In Part 1, we discussed why the customer experience is so important. Now I want to focus on how and what a web site owner can do to ensure their users are getting the best customer experience and that their site is representing their company and brand accordingly. So where do we start?
My initial recommendation is to start collecting any and all data that you have on your web site. This can include Google Analytics or any other metrics program you have installed on your servers. Most of these analytics programs are good, but there is nothing better than getting the true raw data from log files. Even though server log files are incredibly messy and depending on the amount of traffic to your site, they can also be quite big; there is nothing that can provide you better information than straight log files.

Specific data you should initially look at are as follows:

1. What specific pages are users landing on within your web site? Are there other pages other than just your home page? Knowing what your most popular pages are will allow you to prioritize which pages need your attention first.

2. What are your bounce rates? Are you having a problem with people quickly landing on a page within your site and within seconds leaving your domain all together? – A number of clients I have worked with had this issue of users quickly leaving their site upon entering. What is causing this? Does your main landing pages not immediately address what the users are looking for? Are the pages too busy? Does it lack proper navigation? Does it immediately portray confidence and integrity? We need to figure out why people are deciding very quickly that your site is not what they were looking for.

3. Where are they going and what are are they clicking on? Is it the direction you want? – The main focus of every user should be to turn them from an anonymous click into a paying customer whether that is through purchasing online or filling out a lead generation form. If they are not being driven to these key pages, changes need to be made.

4. If you have a shopping cart or a lead generation form, how many people are abandoning those pages without completing them? – Is your form too long? Is your process to complicated or intimidating? Are you portraying confidence to your users so they feel comfortable giving you their credit card or personal information?

5. How sticky is your web site? What is the average time a user spends on your site? - Longer stays is not always the best scenario either. You need to find that happy balance with the constant focus on conversions.

6. Finally, where are people coming from when they first land on your site? What are the referrer sites? Are these people being driven from search engines, either natural or paid search, links on other sites, etc.? What keywords had they used to find a link to your site? – Knowing where people are coming from and why they found you will again enable you to prioritize what is important today compared to tomorrow. You will be surprised what you think your priorities are compared to what your users are telling you.

If you are able to get answers to the six questions above, you will have a distinct advantage over your competition because they not have this great wealth of information. What this information will give you is a clear picture of what is happening on your web site today. It is not based on what you think or anyone else, it is true data from what people are doing once they hit your web site. If you go into this with an open mind, you will be incredibly surprised on what you learn and what you thought before going through this exercise. This fairly small exercise could have dramatic impacts on your business.

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