Unit F - Analytics and Why They Matter

Question 1

What does data provided from analytics help us to do?

Answer 1

Relate journalism to audience.

Question 2

What does journalistic content reflect?

Answer 2

Needs of audience.

Question 3

What is a hit?

Answer 3

The retrieval of any item on a page by a server.

Question 4

What is a visitor count?

Answer 4

Number of visitors to a website in a specific time span.

Question 5

What is often the time span for visitor counts?

Answer 5

30 days.

Question 6

What is a unique visitor?

Answer 6

A person who comes to a website every day during that period but counts as one.

Question 7

What does ‘stickiness’ refer to?

Answer 7

Sites that have sufficient content and interest to keep readers on the site for long periods of time.

Question 8

What are the three ways a visitor can come to a website? Describe them.

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Why is the time of day important in analytics?

Answer 9

It can dictate publishing patterns as you want visitors to have something new to read every time they visit the site.

Question 10

Why is knowing the device important in analytics?

Answer 10

It can dictate the way stories are presented.

Question 11

What are some tips for writing for mobile?

Answer 11

• 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

Question 12

Why is web engagement important?

Answer 12

It shows love for website - measures how engaged visitors are and if they keep coming back.

Question 13

What does it mean if a website has high visitor numbers but low engagement numbers?

Answer 13

It is a bad thing as it means that visitors are not satisfied and leave.

Question 14

Which factors can affect engagement?

Answer 14

• 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

Question 15

Which four things should you look for in analytics?

Answer 15

• number of pages a visitor views
• average time a visitor spends on the site
• bounce rate
• impression

Question 16

What is a keyword?

Answer 16

In SEO, a particular word or phrase that describes the contents of a web page. Keywords can help search engines match pages with content.

Question 17

What is anchor text?

Answer 17

Text that appears highlighted in a hyperlink that can be clicked on to open a webpage.

Question 18

What is a broken link?

Answer 18

A broken hyperlink that no longer points to its original destination.

Question 19

What can bad links affect?

Answer 19

A website’s positioning on search engines.

Question 20

What is a cookie?

Answer 20

A text file used to track returning visitors.

Question 21

What is a crawler/spider/bot?

Answer 21

A program that visits websites to create search engine index content.

Question 22

What is a dead end page?

Answer 22

A webpage with no links and which therefore requires a visitor to click the ‘back’ button to stay on a website.

Question 23

What are meta tags?

Answer 23

Text that describes a webpage’s content.

Question 24

What must you be aware of regarding webpage word count?

Answer 24

Pages with low word count will not show up on search engines.

Question 25

What is the minimum word count for web pages?

Answer 25

80 words.

Question 26

If your content is under-performing, what five things can you do to improve it?

Answer 26

1. move story to greater prominence on web page
2. check SEO and improve, esp. headline
3. change photo with story - remove stock photo and use something ‘live’
4. add links to story - signals importance to search engines
5. re-present story on social media