The Proof is in the Tracking

Here at Flow we spend a lot of time and effort trying to understand who your site visitors are and what issues, questions or solutions they are looking for.

Based on this, we design a site that collectively (as in our clients and us) believe will serve the needs of those visitors as we perceive them.

This often works out well, it is certainly a good starting point from which to move forward in the absence of any other empirical data.

The only problem is that what you think is right and what is actually happening can often be surprising and sometimes thoroughly confusing!

Track and ye shall see

This is where tracking comes in. Tracking can be in the form of Analytics or more recently actual screen tracking or recording.

Whilst Analytics can give you a broad overview of trends across the site, keywords used to find you and paths people take, it does not get down to specifics of what is actually happening on each individual page.

For instance why is it that:

• Your home page has a high bounce rate?
• That some people spend so much time on your contact page but you have very few enquiries?
• That you have so many drop offs at the cart stage in your ecommerce store?

A new service we are offering uses screen recording technology to  visually track everything a user does when they visit your site. It records every mouse movement, every mouse click and every piece of information entered.

Getting down to the detail

As a large proportion of people move the mouse along with where they are looking it gives you a good idea of how site visitors process your design, layout and information.

Tracking allows you to see:

• What things people look at most
• How far they scroll down the page
• What things get clicked on
• What things get ignored
• What information gets entered into forms and where potential stumbling points occur
• What path did they follow through the site and where did they take action or leave

All of this information can be viewed for each individual visitor (along with their IP address, geographical location and browser / operating system) as well as a number of aggregated reports which show "heat maps" of mouse movement, clicks and scrolling.

Graphic showing mouse movement over the site

The real deal

This information is incredibly powerful. It allows you to see for real what is happening on the site.

Often we find:

• Certain elements are being completely ignored when you think it is the most dominant and obvious thing on the page.
• Just one thing in a form or checkout can cause people to get confused putting it into the "too hard basket" so they go somewhere else.
• Important information or functionality is being missed or misunderstood as it breaks common conventions or is designed in an unusual way.

This information allows you to make informed decisions and to implement changes based on real data rather than assumptions. These changes can then be accurately monitored to determine their effectiveness.

Can you afford not to be tracking?

Tracking, combined with analytics and other metrics, can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your website and should form an on-going part of your investment into your website and online marketing. It can often deliver amazing insights into your website or ecommerce store and have significant impact on your return on investment.

If you are interested in trying out tracking on your website why not give us a call to discuss how we can help your website work harder. Call Ivan on 1300 77 3569 today for a free no obligation chat.