PixelMEDIA Inc.

In today’s economy, we all want to make sure that our businesses are spending money wisely and effectively.  The websites we invest in are no exception.  With all of the planning, design, development, and user testing that we do based on our business drivers, how can we be certain that our time was spent wisely, and that our CEO will give us a pat on the back instead of a pink slip once the project is complete?  The answer: Analytics.

The practice of web analytics has been around for quite some time, and has evolved over the years to offer more and more insight into the user behavior on our websites.  Major players in today’s analytics market include Google Analytics, WebTrends, Omniture, and Urchin.  They allow us to measure the traffic to our site, user demographics, and browser statistics, as well as to track specific campaigns and their impact on lead generation and ultimately, our bottom line.

This is all well and good for your traditional website targeted for the desktop user, but does it hold true for mobile users?  Yes and no.  Of course, we want to track all of the same information as a traditional website, such as page views and browser statics.  But mobile users have different needs than your typical desktop user.  The parameters of their world vary greatly, and so will the decisions they make.  Their usage of your site will reflect these decisions — and analytics reports are your view into their world.

One differentiating factor of the mobile user is the device they use.  With the rapid growth of mobile communications worldwide, there are countless mobile devices and each one offers a different user experience.  Unfortunately, analytics packages such as Google Analytics and WebTrends lack the ability to track mobile-specific information.  Some of these tools rely on JavaScript to track data, a technology that not all mobile devices support.  If your users are lucky enough to have a device that allows JavaScript, the data you collect will not track the mobile-specific information that you’re most interested in, such as the device, manufacturer, and model.

Fortunately, there are solutions available that track exactly this type of information.  One solution is a free offering from AdMob called AdMob Mobile Analytics.  This solution provides a simple way to add code to your website that logs not only the most common analytics data, but the manufacturer, model, browser, operating system, and screen resolution of the mobile device in use.  These are the parameters that are most important to us on the mobile device, since they most directly affect the behavior of our users.

You can leverage this information in a number of ways:

• Develop features for your user base: If your mobile site is targeted toward business users, most of whom will have a mobile device that allows for a rich and interactive experience (e.g., an iPhone or a Blackberry), you can focus your development efforts towards these devices.  You can raise your minimum requirements and comfortably develop richer features, knowing that you’re not alienating a large percentage of your user base.
• Focus your testing efforts on the most common devices: Testing mobile sites can be daunting.  It is nearly impossible to test on every device available, but once you know your users and the devices they use, you can focus your testing on those and cut down on development efforts and costs.
• Watch user behavior: Mobile devices have smaller screen sizes and limited controls that will affect the way a user navigates through your site — and how long they decide to stay. Important content buried on your site may not get the traffic it deserves if users can’t find it.  See what areas of your site get the most traffic and build your site architecture to best allow your users to find the most critical information.

Listen to your mobile users by observing their actions, and observe their actions by investing some time into a mobile analytics solution.  The insight provided will give you the ammunition you need to develop the most effective mobile site possible — and to earn that pat on the back you deserve.

Tags: analytics, mobile