It’s been a little over three months since we began running event tracking on the UMW website, and we’re starting to get a little better picture of how people are using the site.
Baseline Information
The stats included in this article are pulled from the Analytics reports for the entire UMW website during the month of October. During that time, there were 233,804 unique visitors to the site, 538,105 total visits and 1,424,386 total page views. The home page of the site was viewed 548,450 times; 180,585 of which were “unique pageviews”.
Helpful Links
During the month of October, our users clicked on links within Helpful Links 78,841 times; once again, more than 5.5% of the total page views on the UMW website included clicks on items within Helpful Links.
Of those ~79,000 clicks, more than 76,000 were clicks within the Online Tools area, making up just over 97% of the clicks within the Helpful Links section. Almost 35% of those clicks — 26,724 — led to our Webmail landing page. Just under 30% — 22,297 — of those clicks led to Canvas, our learning management system. Almost 23% this month — 17,454 — pointed to our internal student and employee portal/intranet. Finally, almost 7% of the clicks — 5,314 — led users to our student information system; just over 2.5% of the clicks — 2,028 — led to our Library website; less than 2% of the clicks — 1,428 — led to the system we use to allow students and their families to add money to their ID cards; and less than 1% led to each of the other 5 areas linked within that section (just over 2% total for all 5 links).
Links within the Resources section were clicked only 2,185 times, making up just under 3% of the total clicks. Among those links, the Registrar’s office is the clear leader, making up more than 34% — 748 — of those clicks, with the Academic Calendar accounting for ~9% — 195 — of the clicks. The Undergraduate Academic Catalog and Human Resources were the only other links in that section clicked more than 100 times (127 and 114, respectively) during the month. This month, the link to the Bookstore (which is also linked in our global navigation) fell to 11th place in the resource links, making up just 2% of the total clicks in that section. Career Services rounded out the top 5 for that section, garnering only 98 clicks this month.
The Feedback link (currently the only “other” link tracked as part of Helpful Links) was clicked 136 times.
Header Links
Links within the header area of the site were clicked 8,802 times during the month of October.
Among these links, the “Careers at UMW” link (leads to our list of employment opportunities) was the most popular, with a total of 2,338 clicks. The next most popular link in that section was the Prospective Students link, with a total of 1,473 clicks. The next 2 in the list were the Directory link and the Maps and Directions link, with 1,261 and 1,195 clicks each, respectively. Contact Us was clicked 981 times, while Parents was used only 466 times this month. People clicked to look at the Events page 613 times, while the News and Campus Advisories links were each clicked fewer than 300 times.
The Home Page
Together, all of the links exclusive to the home page were clicked a total of 6,130 times, meaning again that only about 1% of the home page views resulted in someone clicking on items that are exclusive to the home page. The home page itself, though, still has a low bounce rate (only 0.56%) and an exit rate of just over 27%, meaning that, while the exclusive items on the home page may not be grabbing people’s attention, visitors aren’t simply showing up on the home page and running away.
The Slideshow
This month, the slideshow was slightly more popular than the links within the Top Stories section of the home page, with a total of 2,501 clicks in October. This month, the only slide position that was out of order, according to its popularity, was the sixth position. They stack in order as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 8, 9, 10. Only the sixth and tenth positions were clicked fewer times than they were last month; all of the others were clicked more than they were in September.
Those slide positions were clicked the following numbers of times:
- 776
- 425
- 324
- 229
- 173
- 129
- 144
- 112
- 93
- 91
Observations based on these figures:
- For the third month in a row, more than 10% of the clicks in the slideshow were on the slide showing up in the third position
- This time, only positions 8, 9 and 10 made up less than 5% of the clicks within the slideshow each; meaning that the other 7 positions were still higher than 5% of the total clicks.
