Let’s travel in time a bit and go back a few years in the history of building websites. As you probably remember, back in the day simple actions like switching between subpages would cause the entire page to reload. Doing that would also affect the URL address of the website (keep that in mind for later). For many reasons, this was not an ideal situation for internet users. Especially users with slower internet connection for whom showing full content on the page could take a while.

Fast forward to the present day, we are currently building pages that not only work faster but also only parts of them are reloaded, to prevent any lag in content loading. Creating these so-called single-page applications, we lost somehow the possibility of customizing the URL, which was important to us along the way. Why is this so important? Well, because the basic, simplest and fastest analytics (even the one in Google Analytics) are based on observing how the URLs change while customers navigate our website. 

Going back to times when pages were reloaded with a URL change, the analysis was simple. Google Analytics was easily able to draw the users’ paths based on these changes. Nowadays, in the era of single pages (and no change of addresses, despite changes in content), analytical tools do not receive any information that would indicate switching by the user from one page to another.

But hey, there is nothing to worry about. There are ways to face this challenge and be able to further monitor customer behavior. One of them are events that we can send to an analytical tool. But … first of all, we have to ask developers for help in scripting these events. Secondly, we must ensure that we take into account every – literally EVERY – action that a customer can possibly perform on our website. The worst thing, however, is that we do these event scripting for a specific analytical tool. If at some point it turns out that we want to change the tool, then all the work we did with developers goes to waste ☹.

Relax, there are better ways to analyze websites. Let me get straight to the first important rule.

## The URL address has to change. Period

If the webpage content changes, it should automatically imply a change to a unique URL. And this solution is also possible to implement as part of a single-page! Ok, you might ask, if it is possible, why is this not happening? The answer is simple: when designing a page, the topic of variable URLs is usually not the most important thing to implement. This issue usually arises at a much later stage, when the analyst wants to observe the client’s path and finds out that this is impossible using the variable URLs. That’s why it is crucial to put this topic on the list of tasks from the very beginning of designing the page!

**Remember!**

- The whole URL address doesn’t have to change, only its fragments, which are responsible for the relevant content.
- Variable URLs can be implemented both for sites with a small number of subpages and for huge e-commerce websites.
- The construction of the URLs is important. Let’s ensure their consistency, let the respective fragments of the URL always be presented in the same order.
- Let all the actions on your site trigger a new, unique link in your browser – your analyst will be grateful for this for the rest of his life, really!
 
## Code matters

The page code is another important topic that we need to take care of so that our pages can be easily measured and analyzed. The page code consists of several layers: we have _HTML_ that defines the structure of the page and _styles_ that describe how it all looks. Usually, what happens is that we don’t keep any class record scheme (a real-life example would be an inconsistently looking BUY NOW button throughout an online shopping page).

While building a website we can easily describe it in code. So: if we have a form on the page, it is usually unique (i.e. the contact form on each of the subpages will look the same) and we can give it an individual ID by which we can recognize it and without any problems analyze how customers use it.

Now you know that when building websites, you should try to code them in the most transparent and understandable way, giving the code accurate descriptions, not only classes defining the appearance, but also unique identifiers and variable URLs. This, in turn, will help you create much more observable pages, and might even impact whether you can do this kind of analysis at all.

If you have any concerns or need some advice feel free to contact our CTO – [Kamil](mailto:kamil@cux.io) – he is your guy if it comes to building easily observable websites.

Observable-websites.png

We know how hard it’s to implement the whole analytical strategy to your company. But there are some tricks that can help you to make it smoother and to work effectively – first of all your website should by analytics friendly. What does it mean? We’ll explain to you in our articles. Today part one – about the URL and the CODE.

How to create more “observable” webpages? Part one.

When designing websites, we often focus on the appearance — button arrangement, colors, and original graphics. However, there are some universal UX design errors that can make even the best website unobservable. See: [How to create more “observable” webpages? Part one.](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/how-to-create-more-observable-webpages-part-one/)

## 5 most common UX mistakes
Even though errors in UX design may be endless, there are at least 5 that can be found in almost every work. Check if they are also undermining your projects.

### 1. No user-friendly checkboxes

The “Checkout Problem”, especially on mobile devices, is one of the most common UX web design mistakes. More times than UX designers would like to admit, checkout fields are arranged too closely at the edges of the screen so that users are unable to click on them. Less often, though not infrequently, creators forget to properly mark fields with mandatory permissions. Thus, customers don’t know that they have to tick them. However, an absolute UX error is a lack of validation information, which can cause an immediate increase in user frustration even by up to 17%. See: [Quick Wins #1 – Form validation](https://cux.io/blog/quick-wins-form-validation).

![walidacja-komunikat-bledu_2.png](/uploads/walidacja_komunikat_bledu_2_9228a36dca.png)

_<center>Users could not see the form validation message, so they started to angrily click on the red text on the right side of the page</center>_

### 2. Over-detailed forms
What makes a bad UX? Engagement. Or – to put it right – too much engagement required from the customers. Imagine creating a simple contact form for your company. You’ll probably need to know your client’s personal data. But since you’re a B2B company, you’d also like to know what company they work for. Or if they have a senior position – no need to waste time on interns, right? And maybe you’d like to give them a special birthday offer, so the “date of birth” it is! And now you’ve got yourself one of the most common UX mistakes.

![heatmapa_kontakt_CUX.png](/uploads/heatmapa_kontakt_CUX_9c467bebdd.png)

_<center>Over-detailed forms are one of the most popular sources of user frustration. Reducing even one form field may boost its conversions by as much as 26% (source: [wpforms.com](https://wpforms.com/online-form-statistics-facts/#form-conversions))</center>_

### 3. Complexed customer journey
Often, people responsible for the web design want to present clients with… everything. Especially those who work closely with the marketing department. As entrepreneurs, we want users to have the greatest possible choice, familiarize themselves with our offer, read all blog entries, and get a grip on our return policy. Such a complex customer journey makes for a serious UX problem.

![Ania-Kruk-case_4-1536x881.png](/uploads/Ania_Kruk_case_4_1536x881_6da4d8e93a.png)

_<center>The jewellery company found out about the need to shorten customer journeys by tracking the increasing rage click rates of its Valentine’s campaign. See: [Know your user’s mind: Valentine’s campaign analysis – The aniakruk.pl Case](https://cux.io/blog/use-case/valentines-campaign-analysis-aniakruk-case/)</center>_

### 4. Multiple page views on one URL

Placing several page views under one URL, e.g., in the form of a one-step checkout. This is a technical error that could cost you dearly. While it seems like a pretty reasonable solution at first glance, you’ll quickly understand that tracking user behavior and frustration in one view is absolutely impossible. How will you possibly know which rage clicks on the heatmap belong to which checkout display!?

### 5. Distracting (promo) content

The customer journey should be as simple and intuitive as possible. Don’t forget that the user has already made his way to your product. If you are promoting a specific item, set the campaign in such a way that a single click leads to a sale. Additional distractions in the form of pop-ups with newsletter subscriptions, discounts, and lead magnets can irritate users unnecessarily!

