Unit F - Analytics and Why They Matter Flashcards
What does data provided from analytics help us to do?
Relate journalism to audience.
What does journalistic content reflect?
Needs of audience.
What is a hit?
The retrieval of any item on a page by a server.
What is a visitor count?
Number of visitors to a website in a specific time span.
What is often the time span for visitor counts?
30 days.
What is a unique visitor?
A person who comes to a website every day during that period but counts as one.
What does ‘stickiness’ refer to?
Sites that have sufficient content and interest to keep readers on the site for long periods of time.
What are the three ways a visitor can come to a website? Describe them.
Direct - from bookmarked URL or typing in the web address.
Referral - from another site or from a search engine.
Other - from social media links, or e-marketing. Social media links often lumped in with referrals
Why is the time of day important in analytics?
It can dictate publishing patterns as you want visitors to have something new to read every time they visit the site.
Why is knowing the device important in analytics?
It can dictate the way stories are presented.
What are some tips for writing for mobile?
- short paragraphs
- succinct, easy-to-read lists
- break long story into chunks
- SEO
- links for further reading
- short videos and images
- top four paragraphs need to be self contained to sum up story
- crossheads to break up text
Why is web engagement important?
It shows love for website - measures how engaged visitors are and if they keep coming back.
What does it mean if a website has high visitor numbers but low engagement numbers?
It is a bad thing as it means that visitors are not satisfied and leave.
Which factors can affect engagement?
- website design
- relevant keywords on landing page
- does the story display offer reader relevant content?
- making content interactive (e.g. reader comments)
- links to get people clicking
Which four things should you look for in analytics?
- number of pages a visitor views
- average time a visitor spends on the site
- bounce rate
- impression
What is a keyword?
In SEO, a particular word or phrase that describes the contents of a web page. Keywords can help search engines match pages with content.
What is anchor text?
Text that appears highlighted in a hyperlink that can be clicked on to open a webpage.
What is a broken link?
A broken hyperlink that no longer points to its original destination.
What can bad links affect?
A website’s positioning on search engines.
What is a cookie?
A text file used to track returning visitors.
What is a crawler/spider/bot?
A program that visits websites to create search engine index content.
What is a dead end page?
A webpage with no links and which therefore requires a visitor to click the ‘back’ button to stay on a website.
What are meta tags?
Text that describes a webpage’s content.
What must you be aware of regarding webpage word count?
Pages with low word count will not show up on search engines.
What is the minimum word count for web pages?
80 words.
If your content is under-performing, what five things can you do to improve it?
- move story to greater prominence on web page
- check SEO and improve, esp. headline
- change photo with story - remove stock photo and use something ‘live’
- add links to story - signals importance to search engines
- re-present story on social media