- Every single position within the slideshow was clicked at least 90 times during the month of October
Looking at the slide contents coupled with the slide positions, the numbers don’t offer many more surprises than they did in the previous months. The top-clicked slide, “Learning to Walk” (clicked a total of 451 times – 269 of which were reportedly from outside of our campus network) was at the top of the heap in position #1 but shows up in fourth place when in position #2 and fifth place when in position #3. The second-place slide was “The Road to Washington” (clicked a total of 375 times – 225 of which were external visitors). The third place slide, “Taking Flight at UMW”, was clicked a total of 251 times, with 158 of those clicks outside of our network. Oddly, “Taking Flight at UMW” was actually more popular in the first position than “The Road to Washington” was in that position, with 2 more total clicks and 10 more external clicks. “The Road to Washington” then appeared in 6th and 7th place among the combined list, in positions 3 and 2, respectively (so, it was slightly more popular in the third position than it was in the second position). In the second position, “Taking Flight at UMW” was the 10th most popular item in the combined list. Two other slides appeared at numbers 8 and 9 in the combined list, both when they were in the first position of the slide show.
Because I’m so late posting this summary, I don’t have any snapshots of the slides mentioned that I can share. Hopefully I’ll get the wrap-up done earlier next month so I can actually include some snapshots.
Top Stories
These links made up more than 36% — 2,202 — of the clicks on the home page during the month of October. Separating the traffic between internal and external visitors, it looks like external visitors clicked to view a Top Story 1,090 times. The most popular story this month, with 301 total clicks (169 external), was “UMW Foundation Purchases Former Hostess Brands Warehouse“, which appeared on the home page for only 5 days. The next two stories, “UMW Featured in “Best Places for Job Seekers” Ranking” and “Governor Announces Appointments to UMW Board” garnered 225 and 219 (137 external) clicks, respectively. The first was featured on the home page for 8 days, and 139 of its clicks were from external visitors; while the latter was up there for 10 days, and 137 of its clicks were external. Rounding out the top 5, we had “Alumni Return to UMW for Homecoming“, clicked 215 times, and only appearing for 2 days during the month of October; and “Family and Friends Gathered at UMW’s Family Weekend“, clicked 204 times and appearing for 7 days on the home page.
Other Home Page Links
Again, during the month of October, we had basically the same “calls to action” appearing in the various other areas of the home page as we have had for the past two months. This time around, though, “Open House” was the most popular link outside of the slideshow and Top Stories. That link was clicked 184 times during the month, 178 of which were reportedly from outside the campus network.
Our “Virtual Tour” flag was clicked 144 times, 102 of which were by external visitors, while “Apply to UMW” was clicked 311 times, 298 of which were external, and “Virtual Tour” was clicked 246 times, 224 of which were external. “Apply to UMW” was clicked a total of 216 times in October, 203 of which were external. “Watch the Great Minds Video”, which has been the most popular for the past two months, fell to fifth place, excluding the slideshow and Top Stories.
Footer Links
Links within our mega footer navigation area were clicked a total of 1,558 times. 1,459 of those appear to have come from external visitors. The most popular link in that section, with 194 total clicks (all but 4 of those were external), leads to our undergrad admissions page. The rest of the top five in that area lead to “Fast Facts”, “Contact UMW”, “Majors, Minors and Courses of Study” and “Administration” with 164, 129, 112 and 65 clicks, respectively. Not a single one of those clicks reportedly came from inside of our campus network.
Among the global footer links, one link was clearly the most popular: “Login” (with 1,038 clicks – almost 59% of the total clicks in that area). Not surprisingly, almost 65% of those clicks came from inside our campus network.
The second and third most popular links in that area, with only 82 and 54 clicks each, were “Map” and “Facebook”. “Map” was clicked 8 times by internal visitors, while Facebook was only clicked twice by internal visitors; the rest of the clicks came from outside our network.
The Viewbook thumbnail was clicked a total of 182 times during the month of October. Once again, seven of those clicks were on our International viewbook, and, again, all seven of those clicks were from within the United States.
In fact, only 126 of the clicks on the domestic viewbook were made by external visitors, meaning that about one-third of the clicks on that item were made from within our campus network.