| Measure | Performance for all SWAP Sites, First 90 Days |
|---|---|
| Pageviews | +28% ↑ |
| Unique Pageviews | +31% ↑ |
| Avg. Time on Page in Sec. | +26% ↑ |
| Total Hours on Pages | +62% ↑ |
| Entrances | +79% ↑ |
| Visits from Search Engines | +40% ↑ |
| Bounce Rate | +16% ↑ |
| Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (Old-Style) | +19% ↑ |
| Total Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (Old-Style) | +53% ↑ |
| Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (New-Style) | +530% ↑ |
| Total Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (New-Style) | +709% ↑ |
Web analytics show that our new websites are outperforming their predecessors in almost every way.
Most encouraging is the figure for Total Undergraduate Admissions Page Value, our best measure of the undergraduate admissions activity.
How We Measure
For each completed website, we measure its performance for the first 90 days after relaunch, and compare that with the performance of the same site during the same 90 days one year prior. The figures above combine the statistics for all sites that have been live for more than 90 days.
Definitions of the Measures
The measures used to judge website performance may be unfamiliar. Here's a quick rundown of the measures we use.
- Pageviews. A pageview happens each time a user loads or reloads a page on the website. (You probably thought this was called a “hit,” but that's actually a different, and much less useful, measure.)
- Unique Pageviews. Same as pageviews, but with the reloads removed. It can be hard to tell if a page is being loaded or reloaded, so this figure is less reliable than plain old pageviews.
- Avg. Time on Page in Seconds. Total seconds spent on these pages ÷ number of pageviews. More time on page is not always better, but in combination with a higher total page value, it is better in this case.
- Total Hours on Pages. The total number of hours users spent on these pages.
- Entrances. Number of times a user entered the www.iup.edu website on one of these pages.
- Visits from Search Engines. Entrances to these pages that came directly to the department site from a search engine.
- Bounce Rate. A bounce is a one-page visit to a website. The bounce rate is the number of bounces divided by number of entrances, or the percentage of entrances that result in a bounce. (More entrances typically mean more opportunities to bounce and hence more bounces.)
- Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (Old-Style). Undergraduate admissions page value shows how much an individual page contributes to undergrad admissions activity. Starting in 2009 we assigned a $1 value to a click on a request info button, $2 to visit registration clicks, and $3 to application clicks. Those values are then averaged across the pages visited before the click. We use this “old-style” page value measure for sites launched before May 2014.
- Total Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (Old-Style). The Total Undergraduate Admissions Page Value is the per-page value times the number of page views. We are finding that even if the new pages tend to have a lower page value on a per-page basis, the total admissions activity generated is greater than before.
- Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (New-Style). We've had our new page value system in place since May 2013. It assigns more realistic monetary values to online conversions and tracks form completions instead of clicks. We use this “new-style” page value measure for sites launched during and after May 2014.
- Total Undergraduate Admissions Page Value (New-Style). The Total Undergraduate Admissions Page Value is the per-page value times the number of page views.