JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Introduction: With the growing importance of communicating with the public via the Web, many industries have used web analytics to provide information that organizations can use to better achieve their goals. Although the importance of healthcare websites has also grown, as a whole, the healthcare industry has been slower to adapt the usage of web analytics. Web analytics are the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of internet data used to measure direct user interaction. Our objective is to provide generalized methods for using web analytics as key performance metrics to evaluate websites and outline actionable recommendations for improvement.

Methods:

By deconstructing web analytic categories such as engagement, users, acquisition, content, and platform, we describe how web analytics are used to evaluate websites and how improvements can be made using this information. Engagement is essentially how a user interacts with a website. It can be evaluated using DAU/MAU ratio, bounce rate, pages viewed, and time on site. Poor engagement indicates potential problems with website usability. Users pertains to demographic information regarding the users interacting with a website. This data can help administrators understand who is engaging with their website. Acquisition refers to the overall website traffic and the method of traffic, which allows administrators to see how people are accessing their website. This information helps websites expand their methods of attracting users. Content refers to the overall relevancy, accuracy, and trustworthiness of a website’s content. If a website has poor content, it will likely experience difficulty with user engagement. Finally, Platform refers to the technical aspects of how people access a website. It includes both the internet browsers and devices users are utilizing. Discussion: By providing detailed descriptions of these categories, we have identified how web administrators can utilize web analytics to systematically assess their websites. We have also provided generalized recommendations for actionable improvements. By introducing the potential of web analytics to augment usability and conversion rate, we hope to assist healthcare organizations in better communicating with the public and therefore better accomplishing the goals of their websites.