journeys are effective in getting users towards your goals. Moreover, it informs you whether the current call-to-actions are effective in reaching out to users.
Hiring a Web Design Agency To Create Your Website
One of the most underrated aspects of good web design is the structuring of the elemnts to enable effective data collection. At its essence, data collection exists to provide observations and insights that can then empower decision making.
However, if the website is overly complicated, then data will be ineffective since it cannot be relied on to give concrete answers. As such, it would hugely benefit you to hire a web design Singapore agency to deliver a website that is optimised for data collection and usage.