When it comes to websites, there is far more to measuring site performance than the typical analytics behind traffic, bounce rate, and conversions. Website Magazine has put together an overview of what constitutes real website success and how to achieve it.
By asking the right types of experience questions (can people find what they need, would they recommend your site, etc.) in the right way, marketers can begin to effectively measure user experience. After all, it doesn't matter how good your product/solution is if users don't enjoy or understand how to use it.
SurveysThere are several survey tools available to help you ask users the important questions, from collecting their opinions and insights about your products or services, to uncovering patterns and trends. Try to keep the number of questions to a minimum so that you are more likely to get a statistically significant response rate.
Other important data that you will be able to take away from surveys include the rate at which people were able to complete the task that brought them to your site (what were they looking for and did they find it), overall user satisfaction with their web experience, how likely they are to recommend your company or service to a friend/colleague, and how 'usable' your site is-can visitors navigate it easily, search for what they need, etc.
Web Analytics ToolsYour analytics tools also have valuable information for you about the user's experience on your site. Look at your exit rates on 404 error pages; did the error drive the user away from your site altogether, or did they recover and try again? Error pages can be made user friendly, providing opportunities for visitors to recover via a search bar or other method that lets them get back to their initial task.
Marketers should also be looking at search data and how deep it goes. Are visitors finding enough information to keep them engaged and clicking, or are they bouncing right away? A good user experience may be defined by finding what they need right away or engaging on multiple pages, whereas a poor experience is usually the result of failure to find what they are searching for-or anything else to keep them on your site.
Usability TestsGet real, useful data through usability testing when you introduce new features or perform a site redesign. Look at whether people are completing tasks and why/why not. Take this opportunity to ask users about their expectations and whether your site meets those expectations. Data here can help you know early on where you may need to make site fixes. You can also look at information about how long users take to complete tasks and figure out if there are any site hang-ups contributing to delays.
Combine the Tools for a Complete PictureSurveys, analytics tools, and tests-when used together-will give you a more complete picture of your website user experience. By all means, continue to look at traffic, bounce rates, and conversions but to really understand how to make the site more friendly and functional, marketers need to be sure that they are measuring the right things.
Last modified: March 5, 2019
