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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 health care websites has also grown, the health care industry has been slower to adopt the use 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. 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.
With the continually growing global importance of the World Wide Web, websites have become a crucial communication channel for corporations, political groups, and organizations because of their capability to rapidly disseminate information to various audiences at a low cost [
Studies have shown a relationship between the usability of health care websites and the credibility ascribed by its users [
Other industries have established user expectations for their respective websites; health care websites are facing the need to conform [
The conversion rate is closely intertwined with usability. It measures the number of users who perform the desired goal of the page (ie, buying a product or filling out a form) relative to the total users [
Web analytics refers to the collection, analysis, and reporting of internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing web use [
To the authors’ knowledge, there is no recent paper outlining how web analytics can be applied broadly to the field of health care. By evaluating the categories of engagement, users, acquisition, content, and platform, we aim to create a universal framework of web analytics that can be applied to health care websites to improve the quality and effectiveness of these websites.
This aim of this tutorial is to (1) provide a basic understanding of definitions and methods pertaining to web analytics, (2) create a framework for using web analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of health care websites specifically, and (3) outline the actionable implications of web analytics to assist health care websites in achieving their goals.
Google Analytics (GA) is a web analytics service that has been offered by Google since 2005. It is the most widely used web analytics tool, with 84.1% of the market share [
An engagement analysis evaluates user activity and is one of the most used analytic tools. It describes how users interact with websites [
When evaluating overall engagement,
The
The number of pages per session is the number of pages within the site that a user visits during a single session and indicates how thoroughly a user is engaging with a website. A page view is counted every time a website is loaded, and this can be tracked using GA [
As the name suggests,
Analytics can help health care centers understand who the users of their websites are. GA provides limited demographic information about users, including age and gender distribution and location. If a website has a target audience, they can monitor if they are reaching that demographic. If they are targeting a diverse population of users, they can also use these demographics to monitor their success. Using this information, web creators can better focus their efforts on the population viewing their website or target those who are not using the site. For example, if it is discovered that males over the age of 65 years are primarily accessing a men’s health website, the web administrators would know they are reaching part of their target demographic. However, they may want to make efforts in marketing to younger users as well.
By employing use data to understand consumer needs, websites can increase their user acquisition [
Assessments of a website’s content can refer to the relevancy of information, the quality of multimedia content, and even grammar and spelling [
Concerning relevancy, the following questions should be posed: is a website’s information up to date and fact-driven, and does it provide answers people are seeking [
Multimedia content can be evaluated by quantity and quality of resolution [
Spelling and grammar are important aspects of content quality. Even if a website’s content is up to date and accurate, users still may not trust it if there are obvious spelling and grammatical errors. There are easily accessible spelling and grammar tools available for websites to avoid this issue.
To better understand potential areas of improvement for a website, engagement can be evaluated on each page. One can also assess the different browsers and devices through which users access a website to identify technical areas of improvement.
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Users are accessing websites on various devices, namely desktop computers or laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. Similar to browsers, if a website cannot be accessed on all devices, this eliminates an entire category of potential users. Tablets and smartphones are more commonly being used to access the internet; therefore, it is important that websites are mobile friendly. Administrators have the option to make separate mobile websites, but with mobile devices becoming more sophisticated, new methods have developed. One new and simpler method known as responsive design allows for the creation of one web page, then uses multiple sets of CSS rules to adjust formatting of the website to fit the size of the browser window [
By providing detailed descriptions of categories such as engagement, users, acquisition, content, and platform, we have identified how web administrators can use web analytics to systematically assess their websites using tools such as GA. We have also provided generalized recommendations for actionable improvements that can be made to address website weaknesses.
Although web analytics may be at an infant stage in the world of health care, it is very prevalent in other industries. By introducing the potential benefits of web analytics in the health care sector, we hope to continue the standardization of web practices that users have become accustomed to. Using web analytic tools in the proper context, health care website administrators can gain more information on user engagement and use this information to make improvements.
With the health care industry being slow to adapt to standards for website usability, we hope that the outlined methods and recommendations for using web analytics can be directed toward areas in need of improvement and increase the websites’ conversion rates. These recommendations can make a significant impact for health care organizations because they are actionable at a low cost. The potential of a website to improve persuasion and relevance has been established and by using web analytics, web administrators can easily expand upon this potential with a smaller financial burden compared to other methods.
The approaches outlined in this paper are intended to be broadly generalizable to health care–related websites such that they can be used by a wide spectrum of web administrators in the health care industry. However, each organization should tailor this approach to their unique objectives and considerations. This content serves primarily as an introduction to the potential benefits and methods of using web analytics, and future studies may focus on more specific use cases, such as applications for subfields in health care.
Key web analytic metrics are not a comprehensive method for evaluating website usability. In certain cases, a degree of inference must be made to use web analytics as a reflection of a website’s usability. For example, the conversion rate can be used as a measure of a website’s effectiveness. However, if those viewing a website are not its targeted users, a poor conversion rate does not necessarily reflect poor usability. This underscores the importance of using various web analytic measures to gain a comprehensive perspective of user interaction. In the given scenario, administrators could examine the demographic characteristics of their websites users to determine if there is in fact an issue with usability. Similarly, metrics like the DAU/MAU ratio, bounce rate, and page views are used as a measure of website engagement, but it remains important to consider these measures within the context of a website’s targeted users and objectives. If it is not a website’s goal to promote continual access, the DAU/MAU ratio is not a useful measure for usability. Similarly, if it is not a website’s goal to foster continual engagement within each session, page views and the bounce rate are not useful.
Finally, these metrics are only one aspect of the overall capabilities of website usability analysis. Other methods to evaluate usability include user interviews and on-page heat mapping. Future studies delving into these methods would help improve our understanding of website usability in health care–related websites.
Websites continue to be a primary method by which health care organizations interact with their consumers; however, the health care sector lags behind many other industries in using accepted and standardized website usability practices. With evidence pointing to the efficacy of using web analytics to augment the usability and conversion rate, health care organizations can benefit from adopting these practices to better accomplish the goals of their websites.
daily active users
daily active users to monthly active users
Google Analytics
monthly active users
Search Engine Optimization
search engine results page
ELF wrote the manuscript. JB contributed to the manuscript revisions. JF contributed to the final version of the manuscript. JC conceived the original idea and contributed to writing the manuscript. DL conceived the original idea and contributed to writing the manuscript. SH conceived original idea and supervised the project. All authors reviewed the final manuscript.
SH serves on the advisory board of Covid Act Now and Safeter. SH is Cofounder and Executive Board Director of GetUsPPE (unpaid) and ConductScience. SH serves on the American College of Emergency Physicians Supply Chain Task Force. SH has received research funding from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts, royalties from MazeEngineers, and personal fees from Withings Inc, the Boston Globe, the American College of Emergency Physicians, ConductScience, Curative Medical Associates, and VIO Med Spa New England. SH is a volunteer at Emojination. The other authors report no conflicts of interest.