![Pop up UX mistake](/uploads/Picture_1_700x379_085ddac398.png)

_<center>A view of the shoe e-commerce displayed on mobile – it takes even a few minutes (!) before the customer sees the product.</center>_

Before you start asking yourself, “What is wrong with UX?”, double-check if you haven’t made one of those common UX design mistakes. Your users will most certainly thank you for it. 🙂

Most-common-UX-mistakes.png

What makes for the bad UX and UI experience? Is it too flashy design? Or maybe not user-friendly content? Or the misplacement of CTA buttons? User experience on the website may vary, but there are some common UX errors that will turn your most loyal customers into most fiery haters.

What are the most common mistakes made in UX design?

There is no definitive answer to the question of what attracts a user the most while using a website. However, our experience in researching and analysing [observable pages](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/how-to-create-more-observable-webpages-part-one/) shows that there are certain features that customers notice more often than others.

## 4 things that make up attractive pages for your customers

### Simple website navigation to attract more traffic

Simple and intuitive page navigation is one of the basics that makes your pages more attractive! It is also one of the easiest mistakes to spot when analyzing user behavior. Any customers’ lostness will be immediately visible in Conversion Waterfall traffic drops.

### Clear methods of payment make for an attractive page

As cliché as it sounds, it is one of the most important things consumers look for on websites! Clearly described, marked and standardized information on payment methods can raise or pack down your conversion. Inconsistencies, as a rule, are associated with a decrease in customer confidence. In effect, they stop perceiving your page as an attractive website and start to feel suspicious about your business.

![Heatmap for social proof section](/uploads/Screenshot_2022_05_04_at_13_09_35_0c806a40c1.png)

_<center>Problem identified with CUX: Users got lost while choosing subscription type, they would go back and try to change their initial choice. As a result, they’ve dropped out of the purchase path and never came back to the checkout / screen: cux.io</center>_

### Users look for social proof on websites

As much as 70% of users will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know. The average consumer reads even up to 10 online reviews before considering a purchase ([Social Proof Statistics](https://optinmonster.com/social-proof-statistics/) / Optinmonsters.com). The elements that make the brand credible are therefore one of the most important features that users look for on the website.

![Problem identified with CUX](/uploads/Picture_1_a20854e8e8.png)

_<center>Heatmaps can show you how users interact with your social proof display and help you optimize it to their needs / screen: cux.io</center>_

### User-friendly design is the key to retaining traffic

Photos, graphics, videos – this is a very broad subject when we talk about how to attract people’s attention on a website. Apparel e-commerce will have different design guidelines than companies selling services in the B2B model. What is essential, however, is your clients’ experiences when they encounter graphics on the website. You can track their emotions easily with Experience Metrics, in particular—zooming and page refreshing.

![Experience Metrics in CUX](/uploads/Experience_Metrics_1_78a5971cbe.png)

_<center>Users zoom their view to get a closer look at page elements that appear too small or unreadable on mobile devices. Users refresh pages if some page elements haven’t loaded correctly, they hope to see the misplaced or misaligned parts of the page or the page loads too slowly / Experience Metrics, cux.io</center>_



4-things-customers-pay-attention.png

How to attract traffic to your website?! If you’re working with user experiences, you’ve probably asked yourself this question many times. While the answer may differ depending on your business profile or analytical goal, there are some universal things to pay attention on the website. 

4 things customers pay attention to when browsing websites

Why are we talking about the REAL customer journey? Often, when building business, we tend to idealize clients. We’re convinced that they follow every step of the path we have designed for them. Unfortunately – or maybe not — users are very chaotic in their buying habits. The paths that lead them to the conversion will therefore differ significantly. In order to understand them thoroughly, map their journey and constantly improve, you need a thorough behavioral analysis.

![Journey_Expectations_Reality.png](/uploads/Journey_Expectations_Reality_7209983965.png)

_<center>Customer journey mapping should always be preceded by a product &  behavior analysis. Only this way can we create paths that match real consumers’ experiences</center>_

## Why do we need product analysis?
Entrepreneurs who want to build a competitive advantage and retain and acquire customers must be ready for the ongoing digital revolution. Therefore, it will be imperative for concert activities to create a valuable digital experience for customers. Thanks to the product’s analytics, they will not have to guess user expectations. Data on their behaviors and experiences will allow not only product optimization, but also customer journey, marketing, and conversion improvements.

Product Analytics allows you to visualize and continuously analyze user engagement in real-time. This allows you to effectively build customer loyalty, improve the level of retention and increase the LTV of customers.

![Roles that use product analytics](/uploads/Product_Analytics_Roles_b0b7c185af.png)

_<center>Web Product Analytics is a tool for anyone working with real-time customer insights</center>_

## What to measure in new products?
New product analytics includes a wide range of activities and metrics. From UX, through improving user retention and engagement, to marketing messages and content. A wisely conducted product analysis allows, among others, on:

- fast identification of potential technical problems in the context of the sales funnel,
- verification of customer behavior in terms of internal organization’s metrics,
- immediate spotting of customer frustration,
- faster and wiser decision-making by verifying how much a given functionality affects customers,
- refining the appearance of pages and content presentation, in terms of what and how attracts the attention of users,
- developing categories based on user behaviors and needs,
- designing the content architecture that is optimal for users,
- recognition of places on pages, in products, and on customer journeys that generate conversion drops or have the potential to optimize sales.


## 4 key metrics to measure with web products analytics:

### Experience Metrics

Experience Metrics contains all information about your users’ frustrations – be it compulsive page refresh, content zooming, or rage clicks. These are the situations that not only indicate the appearance of critical pain points on the customer journey. By analyzing user behavior, you’ll understand why your consumers get angry when they visit your website and how their unexpected frustration is effectively inhibiting your conversion.

![Experience Metrics in cux.io](/uploads/Experience_Metrics_928891e5e2.png)

_<center>Experience Metrics – CUX’s proprietary metrics regarding users’ frustrations. You can track rage clicks, rage key presses, chaotic mouse movements, zooming, and page refreshing</center>_

### Engagement

Digital product analysis is one of the most accurate ways of tracking user engagement. When are they truly active? When do they only keep your site within opened tabs? This knowledge is necessary for designing effective communication, creating ad campaigns, lead magnets, etc. Remember to always distinguish the duration of the entire visit from the actual engagement on the site!

![Page Visibility in CUX](/uploads/Page_Visibility_b8c00a1e7d.png)

_<center>CUX is able to show you whenever the user displayed your page in the foreground and was active, and when they’ve just kept you on the background tab</center>

![Engagement Duration in Time](/uploads/Engagement_Duration_Time_53f821af95.png)

_<center>In CUX you can measure: the percentage of users’ engagement in relation to whole traffic for a given Goal, average duration time (visit length), and average engagement time (actual active user)</center>_

### Retention

Web product analytics allows you to discover the right way to measure retention for your business model. By tracking customer behaviors and habits, you will develop an appropriate strategy to improve retention over time. You will find out when customers actually abandon their carts (maybe purchase in your store always takes place only after a few visits?). You can check at what times users actually convert. This data will help improve the quality of digital customer experiences.

