Week 15 Part A: What we Learn from Google Analytics

 I have Google Analytics attached to my current website. It has, in the past, been helpful. Since I am currently on hiatus, my Analytics aren't really very impressive.

I have a gauge to show me when I get new users, 88 for the month of November, but 87 are new users, so I don't have many returning clients. 

I haven't really been posting updates to the website, because I use Wordpress, and I have some issue with the JSON for new posts contending with some new widget or app I installed. I've been in the process of trying to trouble shoot this, but no luck yet.

New content is key to bringing in a new audience.

At some point in time, I'm going to do a page forum and a Facebook group. However, seeing as there is so little new content, it doesn't make sense to do that. 

Plus, I'm not even sure what direction I want to take this beast of a project in, so there's that.

The average duration of a visit is 1 minute, which means no one is really reading articles or looking through the store (or if they do, they aren't interested.)

Out of 94 sessions, my bounce rate is in the 91.49%, so people just click on, then click off...which is fun.

Now when I'm actively posting on this site, these tools are very helpful, as they let me know which new posts are holding people's attention, and for how long.

This month, I only have 117 page views, which is an extreme low, probably my lowest yet.

I need to post more video content, as my current audience tends to favor more passive forms of content (reading is active, where as watching a video is passive, the info just floods your senses.)

I need more videos, and shorter, punchier content to hold people and keep them clicking.

I've been using TikTok to experiment with this style. 

At first, I was opposed to this. I want the content to be full, rich, immersive and both mentally challenging and stimulating. 

As my husband says, I'm "lovably pompous" (a term he stole from Fraiser, whom he likes to compare me to. It makes me question what he thinks about during intimate moments. The forehead is on point though.)

After investigating TikTok for a time, I have found that the youngsters on this site are quite sharp and creative. This is the audience I'd like to draw in, while not alienating the Gen X and Millennial burn outs I've already ingratiated myself to. 

 

As you can see by the country breakdown, I am beloved in China.

This is actually due to Chinese bots, who place orders through my site, then immediately cancel, trying to conduct an SQL injection (using a websites code to try and infiltrate the site and gain administrative privileges.). I know because the only orders I get are these.

 They come in quick succession, so I'll get 12 orders in a row, followed by immediate cancellations. 

This happens because I'm inactive, and these bots ready the domain as possibly being abandoned. If they happen to gain access to an abandoned site, where the owner is still paying for hosting, they basically get a free website for themselves. Its very clever honestly.

I'm most popular in America, probably because I have set up the site in English. I briefly experimented with French translation for my page, mainly because of the Canadian market. 

Canada is a country where getting you can actually get government assistance to get a film or animation produced. There are quite a lot of studios up there, and a lot of actors, who are willing to work for much less that those in LA.

I found through analytics however, that very few people used the French translation. Most Quebecois and Francophones in general have a solid understanding of English. The translation was redundant.

I do have a strong majority of users accessing the site from their desktop rather than mobile device. From this we can deduce that the people who are accessing the site are older, less tech saavy and probably just clicking around at the office, to avoid writing up that report that's due Friday. 

We aren't yet a site where people come to enjoy themselves and we aren't yet bad enough to where people put false links to us as a punishing joke on Reddit. Either would be good for traffic though.

In the Acquisition Overview, you can see how people discover your site. 

Most of our sessions come from direct access, or actually typing the name in. This measure is almost entirely generated by my mom, who thinks I'm "just so creative!" Thanks mom.

The second most popular path to access us is through Baidu, the Chinese search engine. This accounts for the bots, as the bounce rate is a solid 100%. Bots come in, attempt an SQL injection, fail, then move on.

I get a couple fish now and then when I post a link on facebook, but the bounce rate is 100%, which is as high as it can possibly be! People click, then say "nope" and are off to bigger and better faire.

 A few sessions come from organic searches on google. The bounce rate is still high, at 83.33%, but better than our direct source users (ie my mom), Baidu, or Facebook.

Printify seems to be our best source of procuring users. I'm fairly certain that this measure is just reading the connection process of uploading print on demand goods to a website as an interaction though. That accounts for the whopping 17.46 minutes of session duration and 40% bounce rate. 

French Yahoo brings users in with a 100% bounce rate, quel dommage.

However, the single session we have, coming in from Facebook mobile yielded 0% bounce, leaving me to wonder if this user is my mom or my husband, who just accidentally left the window to my page open.

My User Behavior Overview is a little redundant, but shows me what people are actively engaging with. 

Almost all my engagement has been for a sticker set, that I advertised on  TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. TikTok and Instagram don't allow live links, so they're not as helpful, but I have much less engagement through Facebook.

I'm semi-boycotted, because I stopped placating a malingerer I was working with (long story, told here) who was very popular in the San Diego art scene and subsequent Facebook groups. 

I don't play in that sandbox anymore. This is also the reason I think its so important to pay collaborators and talent. Setting clear boundaries from the beginning of why we are working together and when the account is closed would help in preventing people from feeling entitled to my time or allowing themselves to be overly entangled with my life and projects.

This does however tell me that if I bothered to advertise my products and work, people might start showing interest in my site.

Currently, I just post selfies and cat pics, as a placeholder, in the event I ever pick this tangled mess of a projects up again. 

I feel like I understand the project, and the requirements, but don't yet have the willingness to commit myself.