Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

Table of Contents

Executive Summary.............................................................3

Task 1

Report...................................................................4-7

Recommendations.......................................................7

Task 2..............................................................................8

References......................................................................9-10

Tables and figures......................................................10

Appendices...................................................................11-13

Glossary..........................................................................14

Executive Summary

The purpose of the following report is to give an in depth analysis of the data gained via Google analytics to the web owner, in order to inform him about the visits made to his site and what changes are necessary. Research for this report was conducted through the Index of Information Systems Journals website from 1 January 2009-31 December 2009.

The report used Google Analytics to analyze the website. The report will explain the number of visitors on the site including absolute unique visitors, new vs. returning visitors, page views, time on site and bounce rate. Traffic sources, content, goals and key dates will also be analyzed to find out where and how visitors came across the website.

The data obtained from Google Analytics allows the website owner to be much better informed regarding their users. It is recommended that the web page undergo a restructure in terms of convenience, appearance and accessibility. The website would benefit by being ensured of accessibility to popular pages and effective utilization of traffic sources.

Task 1

Report: The Index of Information Systems Journals website

The following report will explain the data obtained through Google Analytics between the dates of 1 January 2009-31 December 2009 to explain to the website owner information gathered on visitors and what content the visitors are looking for. Visitors' information will include absolute unique visitors, new vs. returning visitors, page views, time on site and bounce rate. Traffic sources, content, goals and key dates will also be analyzed to find out where and how visitors came across the website and what the main keywords used.

An effective method of obtaining information that could potentially improve the site is to understand the current users that we are trying to appeal too. This can be done by analyzing for statistics based on visitors and site usage. It is apparent that the sites users are people with an active interest in Information Systems. They could perhaps be academics searching for journals to site in their own work or perhaps even information system enthusiasts looking to expand on their knowledge of the subject. The site generated a total of 62,365 visitors between the date ranges of 1 January 2009-31 December 2009.

The absolute unique visitor's category counts people visiting the site once and then categorizes them into two smaller categories - new or returning visitor. If a visitor has been on the site before the selected date range then they will be put under the 'returning' category. If the visitor has not been to the site before the selected date range then they will be classified as a 'new' visitor. New vs. returning visitor counts all the visits or sessions from users. For example, User X is visiting the website for the first time on day one then returns to the website on the following day, day two. User X's first visit on day one will be counted in absolute unique visitors for the first time they arrived to the site and it will also be counted as new visit (session). However, when User X returns to the site the following day, it will only be counted as returning visit.

Out of the 62,365 visitors throughout the data range, there were 38,479 absolute unique visitors. Of the 38,479 absolute unique visitors there were 37,853 new visitors which indicates that the remaining 626 visitors must have been on the site before the selected date range (Appendix 1). Upon analysis of Monthly alerts; that is, key dates of the year in which describes the amount of users per month, we can conclude that the web page is more popular towards the end of the year and holiday periods. October and November are responsible for over 6000 of those visits each in comparison to January only having 3409 visits. From this we can conclude that a portion of the websites prefer to access IS journals during non-working periods, which means they could potentially be academics publishing their own work now that they have time. (Appendix 2)

The bounce rate is when the visitor leaves the site from the entrance page. More than half of the new visitors left the page as soon as the first page came up. The bounce rate for the new visitors was a massive 50.85%. The average time spent on the website from new visitors was only 3:06 minutes. There were only 39.30% of returning visitors with 28.83% bounce rate. Therefore, only 10.47% continued exploring other pages on the site. Possible conclusions that can be drawn from the data include inadequate presentation of the website including congestion, confusion or difficult navigation which led to such a high bounce rate. In terms of retention, users who found IS journals they wanted are returning therefore the correct journals are available, but perhaps only to those willing to search hard enough or without an alternative.

It is very beneficial for a webpage to understand its traffic sources; that is, how consumers are finding the web page, in order to utilize and take advantage of its effectiveness. When users accessed the site, the average