![Goal progress on a timesheet](/uploads/Goal_timesheet_48b5989828.png)

_<center>In CUX, you can check not only when your website generates the most traffic, but also when it generates the highest conversion in the context of a given business goal. Remember that high traffic does not always mean high conversion!</center>_

### Customer Lifetime Value

User Lifetime Value is the average amount of revenue that a given user brings to your business overall. This metric will help you identify which users’ segments are the most valuable for your business (See: [User segmentation, or how to make your analytics effortless](https://cux.io/blog/user-segmentation-cux)). Use the high-LTV customers’ journey as a templated to increase conversions, create targeted campaigns, or improve trials registration.

![Filtering Visits with LVT in CUX](/uploads/Filtering_Visits_48df08ecc0.png)

_<center>Filtering and segmenting users’ traffic is essential for tracking LTV. In CUX you can, for example, filter the list of recordings to see only those whose users have returned to the site a given number of times</center>_

## How to start product analytics?

### 1. Set your business goals. 
Accurate definition and focus on specific business goals allows not only to save time devoted to analysis but also to maximize the effectiveness of optimizations. Each business may have a different end goal, e.g., purchase, form filling, file download, registration, etc.

>_Unlike the competition, cux.io is able to present not only a complete picture of the data – both quantitative and qualitative – but also interpret the data in relation to the business goal._

### 2. Find the right web product analysis tool. 

There are lots of product analytics tools available on the market. Try to find the one that best suits your needs.

>_CUX combines qualitative and quantitative data, uses neuromarketing and behavioral analysis, allowing for quick identification of the sources of problems and matching solutions to them._

### 3. Map a real customer journey. 
Remember that individual users have completely different experiences when interacting with your product. Therefore, when analyzing the customer journey, consider all the accompanying behaviors and emotions. Check paths for individual sources and channels.

>_CUX uses machine learning to detect and recognize users’ frustration points – rage clicks, rage key presses, zooming, refreshing._

### 4. Conduct continuous analysis. 
Continuous analysis of user behavior patterns and data-driven insights can provide irrefutable arguments for making smart business decisions. Thanks to this, you’ll be able to precisely address customers’ needs and frustrations. Acting based on data – not your gut feeling — eliminates the possibility of making mistakes.

>_Based on expert knowledge and long-term research, cux.io is able to prepare personalized alerts explaining users’ experiences and behaviours while saving time spent on single-handed visits’ analysis._


## The best product analytics tools
What are the tools of product analysis? The list goes on and on. Below you will find the most popular product analytics tools with a description of their use.

![CUX FullStory Heap Smartlook comparison](/uploads/CUX_Full_Story_Heap_Smartlook_comparison_c2289de369.png)

_<center>CUX, FullStory, Heap, and Smartlook comparison/source: [G2](https://www.g2.com/compare/cux-io-vs-fullstory-vs-heap-vs-smartlook)</center>_

### FullStory

FullStory, as a product analytics tool, lets clients watch session recordings, create funnels, and segment users. It’s a great platform for teams who care about analyzing user behavior on a website or web app, but not for teams with both web and native mobile products.

FullStory offers a 14-days free trial and two pricing plans (Enterprise and Business) available upon request.

### Heap

Heap is a product analytics tool that tracks user events. Built for medium to large-sized companies, it includes features such as an event visualizer, path analysis, and conversion charts.

Heap is free to use for 1 project and up to 10k sessions/month. Paid plans offer customized pricing upon request.

### Smartlook

Smartlook is a product analytics tool for websites, iOS/Android apps, and various app frameworks. It lets entrepreneurs watch recordings, use automatically tracked events, create heatmaps, and build conversion funnels.

Smartlook offers free trials and 3 pricing packages: Startup ($39.00), Business ($95.00), and Ultimate (upon request).

### CUX

CUX is the first-ever UX Automation tool detecting behavioral patterns within digital products that predict which users’ behaviors may inhibit conversion. The tool automatically selects data so that entrepreneurs can immediately find their customers’ problems and increase sales.

Using other tools than CUX comes with the need to conduct feedback research and watch hundreds of recordings of visits to pick up the occurring behavioral patterns. CUX – as a hybrid combining quantitative and qualitative data – recognize behavior patterns on its own, and checks the scale of frustration and its impact on the achievement of a business goal.

CUX is available in a free trial – its only limitation is the number of collected recordings (1k). The trail contains ALL functionalities of the tool available on a paid subscription.

Subscription starts at €49 and depends on the amount of traffic on the site and the duration of data retention.


[See the G2 Best Product Analytics Software at a glance](https://www.g2.com/categories/product-analytics)

 

## Digital Product Analytics with CUX
To start using CUX, you just need to implement the tracking code to the page you want to track. This can be done using the integration with Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics (toggle switch). After starting the analytics, CUX auto-captures all the events on the pages, thus not involving you in setting technical parameters.


### The most important of the CUX functionalities:

- **Experience Metrics**. Proprietary metrics show the frustration of users on the website.
- **Recordings of visits**. CUX analyzes entire visits, instead of individual sessions (See: [Visits or sessions? Where is the difference?](https://cux.io/blog/visits-vs-sessions/)). This means that it tracks the user’s visit even when he/she opens many tabs or is inactive for a long time.
- CUX generates heatmaps for single pages and SPA (single-page apps). The tool is also compatible with various types of devices – from mobiles and desktops, tablets and consoles, to smart TVs and wearables. (See: [How to read a heatmap? Part 1](https://cux.io/blog/how-to-read-a-heatmap-part-1/))
- **Conversion Waterfalls**. CUX helps you track visitor behavior in various scenarios. In other words, Waterfall is a graphical representation of any sequence of steps visitors take on your site.
- **Analysis in the context of a business goal**. Regardless of what your business goal is (sales, training registration, filling out the contact form, downloading an e-book, etc.), CUX will select for you only the data about user behavior that may influence it. The number of goals for a project is unlimited.
- **Auto-captures events**. CUX is able to automatically pick out events on the website, allowing codeless tracking of every stage of the user’s journey without the need to involve the IT department.
- **Retroactive analysis**. CUX allows you to create and modify Conversion Funnel, even using historical data, without having to wait for new data to be collected.



product-analytics.png

Web product analytics is nothing more than getting to know your clients in detail, their motivations, and experiences in contact with your product. Regardless of whether you run e-commerce, SaaS, B2B, fintech, or a media portal – the analysis of a real customer journey is the basis of success.

What is product analytics, and how can you use it?

## Being data-driven means being smarter and ready for long-term development

**Paulina Walkowiak, co-founder & CEO at [CUX](https://cux.io/)**

![Paulina Walkowiak CUX](/uploads/Podroz_Cytaty_Kolaz_Fotograficzny_5_250x200_7e1b74286e.png)

### Data-driven business is not a goal to aim for anymore. It’s a fact.
For me, as an analytical tool founder, it has at least two layers. First, in the upcoming cookieless future, we have to be ready for optimization not based on an ads budget, but on knowing your clients’ needs in any way. Second, if you want to grow, you have to measure the growth. There is no other way to optimize if you do not measure where you are. Thus, **developing innovative businesses requires smart data-based decisions and recalculating everything constantly**. Being data-driven means being smarter and ready for long-term development. On one hand, the lack of users’ behaviors analytics is typical for a hype business based on a temporary trend. On the other hand, if you plan to grow your company and build a significant market advantage, you have to use data that really matters

## Building a data-driven culture will help move to the next level
**Robert Paszkiewicz, VP Central and Eastern Europe at [OVHcloud](https://corporate.ovhcloud.com/pl/)**

![Robert Paszkiewicz OVHcloud](/uploads/Robert_Paszkiewicz_250x200_3b0feb8aa2.png)

We are facing a revolution that started some time ago. And is gaining momentum now. Growing customer awareness and a huge number of offers are forcing changes in the philosophy of addressing services and in shaping the customer’s buying journey. 

