Analytics: Filters, Internal Search and Behavior Maps
Summary
To get started with Analytics setup and visitor behavior analysis, configure Filters, Internal Search, and Behavior Maps to add context to your data, understand visitor search behavior, and visualize how visitors interact with your website.
Applies To
Product: Analytics
User role: Admins, Account Owners, or users with the required permissions where applicable
Getting Started with Analytics
The ability to analyze your online presence helps you to improve your visitor experience and maintain your competitive edge. Making good use of digital analytics requires a grasp of how to discuss data, an understanding of collection techniques, and the ability to act on data to improve your website. Analyzing user behavior provides insights into the way visitors use your website.
This page is intended to teach you the basics, by helping you get started with:
- Creating Filters
- Using Internal Search
- Setting up Behavior Maps
If this is your first time using this feature, we recommend taking a quick tour with our Analytics Overview In-App tutorial. You can also reference more ways to learn if you'd prefer to follow along with a webinar, or take a formal course in our Learning Hub.
Recommended First Steps
When setting up Analytics, we recommend starting with the following areas:
- Create Filters to focus on the data that matters most to your organization.
- Configure Internal Search tracking to understand what visitors are searching for on your website.
- Set up Behavior Maps early so data collection can begin on key pages.
Create Filters
Note: Only Admins or Account Owners or a customized role with the manage filters permission can create filters.
Filters apply additional context to your analytics data and allow for more in-depth analysis of specific types of visitor behavior. For example, if your website targets an audience in a specific geographical region, it would be beneficial to use a geography filter in order to remove data from visitors that are out of scope. And because Siteimprove preserves all of your original data, filters can be turned on and off as needed, as well as be applied retroactively.
One of the first filters we recommend setting up is an IP filter, as it's important to be able to differentiate between outside visitors to your website and visitors from within your organization.
Resources
Help Center articles
How to set up an IP Filter (Video):
Use Internal Search
Knowing what your visitors are searching for once they land on your site can be extremely valuable! Siteimprove's Internal Search feature tracks terms entered into your site's proprietary search engine, and records actions taken as a result of the search. It will help you identify gaps in available content (if no results are available), and opportunities to better align your content with the search intent of your visitors.
Please contact Siteimprove technical support to have Internal Search term tracking configured on your account.
Resources
Help Center article
Internal Search Tracking (Video):
Set Up Behavior Maps
Behavior Maps provide a visual representation of how visitors are using specific pages on your website. They come in 4 different varieties:
- HeatMap - what draws visitors' attention?
- Scroll Map - how far down on a page are visitors willing to scroll?
- Click Map - how do visitors interact with a page's elements?
- Segmentation Map - how do users from specific locations interact with my pages?
We highly recommend setting up behavior maps during your first few weeks with Siteimprove so they're ready when you need them. This is one of the few features that doesn't work retroactively, meaning we can only start collecting data for this feature once you specify the URLs you'd like behavior maps on.
Resources
Help Center article
How to add a Behavior Map (Video):
More Ways to Learn
Learning Hub is our new education suite that includes:
- Courses in Performance, Accessibility, Analytics, SEO, and more
- Certifications to help you develop and showcase your Siteimprove expertise
- Live coaching sessions in an office hours format to get help with your specific needs
- Community to connect with other Siteimprove customers and share best practices
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