Model 2 Post - Let's Get Analytical

 Hi Everyone, 

This has been hands down my favorite module of the course so far. I'm coming out of this week energized and excited to see what's next. 

In this module we focused on Web Analytics, Google Analytics and Google Adwords. We looked at some of the important metics to use in Web Analytics in terms of both KPIs and Task Completion Rates. We then took a deeper look at Google Analytics and some of the main functionality it provides for users. 

I think that I was better prepared for this assignment as it closer aligns with both my previous experience and my interests. I previously worked in Ecommerce, so going through this Assignment for the Google Merchandise Store was a fun throw-back experience for me. I never used Google Analytics before and it is extremely intuitive. It was very easy to follow and provided clear insights. 

I had fun digging into the different areas and learning about customer segments, product sales, task completion rates and conversion. I think that it's nice to be able to easily read the data and understand what further questions you have. From there you can create a strategy of where to focus. 

The only thing that wasn't the most intuitive, at least in my case, was the Behavior Flow looking at first and second interactions. I did not find this beneficial for tracking how customers move through the site. I would have enjoyed a feature like Hotjar. 

I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with it or has used it before but its essentially heat maps to see where users click and linger on a site. I think it's a really creative and intuitive way to not only track users but see if there are any opportunities for improvement in the site. 

I think that because we spend so much of our time online web analytics is a particularly important area. One aspect that I did not cover in my assignment that I think is really interesting is cross device traffic. I often am Googling something or shopping on my phone when on public transit (pre Covid) because that's the device I have. Later I would prefer to switch to my laptop because it's easier for most things. However there is not usually an easy way for me to pick up right where I left off without searching exactly the page I was on or sending myself a link. 

It's really interesting to me the concept of being able to track a user starting a search in one place and picking it up somewhere else. In a different location, on a different device. Probably some version of this already exists that I'm not aware of. I don't use Sync on my Google account because I don't really wanted to be tracked in this way but it's definitely something interesting to think about. 

Let me know if you have any insights! 

References: 

Dossetto, F. (2019). Map clicks: Using them to optimize your website. Available at: https://www.hotjar.com/blog/click-maps/. Accessed on October 3, 2020. 

D2L Materials. Lecture Notes. (2020).