Most people believe that the pandemic impact was negative. Then again, their outlook towards the future is more than positive (according to the SODA 3rd business survey).

The sentiment increases. User experience, fulfilled promises to customer expectations, quality, and impact. In fact, **how we communicate the promise and deliver on it is becoming strategic**. And surely will be the factors that will shape our reality.

Although 90% of the Polish companies collect data, very few know how to read it and use it, as [OVHcloud’s research](https://ovh.to/VcFa1sd) shows. A data-driven approach, which we are only just learning, will become the engine that enables conscious and attentive companies to reach the next level. Of course, data-driven marketing will help stand out from the crowd. And, what’s more important,  it’s available to any business, regardless of size. 

This means we can all win from it.

## Data-driven decisions significantly increase business goals achievement
**Natalia Kuźma, co-founder & CEO at [DiveInData](https://diveindata.com/)**

![Podróż-Cytaty-Kolaż-Fotograficzny-3-250x200.png](/uploads/Podroz_Cytaty_Kolaz_Fotograficzny_3_250x200_96634b60ca.png)

### The capability to understand customer needs and keep an eye on competitors’ moves nowadays is a must.
It isn’t easy to get a competitive edge. And it’s challenging to maintain one. In fact, **data-driven business decisions, enhance the likelihood of achieving business goals by 77%** ([Deloitte, 2019](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/analytics/insight-driven-organization.html)). Hence, market intelligence is becoming ever more widespread. For this reason, **analyzing the competitive landscape to improve business performance should be an integral part of operating in every industry**. Even small companies can get to essential data like competitors’ websites, opinions about their products, or customer demographics. Insights based on those, and other data help determine the right goals, minimize risk, and establish competitive differentiators.

## Implement processes more efficiently and effectively 
**Konrad Pabiańczyk, Business Architect at [UnityGroup](https://www.unitygroup.com/)**

![Konrad Pabianczyk UnityGroup](/uploads/Podroz_Cytaty_Kolaz_Fotograficzny_4_250x200_cd47d96741.png)

There are a few interesting developments to look forward to this year. Recent changes in consumer behaviors will accelerate, and businesses will adapt even faster to better serve these needs. **Look out for the rise of Q-Commerce (quick-commerce), hyper-personalized browsing experience, and process mining as a method for improving processes and eliminating inefficiencies.** 

### Q-commerce

- Consumers will continue to eschew in-store shopping for a more virtual experience. The pandemic allowed for delivering food to become standard, but only very recently have we seen products being delivered in 15 minutes or less. What was advertised as the best solution for missing ingredients may well become a corner store killer. 


### Unique browsing and hyper-personalization

- Websites will become even more personalized. Two consumers sitting next to each other could be served up entirely different websites. This will not only relate to copying or as, but to products themselves — different locations can have varied preferences. This is often seen in physical stores, where the assortment reflects local preferences but will become even more pronounced online. 


### Process mining for churn prevention and shopping cart drop-off

- Process mining takes event logs and combines them with data science techniques to determine where there is room for improvement. Such methods will be combined with existing UX research to eliminate abrasive touchpoints for a seamless shopping experience. It will be taken further to assess behavior before, during, and possibly after a shopping cart was dropped to help explain why.

## Proper and fast performance of a website or application is essential
**Michał Szklarski, Board Member at [e-point](https://www.e-point.com/)**

![Michał Szklarski e-point](/uploads/Michal_Szklarski_photo_250x200_e8550240eb.png)

Business owners and e-commerce managers know very well how difficult it is to acquire customers. We do a lot of work managing paid traffic or analyzing tons of traffic data. We constantly encourage the user to visit our website, hoping that this process will increase the conversion rate. **Meanwhile, it frequently happens that a slow mobile site or app, in addition to poor usability, can effectively discourage purchases, despite so many efforts**.

When it comes to speed, users are mainly concerned with the smooth loading of content. **It is worth emphasizing that the overall efficiency should be associated with the high responsiveness of the mobile site and maintaining the stability of elements during loading**. Such actions were taken, among others, recently by [Orange](https://web.dev/orange/), which significantly improved their conversion rate. These elements have an impact on the reception of ads, as well as (which was introduced in the summer of this year) on search engine ranking.

## Roll-up brands – the future of the market?
**Adam Bogacki, Associate at [COBIN Angels](https://www.cobinangels.com/)**

As e-commerce has been strongly accelerating, fuelled by the COVID outbreak, there is a significant rebuilding process going on in this market. Third-party sales in Amazon’s GMV are responsible for over 50% of the total.

**This opportunity on the market is being covered by e-commerce roll-ups, which are on the rise now**. The concept assumes acquiring, running, and consolidating small and mid-size e-commerce stores or brands simultaneously. Synergies and scale effect make them grow faster than standalone. **Therefore, they also get access to huge scopes of data with clients’ behavior that may help them to make more data-driven decisions in line with clients’ expectations**. While huge amounts have already been invested in companies like Thrasio – probably the largest player on the market, Perch, Berlin Brands Group, Opontia, the smaller players are acting on CEE and the African market. In the upcoming year, the trend may be continued with a strong focus on smaller brands being acquired.

_

Do you have an unused marketing budget? What if you were to bet on analytics? Take advantage of the 25 % discount on training and audits with Paulina Walkowiak and be data-driven in 2022. The discount is valid until the end of December, realization in January 2022.

Are you a CUX client? We have something special for you. Contact [marta@cux.io](mailto:marta@cux.io) for more details.

_

Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

business-trends-2022.png

What trends await us in business in 2022? Business experts write about their data-driven predictions for 2022, and the trends to follow. In 2022, implement a data-driven culture into your business and gain further success in your industry.

2022 trends: data-driven business

## What is SEO?
**SEO, also known as website positioning**, is a set of practices designed to improve the positioning of web pages in the search engine. This process includes picking the right keywords for specific subpages. As well as activities concerning website optimization, creating unique and valuable content, and link building.

All these activities cause a specific page to appear higher in search results than others. This plays a vital role in sales. As a matter of fact, users most often click on the first few search results, rarely even continuing to the second page.

It’s the same as with a traditional store on the high street. It’s far more likely it will be visited by more customers than the store located in the backstreet. SEO creates ideal conditions for the site to attract as many users as possible. 

The fact that an internet user clicks on a search result leading to a specific website does not guarantee conversion. It increases its probability, but will not provide it 100%. And this is where the UX comes in.

![Computers on desk](/uploads/obraz_1_700x461_47664baf34.png)

## What is UX?
**UX, or User Experience, is how the user experiences a specific website or mobile app**. Of course, broadly speaking, it applies to all products and services on the market – but we are primarily interested in the UX of the Internet user.

