Big Footprint Founder Nick Yorchak Explores Data Driven Website Optimization At Tech4Good Dinner Event

Mar
19

Written by Nick Yorchak. Posted in SEO Blog

Nick Yorchak, the founder of Big Footprint, had the privilege of speaking to an audience of Tech4Good members at today’s Denver Event about the principles of data driven website optimization. Tech4Good is a community of professionals interested in the use of technology in the nonprofit sector, so the topic was well received by those in attendance.

Nick’s presentation explained how non-profits can leverage free tools available within Google Analytics to measure digital campaigns and drive insights that can be leveraged for optimization and testing.

The presentation is available at the bottom of this Blog post, just click to download the PDF or view the presentation on SlideShare.

After beginning with a discussion about Goal Tracking and how to measure “conversions,” Nick moved into channel attribution and explained how to leverage these attribution data and insights to improve a website.

Attendees learned that by defining and measuring clear conversion goals, an organization can gather the data needed to improve its website and drive business impact.

Nick’s critical points included the following:
• Data-driven website optimization should be ACTIVE

•  Remember, conversion optimization and testing is a process, not an event.

•  Don’t test too many things at once.

•  Reduce friction with a clear call to action.

•  Address the USER THOUGHT PROCESS

• Optimize on BOTH sides of the click (Pre Click vs Post Click optimization)

In the end, Nick concluded by outlining what he meant by “active” optimization, exploring 5 core principles that drive this process.

1) Go beyond the basic metrics and traffic analytics
•  Stop worrying about visit volume – focus on quality but more importantly,
focus on CONVERSION and ATTRIBUTION

2) Go beyond channels
•  Understand your digital ecosystem (paid+earned+owned) and how it
impacts your results with assisted conversions

3) Go beyond groundhog keyword strategy
•  Keyword research becomes multi-dimensional – across all assets/channels

4) Go beyond retro-active optimization
•  Strategy, Data, and Insights drive new content generation and testing

5) Celebrate the enlightenment of Integrated Analytics
•  Measure impact by contribution

Before Nick concluded, he shared with the audience of one of Big Footprint’s ethos:
“Performance measurement is prioritization logic.”

After that, Adrienne Schafer, Director of Program Innovation for MyLifeLine.org Cancer Foundation, showed the audience how her organization uses these tools everyday. Her presentation is also available below.

For more information on landing page optimization and how your organization can begin testing and improving your process and execution, read this Big Footprint blog post on the topic.

Downloadable Assets:
Data Driven Website Optimization by Nick Yorchak
Analytics by Adrienne Schafer