Web Toastie

Running a successful SEO campaign isn’t just about attracting visitors to a website — it’s also about keeping them there. Google Analytics provides a lot of useful metrics to understand how visitors interact once they visit a site, and using these metrics allows you to make any appropriate changes to improve things. Aside from the basics you find on the Analytics dashboard (such as bounce rate and average time on site), other interesting information can be found by delving further into the ‘Visitors’ category.

Here are some ways to improve visitor retention with the help of Google Analytics.

Connection Speeds

…is your website loading too slowly for some connections?

Although a lot of people believe dial up connections are no longer used for internet browsing, there is still a surprising amount of people still out there without broadband. To view how many people are visiting your website with a dial up connection in Google Analytics, do the following:

1. Click the ‘Visitors‘ option in left navigation menu
2. Select the ‘Network Properties‘ drop-down
3. Chose ‘Connection Speeds‘ from the list

Although the above screenshot shows only 11 people with dial up connections visited Web Toastie in February, this could be significantly higher on some websites — and these visitors could lead to conversions. You may find the ‘average time on site’ is above average for dial up users, and this is because pages will take longer to load for them.

You shouldn’t look to optimise your website for dial up specifically, but you should be ensuring your website loads as quickly as possible — which will in turn enhance the user experience for all visitors (including dial up connections). Here are some tips to speed up your website:

• Compress your images (Smush.it that comes with the YSlow Firefox add-on is fantastic)
• Reduce the number of web files that need to be downloaded (keep external files to a minimum – try combining CSS files and using background colours instead of images)
• Keep heavy-loading content to a minimum (flash files, etc)

To get an idea of how fast your website loads you can use Google Webmaster Tools. Alternatively, tools such as Pingdom can give you more real-time statistics.

Key Point to Remember – Keep your navigation simple. If you want your visitors to convert, make the process as simple as possible. For dial up users, if the number of pages they have to load is kept to a minimum, they will be more inclined to visit again.

Browser Capability

…does your website work properly in all major browsers?

When your website was first developed, it should have been tested in all of the major internet browsers. Although Internet Explorer 6 is hated amongst the web development community, your site should perform correctly in it, as there are still a huge amount of people using IE6. To view how many of your visitors are using this browser, do the following:

1. Click the ‘Visitors‘ option in left navigation menu
2. Select the ‘Browser Capabilities‘ drop-down
3. Chose ‘Browsers‘ from the list
4. Click ‘Internet Explorer‘ from the range of browsers

The above screenshot shows that 51.22% of visitors browsing with Internet Explorer this week were still using version 6 of the software. As with visitors who are using a dial up connection, IE6 users shouldn’t be ignored just because they are in a minority, or are difficult to cater for.

To see how a website performs in Internet Explorer 6, IETester can be used to emulate recent versions of IE and test the website in different environments. If you discover issues in IE6, try implementing the necessary fixes into the core code – but IE-specific hacks can be used as a quicker solution.

Note: Just because your website may be W3C compliant, doesn’t mean to say it will work in all major browsers. Always ensure you do cross-browser testing.

Further Considerations

…are you maximising the user experience for your visitors?

When a user visits your website they shouldn’t be instantly put off by simple things not working, or functionality being too complicated. The ‘Visitors’ section of Google Analytics can provide much insight into your website’s users, which can provide you with a basis for improving certain aspects. Aside from the points already mentioned, here are some further considerations.

Mobile Support

Does you website work well on the latest smart phones? With an increasing number of people choosing to browse regularly on their mobile, you may find conversions improve and traffic increases with good support for mobile devices. Google recently added mobile features into Analytics, accessed via the following:

1. Click the ‘Visitors‘ option in left navigation menu
2. Select the ‘Mobile‘ drop-down
3. Chose ‘Mobile Devices‘ from the list

Screen Resolutions

Are key pieces of content or call-to-actions hidden from certain screen resolutions? Websites with much larger resolutions are now becoming the norm across the web, but considerations still have to be made for smaller screens. Google’s Browser Size tool allows you to visualise a web page in different screen resolutions, which can be very beneficial when deciding on the placement for key items. To view which resolutions your visitors are using, do the following:

1. Click the ‘Visitors‘ option in left navigation menu
2. Select the ‘Browser Capabilities‘ drop-down
3. Chose ‘Screen Resolutions‘ from the list

Java Support

Last but by no means least is Java support. Will your website still function properly with Java disabled? If you are using Java checkout systems or navigational items, then they may not work correctly if a user has Java disabled.

Java should be used to aid the web experience of a user, and not be a substitute for something else. The Web Developer Toolbar plugin for Firefox allows you to disable certain on-page elements, such as Java, to see how your web pages perform in different circumstances — it is always worth testing. To see how many of your visitors have Java disabled, do the following:

1. Click the ‘Visitors‘ option in left navigation menu
2. Select the ‘Browser Capabilities‘ drop-down
3. Chose ‘Java Support‘ from the list

Ignorance isn’t Bliss

If the website you are working with is attracting lots of visitors, but they aren’t hanging around (or converting), then you really have to go back to basics to understand why.

• Are your pages taking too long to load?
• Does key functionality not work?
• Is important information being missed?

You don’t need to have an extensive coding knowledge or a development background in order to make some simple changes to a website — and these changes could help significantly. At the start of any SEO campaign you should be looking for areas of improvement, and that includes aspects from the web design and development phase.

SEO has become much more than getting a website found. It includes improving conversions, encouraging return visits and maximising visitor retention.

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