User Experience is an integral part of so-called UX design, the way of designing websites and apps in such a way as to provide the user with the most positive experience while using it. What kind of experience?

Those combine functional use of the website, intuitive navigation, ease of purchase, and likeability. Sites designed by these guidelines get significantly higher traffic and a higher conversion rate compared to those that don’t take UX into account.

Going back to our analogy of a traditional store, you can say that UX covers a number of activities that will encourage the customer to stay inside and make a purchase after crossing the doorstep.

So it’s easy to see how interdependent SEO and UX are. Simply put, **SEO brings customers to our website, and UX encourages them to stay and buy products they’re in a market for.**

![Invest in UX](/uploads/obraz_2_700x374_8ae8fac2c2.png)

## What is SXO?
Both these approaches give rise to a unique strategy i.e. **[SXO](https://semcore.pl/strategie/sxo/) – Search Experience Optimization, Its purpose is not only to attract customers to a specific website but above all to encourage them to buy.**

The blend of SEO and UX crystallizes the common goal, i.e. conversion. It’s worth mentioning that both sets of activities complement one another synergically. By interacting with each other, they help to increase sales fast and more effectively. How does it happen?

The most common SEO activity that increases UX is the use of high-quality content. The content on the website should not only contain keywords but also be interesting for the user. Encouraged by what he’s read, the user will stay on the site longer and shop more.

The content of the meta description is also important, and it is worth using to attract the attention of Internet users, enticing them to visit the website.

At the same time, the UX elements such as clear navigation, attractive website design, responsiveness, and website loading time, increase the website’s search engine visibility.

Google readily displays sites with a clear menu (which also helps in efficient indexation of subpages). Designing the website for both computers and mobile devices is a major factor. And although the appearance is important, it should be a blend of aesthetics and functionality.

UX’s valuable contribution to SEO is web performance. There is probably nothing more irritating than a website that loads for a longer period of time. Such a situation will effectively discourage most users and increase the bounce rate, which may result in a drop in search results.

Adaptive and relevant content is fundamental for both UX and SEO. Based on well-chosen key phrases, it must meet users’ expectations. The content on your website must contain useful information and provide Internet users with answers to specific questions.

It is worth mentioning that when choosing key phrases for a given website, you should research words that can actually be found on the page. Thus, relevance is important. Positioning the page will bring no result, even for the 1st place in the search engine, unless after clicking on the result the user finds what he was looking for.

![Desktop](/uploads/obraz_3_700x453_6c6412f00b.png)

## SEO-friendly UX or searching for high-converting phrases
High-converting phrases are those which, if taken into account, will become most beneficial to the website. In the case of online stores, they come in a form of long-tail keywords. These are precise keywords that clearly define what the customer is looking for, e.g. “red leather high heels size 38”.

There is a relatively small number of these kinds of searches per month, but their precision significantly increases the chance of a conversion.

UX helps us out in researching high-converting phrases which are good for our website. By surveying data from Google Search Console or Google Analytics, you can easily see which products are the most popular among users, what the shopping path of individual visitors to the site looks like, and where they usually finish their visit to the website. As a result of data provided by UX, determination of our store’s highest-converting phrases is possible. Therefore, the potential for conversion increases.

## UX – the answer to pro user algorithms, not a pro robot
A few years back, SEO was based on the satisfaction of the expectations of robots, whose precise algorithms influenced the position of a particular page in the search engine. Today, such an approach is being abandoned, emphasizing primarily the needs of users.

Therefore, the highest positions in the search engine must respond best to Internet users’ queries,  providing them with the most relevant solutions. UX activities fill this need and become an increasingly important factor in positioning.

Keep in mind that the search engine rewards those pages where users stay the longest. And such websites usually have a clear and intuitive design and easy usability.

A former approach, using as many keywords as possible to meet the expectations of crawlers, is, therefore, a thing of the past. Now, what matters most is creating the entire user-friendly website experience, which is what UX contributes to SEO.

## UX helps to clear up the sales funnel
Just like SEO encourages as many users to visit your site as possible, UX helps as many of them as possible to get to the end of the sales funnel.

Structure and usability have a significant impact on a final conversion. Whether the user stays on the website after entering it, adding products to the cart, and finalizing the transaction, or whether at some of these stages he will change his mind and cancel the order. Appropriate UX design increases the chance of completing every stage of the purchasing path effectively.

![Purchasing path](/uploads/obraz_4_700x548_527cc304d5.png)

## Summary of how UX affect SEO

SEO and UX can be defined as two sides of the same coin, i.e. SXO. Both activities combine perfectly. They influence each other synergistically, allowing for the most effective achievement of the ultimate goal in the form of conversion. If you want to take effective and multidimensional action in the field of internet marketing, it’s hard to imagine one without the other. The owners of small and large websites are more and more aware of this. So, they focus on combining high search results with a friendly website design which results in an effective and, above all, long-term result.

Industry experts also predict that the SXO strategy will soon become the leading and most effective way to optimize the sales of online stores.

Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

UX-affect-SEO.png

UX is the backbone of internet marketing these days. Without a well-designed, functional, and intuitive website, it’s hard to expect a great conversion rate in our online store. The second aspect is SEO. Or all the activities that increase the visibility of the website in search engines. Both elements are absolutely crucial for the effectiveness of e-commerce sales. But do they influence one another? Does SEO and UX activities mutually exclusive or, quite the opposite, create a synergetic effect? You can find out more in the article. Before we answer the question of what impact UX has on SEO, we’ll start by breaking down some basic concepts.

How does UX affect SEO?

## When frustration prevails
In brief, rage clicks are records of user frustration. We’ve taught our algorithms to show you every event, that happened on your site, which resulted in people click numerous times and get no computer response. Why? Because those are your users who are experiencing something that’s referred to as computer rage — the state of anger and angered actions directed against computers.

![click.gif](https://content.cux.io/uploads/click_11014ba6c1.gif)

Rage click is never a good sign. When you ignore them, you risk increasing customer churn. But they can also be your guardian angels, leading you gently to the gates of QUICK WINS. When you note them in the visits, use them to prioritize future design and development work. Use this as your chance to turn observations into actionable items.

## Why do I see rage clicks?

Rage clicks can ba a bottomless mine of knowledge. They appear whenever your site evokes negative emotions. They identify places that mislead visitors. These can be fragments of text that look like links or calls to action. These can be images that look like banners. Or simply a dead links or buttons that don’t work.

You can use them to identify unresponsive pages. In general, you can find out if the performance of your website degrades the user experience. They can apply also to web design – you can see whether the size of your images is optimized or if people are clicking on them, hoping to see an enlarged version. Through the rage clicks you can easily track partially loaded images. People click on them, expecting to see the graphics in full.

## Tracking rage clicks: dashboard

Rage clicks strike the eye whenever you log in into your CUX account. There’s a special widget you should see by default on your dashboard. This shows the number of visits – that have reached your main Goal – with rage clicks recorded. Next to it you’ll also see there other Experience Metrics like rage key presses, zooming or refreshing in context of your Goal.

