It is easy to get overwhelmed when looking for a means of monitoring user behavior on the internet. This is particularly true if you are seeking insight into the behavior of the customer on your website.
On the surface, a site seems like it should allow an infinite number of users. But the reality is that you will only get a finite number of users, and the number you will get varies from day to day. As a result, there will be one or more users who do not buy from you, or who decide not to use your services.
Tracking this information requires an insight into how users interact with your website. You will want to understand what content they do not find attractive. Do they find the site interesting? Is there a gender balance?
A common error is to think that all users are curious and interested in your products and services. The reality is that some users just do not care and will never return to your site. Therefore, you need to understand the various types of users and understand their behavior in order to better serve them.
Generally, a good starting point is customer engagement data. Your customers’ demographics, spending habits, and how they use your site will give you insight into their behavior. This is the number one way to get insight into your customer’s motivation for using your product.
To begin analyzing your customer behavior data, you need to gather some basic information about your customers. For example, you can get this information by asking them to register, making sure they register before making any purchases, or by providing them with a registration cookie. You may also be able to obtain this information from the server of your website, if they were not able to complete a purchase before leaving your site.
Once you have gathered these types of information, you will then need to use another process called user analytics to understand how your users are using your website. User analytics will help you determine if your site is attracting users or if it is turning them away.
First, you will want to identify your ideal customers. These are the users who will most likely make a purchase from your site. You will want to study how they make decisions on the site, how long they spend, how often they purchase items and how quickly they browse the site.
Then, you will want to examine different pages. This will give you the opportunity to learn how they navigate the site, if they find certain pages easier to use than others, and the areas that cause them to click off of your site. If you collect enough data, you can determine where the pain points are in your website and what actions you can take to fix those problems.
Behavioral studies allow you to know not only how users behave but where they behave on your site as well. This is particularly useful when you find that a particular design change or functionality change has led to a decline in your sales.
By implementing a program that measures user behavior on your website, you can easily compare the growth in sales of products and services that correlate with your website traffic. It is relatively easy to establish a baseline, then use your database to measure the growth that occurred in the period before and after the changes. Even if you have just a fraction of the business you do now, you can still get valuable insight into what you are doing wrong.
Finally, you will want to be very careful to keep up-to-date with the latest technology. New data management and analysis programs are being developed all the time, and you should be able to take advantage of those opportunities to become the best that you can be.