At UA Little Rock, we use web analytics to help us understand the behavior of users who visit our website, ualr.edu. These insights help us make decisions on how to improve the overall user experience. The platform we use is Google Analytics, the most widely used (and free) web analytics tool.
Web analytics show the most popular pages on your website, how long users are engaged (e.g., time spent on page, number of pages viewed), and the top page paths. Also, we can track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns such as display ads, paid search, email, and social media marketing.
Analytics Data
Data is presented in dashboards that can be customized by date range and other attributes. These are the primary data categories:
Audience Data
- Number of visits, number of unique visitors
- New vs. returning visitor ratio
- City, state, and country
- Age and gender
- Browser or device used (desktop, mobile, or tablet)
Audience Behavior
- Common landing pages
- Frequently visited pages
- Length of time spent per visit
- Bounce rate (percentage of users who exit without clicking on a link)
Campaign Data
- Which marketing campaigns drove the most traffic
- Which websites drove the most traffic
- Which keyword searches resulted in a visit
- Campaign type breakdown, such as email vs. social media
Traffic Sources
- Organic search (e.g., Google, Bing)
- Referrals (e.g., Coming from another site like Arkansas Business, Arkansas Online, etc.)
- Social Media referrals
- Email marketing
- Paid Search
Our Site’s Top Search Terms
Analytics also provides information on the top search terms on our site. These are the top keywords that were entered in the site search on ualr.edu for the Fall 2021 through Spring 2022 academic year:
Bookstore
Boss
Transcript request
Library
Ottenheimer library
Academic calendar
Athletics
Financial aid
Scholarships
Nursing program
Workday
Calendar
Jobs
Human resources
Class search
It is essential that we review and evaluate our web analytics as we make decisions on how to improve our site. Every decision we make is based on data, not our personal opinions. The data helps us better understand how our site is performing so that we can ensure visitors, like future and current students, have the best possible experience online – which in turn will support the university’s goals.
This post was written by Toni Boyer Stewart, Web Marketer and Analyst.