![Rage clicks in CUX](/uploads/Rageclick_dashboard_1536x701_db8c55a75e.png)

_<center> Visits recordings filtered by rage clicks in CUX </center>_

## Tracking rage clicks: visit recordings
You’ll see them whenever you decide to watch your visits recording. You can filter the list of visits and use a rage click as a parameter. 

### To see visits where rage clicking happened:

1. Click Open filters on the Visits page.
2. Find the Patterns section.
3. From the patterns list, select Rage click.
4. Click Apply to see the list of select recordings.
5. The list of recordings automatically updates. You can then click Play for each visit and find out where exactly user frustration occurs. You can also apply one of our [predefined segments](https://cux.io/blog/product/walkthrough/user-segmentation-cux/) on  selected recordings e.g. traffic from mobile or evening traffic.

![Rage click in visit recording CUX](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_03_15_at_16_50_37_1536x702_86be4091a0.png)

_<center> Visits recordings filtered by rage clicks in CUX </center>_

Each recording has a color marker below the player timeline. You can fast-forward the recording to see the details.

## Tracking rage clicks: heatmaps
Whether you decide to work on a single or [grouped heatmap](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/grouped-heatmaps/) – you’ll be able to spot rage clicks. Each heatmap allows you to see a specific type of event, and rage click is one of them. On the heatmap, you can also switch the device type to see, for example, whether angry behavior happens on mobile devices as well.

![aniakruk.pl and CUX: case study](/uploads/Ania_Kruk_case_5_700x392_b1684fd3bd.png)

_<center> Grouped heatmap of the jewelry brand’s Valentine’s campaign focused on rage clicks </center>_

Rage clicks are essential in analysing user behavior on your website. They can easily lead you to implementation of quick wins – whether it concerns [optimization of marketing campaign](https://cux.io/blog/use-case/valentines-campaign-analysis-aniakruk-case/), [form filling](https://cux.io/blog/use-case/quick-wins-form-validation/) or [rescuing conversion drops](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/how-to-monitor-a-campaign-with-cux-t-mobile-case/).

Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

rage-click.png

Click, click, click, clickclickclickclickclick… and nothing happens. You just received a shorthand definition of a rage clicks. BUT if you are interested in a bit more – where they come from, what they are, how to track them and what they can actually tell us about our product – read this article!



What is a rage click?

## Combine CUX with Google Analytics

CUX is able to integrate and exchange data with your Google Analytics account in many ways. The implementation itself is piss-easy – [check it out](https://cux.io/knowledge-base/integrations/enable-google-analytics-user-id-integration/)! One of the many interesting and helpful functions is precisely identifying and analyzing pages with high exit rates.

In order to that in your Google Analytics, go to **Behaviour > Site Content > Exit Pages**. Then sort all pages by exits rates. Make a note of – let’s say – the top 20 pages with the highest amount of people exiting. Then, in CUX, go to the [visits section](https://app.cux.io/visits) and use the filtering options to find recordings for each of these pages – that’s how you’ll gain access to all behavioral info behind those drops.

![Filter by exit pages in cux.io](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_01_26_at_11_43_52_700x331_f66a9c0964.png)

_<center>Filtering by exit pages in visits section at cux.io</center>_

## The common causes of high exit pages rates

- **Poor UI (mobile and desktop)**
Not only 88% of all users are less likely to return to a website after a bad user experience, but also mobile users are 5x more likely to abandon a site if it isn’t mobile-optimized.

- **Lack of clear CTAs**
A clear call to action (CTA) is essential and needs to be prominent on the page. CTAs are texts and buttons that encourage visitors to take a certain form of action – they need to get to the point and be easy to understand.

- **Low value to the visitor**
Content marketing methods are proved to convert 6x more often than other marketing methods – by delivering a high-value content you’re giving both your audience and business a major takeaway.

- **Type of page**
Remember that contact, legal and about pages often have high exit rates, as do blog posts.

- **Long loading time**
1 in 4 visitors would abandon the website that takes more than 4 seconds to load, and 46% of users don’t revisit poorly performing websites.

- **Confusing page layout**
52% of users say the main reason why they won’t return to a website is aesthetics.

- **Lack of contextual links**
Contextual backlinks – that are embedded within content – provide a good user experience by giving indication of what users can expect to see when they click a link on a webpage.

- **Lack of links to related content**
Google’s algorithm uses links to determine a page’s rank. 99.2% of sites that show up on the top search results have at least one external link.

- **Poorly implemented pop-ups**
Poorly designed and implemented pop-ups (e.g., with a too small closing, appearing on the path of a client coming from a marketplace, with an invisible closing, etc.) will only increase the frustration of users.

- **Misleading information**
The page content does not deliver what the meta tags and meta descriptions has promise

- **Unreadable text and small fonts**
88% of users are less likely to return to a website after a bad user experience which may contain issues such as too vivid pictures, too small subtitles, wrong font (e.g., not displaying characters in a given language), etc.

- **Technical errors / blank pages**
Remember that you’re fighting over your customers attention with a thick competition – showing them a content they’re not interested in, or worse no content at all may push them into never returning to your page again.

- **Too many ads and distractions**
For example: up to 82% of users say that they have closed a page simply because of an autoplaying video ad, and 51% of them concluded that they think less of brands that use autoplaying online video ad.

## Draw qualitative conclusions 
Scan the recordings for correlation of those basic mishaps with what you see on-screen – there’s a great chance you’ll be able to detect those events immediately. Compare visitor recordings with click maps (heatmaps), and you should get a very good idea of why people are leaving your site (or your clients’ sites) on certain pages.

Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

High-exit-pages.png

When we think data, we immediately think Google Analytics. There are only a few entrepreneurs who decide to run a business without the basic numbers provided by GA. But what if, instead of answering the question “how much?”, they need an answer to the question “why?”? Then the GA integration with CUX comes in handy – especially when it comes to identifying high exit pages!

Identifying and analysing high exit pages

## Why do you need data filtering?

Before getting into user segmentation and segments itself, lets talk about data filtering. Data filtering allows you to expand the analytical context and quickly catch errors or problematic places on your website. Suppose your goal is to increase sales on mobile devices. In the analytical tool, you can see that: well yes, mobile traffic is hugely growing, but the sales itself seems to still be a desktop thing. Why is that? After filtering visits from phones, from various operating systems and reviewing the recordings, you will see that iOS users cannot load the cart page, and Androids are unable to fill the shipping form. Time to roll up your sleeves and fix these shortcomings. Easy-peasy, isn’t it?

In CUX, you can create custom filters at the recordings page. There are tons of possibilities – you can choose between entry and exit pages, duration, engagement on specific days and times, number of previous visits, user languages ​​and devices, and many other variables. And the best thing is – after selecting a specific filter configuration, you can save it in a Segment.

![Filtering recordings in CUX](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_02_03_at_12_08_00_1536x727_50071ab5a3.png)

_<center> To create a filter, go to "Visits" page and click "Open filters" </center>_

## User segmentation – hot or very hot?

The point of segments is that when you already choose the filters that you need (e.g. users from Poland operating Android mobile phones), you can save this filter setting as a segment. Each segment has its own unique combination of filters and a name that will make it easier for you to find it. The great advantage of this solution is the fact that you can immediately reload the segment by entering the filter bar and clicking on the segment name – filtered data will apply at once.

