College Web Development

Towards the end of my last post on Understanding Analytics I mentioned using another analytics software called CrazyEgg. I originally posted it as a solution for tracking links to pages that do not have Google Analytics code on them. Which CrazyEgg is an excellent solution for. A few people e-mailed me about the purpose of Crazyegg. Apparently, it is obvious that CrazyEgg was designed with more in mind then I originally gave it credit for, so in this post I will explain the main benefits of CrazyEgg and how these benefits should be used on college websites.

First things first, What is CrazyEgg?

CrazyEgg is an analytics tool that utilizes click mapping to gain a unique understanding of your users.

The Main Benifits:

1. You not only see what link they clicked on you see where on the link they clicked.
2. You can see if your users are clicking on parts of the page that are not links ( paid only)
3. You can view by time to click, i.e. how long it takes for a user to click on your call to action.
4. The confetti view (pic to the right) can separate out all the clicks based on Referees, Time to Click, Browser, and more.

So now that I sound like a typing CrazyEgg advertisement, let me get down to some honest truths. First things first, the heat map feature ( as seen in the pic at the top) is basically useless. It looks really cool, but does nothing for you, if you have a link that is more popular than other links you would expect it to have more clicks hence that is what the heat map shows you. It might be something you would want to show your higher-ups to get the funding. The plans are a little pricey when you can get other analytics software for free, but don’t ignore paying for a plan, the ‘paid only’ features are the most useful ones.

Best way to use CrazyEgg on a college website

If you are an important figure relative to the website then send an e-mail out to everyone telling them about CrazyEgg. And I would appreciate it if you linked them to this blog. If you are a webmaster or are in some way in charge of the website purchase a plan that works for your site. Then only use that plan for important pages that have recently been changed and are in need of analyzing. Have smaller departments sign up for the free account, so they can regularly keep track of their pages. And as before, if they ever need the features of the paid version then you set them up on a test with the paid account.

Also note: CrazyEgg is a test period based analytics software, which means you set up a test, let it run, then wait for results. Though you can see results before the test is complete.

Final Addition: In hopes of preempting e-mails asking what plan to buy here is my suggestion on how to save money: Find your average weekly visits for your most visited web page. Then purchase the plan that will fit the number of visits. This way you will test your highly visited site only when it changes, and the left over visits can be used for other sites.