Web Usage Statistics: Analysis and Uses

Much effort is spent in gathering Web statistics, but little is spent in analyzing and using them. Here are a few ways that you can use basic Web statistics provided by tools like Google Analytics to improve the design and content of your pages and sites. Ideally, hypotheses to explain the data should be tested by asking users directly or with other usability studies.

Observation	Hypotheses and possible solutions
Visit Patterns
Do certain directories or pages have an unexpectedly large number of visits or views?	Use more prominent links to save users time. Use shorter or multiple paths from the home page.
Do certain directories or pages have zero or an unexpectedly small number of visits or views?	Make them search engine accessible so Google can index them. Improve labeling or optimize using SEO techniques. Use shorter or multiple paths of links from the home page. Market them more. Improve or remove unused or unimportant content.
Do internal navigation pages have an unexpectedly high exit or bounce rate? Do content pages have an unexpectedly low average time on page? Does the site have a low average pages per visit?	Improve appearance, labeling and readability. Add more relevant content. Ask users why they leave the page or site.
Do some pages have an unexpectedly high entry page rate?	Add navigation to other parts of the site from these pages.
Does the site have many visits by multiple browsers, OS, screen resolutions and connection speeds?	Test and design the site to work correctly for these conditions.
Are counts unusually low or high during certain days or times?	Consider events or user behavior that might explain these patterns. Assure supporting resources are available when usage is high. Assure pages are working at these times.
Does the Page Overlay feature of Google Analytics show that users click much more often on some links than others?	Change the order of links. Remove very infrequently used links.
Are some public pages used mostly by staff?	Move the pages to the staff intranet.
Indexing, access and error logs
Are some pages unlisted in the site's sitemap.xml file? The Google index? (e.g. search Google for site:lib.colostate.edu/mydirectory/)	Assure that pages are accessible to search engines and not excluded. Assure that pages are not orphans (have links from other indexed pages). Optimize using SEO techniques.
Do a large number of visits or views come from certain IP numbers or hosts?	Check if these are target users or crawlers. Exclude from analysis or access if necessary.
Do some directories or files get a large number of unwanted hits from crawlers or bots?	Exclude the pages and/or crawlers, e.g. using robots.txt or .htaccess files.
Do server logs contain a large number of 404 or other errors?	Fix broken links or buggy scripts.
Search
Do certain search terms show up unexpectedly often in search logs? (Google Mini and Google Analytics search terms)	Change labels and terms to match user expectations (e.g. e-reserve vs. course reserves). Add prominent links for easier access (e.g. on home page or navigation bars). Add KeyMatch terms to Google Mini.
Do many searches return no results?	Assure that the user knows what they are searching and how to search. Assure that the search works as expected for searches of this type. Add content to address user needs and interests.
Are there many more searches than item views?	Assure that the searched content matches user expectations, possibly through labeling or content changes.
Are some search options used infrequently?	Remove options to simplify the design. Add more useful options.
Do users employ search terms for which the page or site was not designed?	Change labeling or content so more target users will find the site.