![Create New Segment - cux.io](/uploads/image_3_2e3827ffcf.png)

_<center>Create a new segment in CUX</center>_

However, that’s not the only reason why you should incorporate user segmentation into your analytical routine. In addition to quick loading of filters on the visit list, each segment will also appear on your main dashboard as a widget with the number of visits that meet the filter configuration you have set (segments). By clicking on such a widget, you will be immediately transferred to the list of visits with the segment already applied – what a great way of saving time and nerves (I know that manually setting filters used to piss you off – after all, I’m researching user frustration)!

![Segments on dashboard CUX ](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_01_15_at_14_32_05_1536x578_9750532d68.png)

_<center> Creating a new segment in CUX </center>_

## Quick segments

If playing with filters is not your level yet – do not worry! You can easily use one (or all) of the predefined segments created by our IT magicians. There are 5 ready-made segments of your data in cux:

- **Desktop** – the tool will filter the visits of only those users who visited your website on a computer,
- **Mobile** – check only those recordings of visits from mobile phones,
- **Morining traffic** – see only those visits that took place between 6:00 and 10:00,
- **Evening traffic** – see only those visits that took place between 18:00 and 22:00,
- **Engagement** – we will only show you recordings of visits that were more than 3 and lasted more than 30 seconds.


To use ready-made segments, just select the filtering option on the Visits page, under the “Create new segment” button.

## What else? Alerts, my dear!

As I believe you know, we’ve been working on introducing smart alerting to CUX’s daily analytics for some time – the feature that will allow you to forget for a while about data, results or spikes and drops in conversion. And that’s exactly what the segments feature is equipped with now as well!

You can now turn on an alert for each segment. It is a notification that you will receive by e-mail each time the number of visits from a given segment increases or decreases drastically – by the amount you’ve set yourself.

![Alerts in segments cux.io](/uploads/image_4_1536x971_15d0b18d4c.png)
_<center> You can get alerted every time users from your segment reach a certain Goal </center>_

To set up an alert you’ll need to type its name (e.g., traffic from Polish users on iOS), e-mail address to which you want to receive notifications and the value that the segments are to reach when the notification is sent. You can choose from two options “greater than” and “lesser than” and the percentage of decrease / increase.

>At the moment, alerts are available only to users with early access. Would you like to implement alerts to your project? [Ask us about the possibility](mailto:team@cux.io)!

Working with data segments does not only save time spent on manual, unassisted filtering of results. It’s also a way of introducing a faster and more precise approach to finding bottlenecks and places causing users’ frustration on your site or product. [Try them out now](https://app.cux.io/register) and see how they can boost your business analytics overnight.

Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉


User-segmentation.png

You probably work with filters in your daily – or less frequent – analytics. You check the results of website traffic coming from Uruguay, conversion on iOS phones or form filling via consoles. The world of filtered data can be fascinating, but the world of user segmentation can be much more enjoyable.

User segmentation, or how to make your analytics effortless

Imagine for a moment this scenario. Your consumers’ buying intent is very high – you’re already opening a bottle of your best champagne. Suddenly – looking closely at data – you’re realizing that the conversion rate still falls way behind the other metrics. People are not converting! In such a situation you require a simple answer not to the questions “how much?” but “why!?”. And the correct analytics Goals setting in CUX can answer that question immediately.

## What do goals in analytics do?

Goals let you measure only what matters for your business by focusing on the most important data insights. The types of goals can be different – you do not have to focus only on sales, but also intentions to sell, abandoned carts, user registrations, subscriptions to newsletters, going through specific categories on the website, form fill-outs or specific paths to be overcome. Thanks to properly configured Goal you’ll be able to track clicks, scrolls, page loads, activities related to form filling or traffic from referrals.

Setting up goals can shorten time you’ve previously spend on analytics as it filters the data only relevant to your intended purpose. You can build custom goals with as many steps as you want or use one of [cux’s predefined goal](https://cux.io/knowledge-base/goals/predefined-goals/) settings.

![Add New Goal CUX](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_01_13_at_09_08_41_700x503_0666438399.png)
_<center> Predefined Goals in cux.io </center>_

Thanks to goals, you will be able to focus on those metrics that affect your business, instead of looking for important information in the flood of data.

>Imagine your business goal is for customers to fill out a contact form – it’s the main place where your sales operate. There will be no important information for you – at least in the context of monetization – in how much time users spend reading your blog or scrolling through the privacy policy. Setting the goal to “Send contact form” will allow you to automatically filter out those visits that will show the achieved goal. Thanks to them, you’ll be able to streamline the contact process, spot problems faced by your users or change the page layout so that they convert more and faster.

## Building your own custom Goal
Each business is different, therefore each business can be after a completely different business goal. At CUX, you have the ability to create as many of your custom own goals as you wish, with an unlimited number of steps to be completed by your users.

CUX auto-captures events on the websites, so you do not need specialistic knowledge or help from developers to set goals – it’s as easy as pie! [See how to set your own custom goal.](https://cux.io/knowledge-base/goals/building-your-custom-goals/)

### To build your goals, you can use different [events prepared by CUX](https://cux.io/knowledge-base/goals/goal-events/), such as:

- page loads
- referrers
- clicks
- scrolls
- activities around forms


You can also use “Reverse this step (Negation)” functions when building your own goal. Negation in the case of events means that CUX will select for you all the visits that did NOT meet the given Goal. For example, if you select an even “Click the “buy” button” and check the “Reverse this step (Negation)” box, you will only see the visits’ recordings where users did not fulfil the Goal (did not click the button).

![Reverse this step (Negation)](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_01_13_at_10_23_47_700x271_a6d99c2a1f.png)

_<center> Reversing step in Goal settings in cux.io </center>_

### The use of analytics goals has many benefits!

- Saves your time on manual analytics.
- Selects only the data that will be relevant to your business.
- Pre-selects data for you.
- Allows you to find quick wins faster.
- Catches users’ problems and frustrations in the most important places on the website.
- Allows you to follow the progress of the goal from the dashboard.
- Sends you alert every time your goal rate changes by the amount you specify.


#### Are you ready to enter the world of Goal settings?


<center><iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/GGMUpbtiNX4C4" width="480" height="323" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/snl-kristen-wiig-will-ferrell-golden-globes-GGMUpbtiNX4C4">via GIPHY</a></p></center>

Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

Why-analytics-needs-Goals.png

The Goal is the ratio of the number of recordings that meet your primary purpose (conversion) to all visits’ recordings. In other – much simpler – words, analytics goals are here to tell CUX’s scripts what is important to your project. They translate your business into code understandable to the tool and define how it is to interpret your data. And all you have to do is reap the benefits.

Why does your analytics need goals?

Success-story-article.png

In times of a crisis, reality always calls bluff, and anyone who thought that they could still avoid the digital channel can no longer do so. This was particularly noticed by many fashion businesses who missed digitization, which was a big surprise for the observers of this market. The truth is that while business is running, hardly anyone tries to improve it, and while there is demand, hardly anyone tries to understand the target group. As long as the conversion rate is high using the analytical nomenclature, no one really sees the need to analyze their activities too much.

