Web Analytics Best Practices

Everything About Web Analytics Best Practices

Ten years ago, most websites didn't use any web analytics when trying to attract customers. Some law firms today have still been slow to catch up to web analytics best practices, and because of that, your firm can take advantage of web analytic services to get a leg up on your competition. You can use this guide to start you on your web analytics journey—once you know more about the terminology and best practices involved, you'll be able to seek out more in-depth information.

Web Analytics Best Practices: Key Performance Indicators and Goals

When you invest in web analytic services, one of the first things that you need to think about is what defines success for your law firm's website. What are you hoping to generate with your website's content? Are you hoping for clients to fill out an online contact form or call your offices? Identifying these goals can help you understand which metrics should be considered your key performance indicators (KPIs).

You should use caution in deciding what your KPIs should be. While some law firms initially identify site visits as a KPI, most web analytic services will advise against this. Total traffic doesn't really make a difference to your firm unless that traffic is converting into clients. Web analytics best practices require you to give careful consideration to which metrics will really best represent your firm website's overall performance.

You also need to develop your goals for improvement. While these goals will change over time (more on that later), web analytics best practices include identifying how much you want your KPIs to change, and to set clear dates for achieving those goals. If you're having difficulty figuring out what reasonable goals would be, you may want to hire web analytic services to help you develop actionable goals.

Web Analytics Best Practices: Identifying Your Ideal Clients

One of the most important aspects of preparing for web analytics data is knowing what kind of client you're hoping to attract. Every firm has a different ideal client, and if you're having a hard time articulating what kind of client is best for your firm, you should consult with web analytic services to get a better handle on your client goals.

When you have identified the demographics and desires of your ideal clients, you can begin to create a website that caters to those clients specifically. If you hope to attract several different types of clients, current web analytics best practices avoid “one size fits all” websites and focus on differentiating the customer experience for each type of client.

You may want one landing page or website to draw in clients looking to sue after a car accident, but a wholly different page for those who want to sue a doctor after a child was born with birth defects. For every type of client, consider using different content to drive the maximum number of conversions—even if that means your web analytic services are designing several different websites for your firm.

Web Analytics Best Practices: Continuous Improvement

When you seek out web analytic services, you may initially be considering using these services for just a short time—perhaps long enough to do an overhaul of your website or see an uptick in conversions. In order to get the most out of web analytic services, though, you'll want to stay with a service for a long period of time. Web analytics best practices call for a process of continuous improvement that extends beyond a single site redesign.

Ideally, web analytic services can create a positive feedback loop for your law firm. The more data that is generated by your website, the more that a service can help you to use web analytics best practices to revise your site, improve your search placement, and get the clients you want. Every improvement can create new opportunities for even bigger goals, so there's no reason to stop with just a few months of analysis.

Web Analytics Best Practices: Testing and Experimentation

When people start to use web analytic services, they often want instant results. To get the best results for your firm in the long term, though, web analytics best practices require you to work a little bit more slowly. Taking your time to test hypotheses and experiment with your data can be the difference between a slight increase in client conversions and having as many calls as you can handle.

When you begin to test your hypotheses by creating new content, changing your advertising strategies, or redesigning your website, you gain a wealth

of data that can help you for years in the future. Remember that even a failed experiment is still, in some ways, a success: knowing what not to do can often be nearly as valuable as knowing what to do.

Web Analytics Best Practices: Beyond the Click Stream

Web analytic services examine your website's “click stream”—the patterns of traffic flow within your site—using their analytics tools. When you really want your website to shine, though, it's important to look beyond the click stream for improvements. Conducting user surveys and demographic research as well as focus group testing is vital if you want to really key in on what customers want.

Trying to figure this out through experimentation based solely in your click stream research can be a process of trial and error, with a lot more errors than successes. Instead of guessing what your clients want, ask them—especially if what you've tried before hasn't seemed to work.

Web Analytics Best Practices: Time Management

One of the best pieces of advice for any law firm looking into web analytics is this: hire someone full-time, or hire web analytic services. If you try to balance the time of a member your staff between web analytics and other critical services, odds are that they won't be able to use web analytics best practices and really give you the results you want. Hiring web analytic services can be a good alternative for firms that don't want to have a full-time analytics guru on staff, but make sure you get to keep your data for future use if you use one of these services.