Today I read in Government Computer News that government agencies were using Google's site maps to attract more web users to their websites. Great idea. Now if they would only abandon trying to psychoanlayze their web users, we'd all be a lot better off.
The real reason I am writing this post is to point out a very simple strategy that web content managers can take. It's simply to focus on web user behavior and not dwell on why people behave the way they do.
Why don't web managers just accept users for what they are?
I came across Google Anaytics' Conversion University on the web a few weeks ago that made this very point. In fact, all of the articles on the Conversion University website are good and I read just about every one. There's one that I really liked by author Jim Novo. Its entitled Two Metrics For You. Jim provides some quick and dirty ways to track website performance.
Jim's approach is to use web analytics like bounce rates, percent single page access and one minute visits divided by total visits to track customer behavior. Specifically, Jim is concerned with getting as many customers as he can to go past the top 10 entry pages and to spend more time on his website. Think about this for a moment, all commercial websites and government websites are seeking the identical goal. In the end we all want the same things and hopefully we help the users to alleviate the pain or the problems that they have.
I reread the article several times before it's simplicity finally sank in. Jim is not not enthralled with the nitty gritty of trying to figure out what our web users want as most of us are. Instead he focuses on what they are doing with respect to various hypothesis that he dreams up. For example, he shortens the home, changes web copy, puts in a new banner (one at a time) and then standback and monitors those three metrics.
If users don't like what he did then the bouce rates will show that by going up or the percent of one minute visits will increase. Jim doesn't get upset with the users either and is not overly concerned that they did not do as the web design and usability gurus say. They are "his users" and they will do whatever the hell they please. At least that's what I am taking away when I read his article. I think we need to keep this in mind and quit expending alot of time and money trying to figure out why "our web users" are not behaving like test subjects.
Instead, lets experiment, test ideas and concepts (one at a time) and measure results. Comments always welcome. Also, visit Jim Novo's website at www.jimnovo.com
Comments