Web analytics data is usually collected to measure the performance of a website: how users find that website, what they do on the site and if they perform actions that result in revenue for that website. Within website analysis, a good Web analyst will also look at reports that reveal more about the performance of particular pages on the website: which pages are landing pages and what is the bounce rate of those pages (as opposed to bounce rate of the website as a whole). Which pages are common exit pages and is that what one would hope for from the user journey? Sitewide Web analytics is very useful in determining which pages in the website might be ripe for optimisation, but then specific page analysis tools are useful for analysing and visualising single page performance.

This post takes a quick look at four Web analytics tools that are useful for single page analysis for optimisation: Google Analytics’ In-Page Analytics, Crazy Egg, ClickTale and KISSinsights.

Google Analytics’ In-Page Analytics

On Friday 15 October, Google Analytics released In-Page Analytics into public beta. It’s a new report that replaces the Site Overlay report and can be found in the Content reports menu. It’s a neat way of visualising Google Analytics metrics in an overlay on your website. Similar to the old Site Overlay, In-Page Analytics shows a breakdown by percentage of clicks where visitors to the page clicked on. The benefit with the new report is that this is combined with visitor data and can be filtered by visitor type (e.g. screen resolution) and visit behaviour. It also starts to give an indication of below-the-fold behaviour, with the report indicating the percentage of clicks that you need to scroll to see.

Select "In-Page Analytics" to visualise Google Analytics data in an overlay on your website. Image Credit: Google Analytics

The report is overlaid on a live version of your website, so you can actually navigate your site with this layer of data instead of having to select new page reports in the reporting interface. It can even show you click breakdowns as you expand dropdown menus! And, of course, this reporting is free as it is part of Google Analytics (which is free).

In-Page reports give an indication of clicks below the fold. Image Credit: Google Analytics

However, Google Analytics relies on unique URLs in order to determine where users are clicking. Most websites today might repeat the same URL in several places on a Web page: main navigation elements are often repeated in the footer and the content can contain contextual links in the repeat menu navigation. Unless these URLs are tagged to differentiate them (which is quite a laborious process), this report cannot differentiate between a click on the main navigation and a click on the footer link when they go to the same URL. Bear this in mind when using this report to analyse user behaviour on a page.

Crazy Egg’s Click Tracking

Crazy Egg is a single page analytics tool. You tag only the pages you want to report on. Crazy Egg reports on clicks on a page and tracks these clicks to the pixel. It is also able to report on clicks that are not on URLs. With Crazy Egg, you generate reports on a page of your website that indicate exactly where users are clicking, whether or not users are clicking on links. This is a good way to gather data to determine if there are sufficient visual clues on your page, or if visual elements might be misleading.

Crazy Egg - build heatmaps and track clicks. Image Credit: Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is also very useful for differentiating between links that go to the same page. For example, you might have several links that go to the same URL. If you are reading this on the GottaQuirk blog, you’ll see several links through to the Quirk website (including this one). With Crazy Egg, I could see which link visitors are clicking on.

Crazy Egg also allows for filtering of reports using information that it captures such as visit referral source, time to click, screen resolution, etc.

ClickTale’s Mouse Movement Reports

ClickTale is a site-wide Web analytics tool that is also used for single page analysis. As well as click reports, ClickTale also produces mouse movement and scroll reports (which as a Web analytics nerd gets me very excited). There are studies which correlate mouse movement with eye movement, meaning that you are generating reports which give some indication to whether or not content on the Web page was actually read!

ClickTale Mouse Move Heatmaps. Image Credit: ClickTale

KISSinsights In-Page Surveys

While there are several providers that let you run quick in-page surveys on pages on your website, KISSinsights is quick and easy to setup and use. These small surveys allow you to collect qualitative data that can be analysed quantitatively. In-page surveys are best used on key information or action pages, such as a page that provides pricing or product information, or a "contact us" page. Using only a single multiple choice question, you can soon gather rich data that gives an indication as to what users might find confusing on your page.

The KISSinsights homepage. Image Credit: KISSinsights

Having used Web analytics to identify important pages on your website, several single page analysis tools can be used to further analyse how users are interacting with that page. There are tools which provide visual heatmaps of clicks or mouse movements (Crazy Egg and Click Tale), surveys which can generate further qualitative data and Google Analytics’ new In-Page Analysis Reports which help to visualise data on a website. Remember to make sure that you update your privacy policy to account for any additional data collection on your website.

Also check out:

• Quirk is a Google Analytics Authorised Consultancy
• 4 Tips for Getting More Out of your Google Analytics Account