Measurements with Meaning: Developing an Analytics Strategy

Understanding your agency’s mission and what outcomes are expected is crucial when developing web metrics of value.

Developing a meaningful analytics strategy can be tricky business. It’s easy to get lost in the tactical world of website efficiency and usability and become enchanted (or disenchanted) with the multitude of metrics spit out by our analytics packages.

Never fear. There is a way out of the mire. Take a giant step back and start from scratch developing an analytics strategy from the top down.

That is, look beyond your website, beyond your Web strategy, and ask, “Why are we doing any of this at all?” That’s the path toward developing Web metrics with meaning.

Tip# 1: Know your business.

Web analytics starts with knowing your business on a strategic level. You can’t begin to know what to measure if you don’t know what matters.

There are many ways to organize a strategy. One way is to use a strategy map. No matter the method, you need to:

1.       Determine the long-term business value (why your agency exists and what outcomes are expected).

2.       Identify the strategies your agency is using to accomplish these outcomes.

Next, ask the question, “How can the Web be used as a tool to support these outcomes?” In other words, do we need a website? So many of us have inherited the website we manage and even though it sounds like a scary question to ask, it is exactly the right question. You need to be able to support all of your actions based on the strategy, otherwise all the Web metrics in the world are meaningless.

Look at the strategies and outcomes of your agency and figure out where and how your website aligns with it. Is your website built in a way that best supports the strategic outcomes? You may be surprised what you discover.

Tip #2: Measure smart.

One size metric does not fit all. Once you’ve figured out what really matters you can save time and limit the metrics you collect by focusing on those that point to your key outcomes.  Make use of segmentation and campaigns to measure actions of your key audiences and outcomes.  For example, the Clean Cities program works to build coalitions of key transportation stakeholders that work to reduce petroleum use.  The Clean Cities website is contributing to this outcome by helping potential stakeholders find and join coalitions. Measuring all the visits to the Clean Cities website would be relatively meaningless. Instead, focus and segment the metric.  One impact metric is to measure:

The number of unique, new visitors to coalition profile pages.  These are new visitors who are discovering their coalition for the first time.

Bingo!  Now I’m getting somewhere.

Tip #3: Don’t stop short.

Don’t stop at measuring the efficiency of your website. Measure leading and lagging indicators that reflect your business outcomes.

• Leading indicators: These help measure process or efficiency. Most Web metrics are stuck in this realm, like visits and views. For example, my measurement from above of the number of new, unique visitors to the coalition pages is a good metric, but it is still only a leading indicator. Did they actually join and help reduce petroleum use? For that I need a lagging indicator.
• Lagging indicators: These measure outcomes or impact. You can’t always measure these on the Web. You may need to find new ways to measure. In the case of my coalition example, did the new visitors to the website actually join a coalition? For this I need to measure:
  • Coalition stakeholder membership over time
  • Some statistical analysis to see if there is a correlation of visits to stakeholder membership, and
  • The number of new members that contacted them because of the website.

  Sometimes we can get lagging indicators through metrics collected on our websites using exit surveys or “Did you find what you are looking for?” widgets placed strategically on certain pages. No matter how you do it, lagging indicators hold an important key to Web impact metrics and a great analytics strategy.

Want to learn more?

• Listen to the on-demand Digital Metrics webinar on the requirements and guidance and a case study on agency-wide metrics implementation at USDA.
• Sign up for email updates on Digital Analytics Program page on HowTo.gov
• Send your questions to dap@gsa.gov, and we’ll post the answers on HowTo.gov

Written by subject matter expert, Trish Cozart, Senior Project Leader, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Web Manager for the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities websites.