Higher Education and Web Analytics

Recently, a well-known higher education blogger, Karine Joly, posted on her Higher Ed Analytics Blog an interview that she had with Avinash Kaushik on the state of Higher Education Websites and Web Analytics.

The interview itself is full of information that is extremely relevant to higher education marketers and some of the highlights include:

• In Avinash’s opinion, many higher education websites are still taking part in several negative marketing techniques: offline marketing (also using offline techniques and transferring them to their website so that many websites are “brochureware” sites), outdated marketing (many higher education institutions have websites that haven’t been updated in the last 5 years), “shout” marketing (non-interactive websites that push the school’s agenda with little or no user insight).
• Avinash recommends that higher education institutions can improve their websites with web analytics by taking advantage of initiatives like surveys, testing and usability best practices.

1. Applications to the school and the navigation paths a user used to get there
2. Conversions rate on different calls-to-action (schedule a campus visit, download the course calendar, request school information etc). 
3. Top content (who’s reading your blog? What pages do new visitors find most useful?)

• Visitors - number of visitors, unique versus returning visitors, number of page views, visitor's geographical location (you can choose this as an advanced filter). 
• Traffic Sources -  direct, referral, search engine
• Content (Site Interactions) - top content, entry and exit pages, navigation paths
• Goals (Outcomes) - conversion rates, conversion values, conversion paths, funnel analysis

1. Segment! You don’t always want everything and too much information can actually be more detrimental than not enough information.
2. Tag URLs to help you determine the success of initiatives like email and pay-per-click campaigns. 
3. Make sure you’re tracking goals and conversions so you understand how effective your campaigns are (goals could be campus visits scheduled, number of course schedules downloaded etc). 
4. Use social media to monitor your online identity, brand awareness and brand sentiment (remember, the younger, more web-savvy students are taking part in social media, this can be an invaluable source of information!)
5. Set up a reporting schedule to track your key metrics (be an analytics advocate in your institution and share these reports with website stakeholders).

Posted by Amberlie Denny at November 16, 2010 8:00 AM

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