Analytics is the key to success in a post-pandemic reality

Fortunately for us, everything can be measured when it comes to online activity. These days obtaining data is neither complicated nor time-consuming, it’s relatively inexpensive, and it is available to everyone. On top of that, there is access to a really wide range of indicators on the basis of which we can verify how well our business is operating. On the other hand, you need to remember not to try to analyze everything. Too much data can lead to analytical chaos which benefits no one.

In that case, an important question to ask yourself is – what kind of data should you collect? There is no clear answer here, because it all depends on, among other things, what business you have, what you want to research and what is the end result that you want to achieve. Thankfully, there are a few basic rules that you should follow when building your analytical empire. We will try to present them to you so that you can lay a solid foundation for this kingdom.

![How to build your analytical empire based](/uploads/1_1_1_d0cd386e8b.png)

## FIRST THINGS FIRST: 
### collect the most basic data

There is no need to go on a wild goose chase when you’ve only just started your journey in web analytics. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you also do not have to start with the most advanced of analytical tools. It makes absolutely no sense to start with more complicated tools and functions and lay awake at night wondering whether you indeed configured everything correctly and if all the data you need is actually being stored. What you should do is start with the basics, and when it comes to web analytics, Google Analytics is absolutely essential.

![Google Analytics for basic data](/uploads/2_2_816a79b674.png)

It will give you an insight into the simplest indicators that you should keep an eye on: number of users, number of page views, average time spent on it, bounce rate (i.e. the percentage of users who left the page after viewing only one tab). You will also see the demographic profile of your users or the sources of their traffic (i.e. those places on the Internet from which users came to your website). You can view the data on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. There will be a lot of data collected, so it is important to configure GA correctly. You can do it yourself, using [the advice available on the Internet](https://www.whitechalkroad.com.au/blog/how-to-use-google-analytics-in-2020/), or ask a specialist for help (we recommend [Maciek Lewiński](https://www.maciejlewinski.pl/)!). Remember – there is no shame in asking for help. Nobody will judge you or think you are inferior in terms of knowledge or skills. Nobody is an expert in everything, and it’s important to know that there are knowledgeable people who are happy to help you configure the tool correctly.

 

## FREQUENCY: 
### analyze daily

Data analysis should become a daily habit, just like brushing your teeth. It’s something you should start your workday with. We are not talking about spending many hours in analytical tools, sometimes a glance while drinking your morning coffee is enough to see how your business goals went the previous day, or to check if anything worrying is happening. Only thanks to a daily routine, you will be able to be efficient and react quickly to any errors that may appear on your shopping path (as was the case for T-Mobile, who, thanks to this approach, quickly eliminated the price error negatively affecting the purchasing decisions of their customers).

 

## QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS IS NOT EVERYTHING: 
### analyze qualitative data

Once you have the correct configuration of Analytics and you visit it regularly, remember one more thing – quantitative data alone is not enough. Of course, the numbers are definitely important, they tell you a lot about how your business is going, but they won’t give you the full picture. For example, when you see a drop in sales, quantitative data tells you: hey, something’s going on, sales are falling. But it won’t give you any more information about why this is happening. To find out, you need to see what is happening on the page that makes the results drop. For this you need a qualitative analytics tool (e.g. CUX). Thanks to such a tool, you will be able to use heatmaps and recordings of users’ visits, which will allow you to see negative events on the purchasing path, which may be preventing clients to complete transactions.

![Analyze qualitative data - cux.io](/uploads/3_2_4917699ff3.png)

## LOOK AT DIFFERENT QUALITY INDICATORS: 
### build conversion funnels, analyze events, measure frustration

Since you already know that qualitative data is an indispensable element of web analytics, you should also know that it is worth to analyze all kinds of indicators. Start with conversion funnels. This is the basic measure that provides the most insight into your purchasing processes. It will allow you to examine each step of the purchase path and see the conversion at each stage. It will be the place that will alert you if something disturbing is happening.

Also remember to analyze all kinds of events (not just URL addresses) – scrolls, form filling, clicking on the checkboxes (e.g. when selecting consents). All this will give you an insight into whether the user interaction with the website is seamless or problematic.

Try not to also forget that, on the Internet, you can measure user’s frustration and check the level of anger based on the presence of indicators such as click reaction, content zooming or chaotic mouse movements. These measures, if they appear in the dashboards of quality tools, should be like a red light, a danger signal. These indicators mean that there is a brake in the shopping path. They may not only prevent the user from completing the purchase, but also prevent the user from returning to it due to the frustration they caused.

 

## SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE: 
### use different analysis tools

If you already know quantitative and qualitative analytics, remember that it is also important to look at your internet business holistically. Try to be up to date with what people say and write about you online. It is important to be able to react quickly to any image-related crises, before they affect your sales. You want to know about both negative and positive comments about your product – the latter will allow you to build long-term relationships based on customer satisfaction. To keep an eye on what is happening on the Internet, you can use tools such as [Brand24](https://brand24.pl/) or [Intercom](https://www.intercom.com/).


As you can see, web analytics is not a piece of cake. It can be complex, complicated, sometimes even like an unsolved mystery, but if you just take a few moments and learn how to use it, it will turn out to be your best friend. Analytics will never lie to you, it will not color or beautify reality, and will always reveal the truth. Sometimes, it will be painfully honest, but it really is for your own good. Well-configured quantitative analytics, supplemented with qualitative data drawn from conversion funnels and frustration indicators, combined with information from online monitoring, will allow you to stay one step ahead of your competition, boost your sales and quickly prevent any crisis.

If you have any questions, doubts, would like to implement analytics or solve a problem on your website (or maybe you just want to say “hi” 😉) – drop a line at [paulina@cux.io](mailto:paulina@cux.io). We will be more than happy to hear from you ❤️ And if you would like to receive newest information about our product, sign up for [the CUX newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b).



Analytical-tips-and-tricks-2.png

Making the right business decisions is not always easy and can at times be a real headache. In order to make sure you do the right thing each time, you need to have access to the right data, be able to read it correctly and to draw the right conclusions.

How to analyze? That is the question

![Visits or sessions? Where is the difference?](/uploads/1_1_300919c593.png)


Analyzing visits. [This indicator plays an important role in many of our articles](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/5-analytical-tips/), and we decided to write one entirely devoted to it. We will try to show you the difference between visits and sessions, why it is worthwhile to explore the whole user’s visit, and how important it is to analyze the whole user’s path in drawing conclusions.

## Analyzing session is like watching 30 minutes of a movie

The difference between a visit and a session (if we take into account web analytics) is enormous. You can say that **analyzing a session is like watching just the first 30 minutes of a movie**. Imagine: you meet Paul, the main character, make friends with him, go on a journey together and suddenly, bang! End of action. You have no idea what happens next, whether Paul marries his crush or maybe ends up alone.

![The difference between visit and session](/uploads/explainer_fadde85770.png) 

The situation is similar when it comes to analyzing user sessions. **A session is only a fragment of the user’s entire visit on the site, only a half an hour of our movie. If we want our analysis to be complete and accurate, we need to take into account the whole visit, because it may consist of many tabs (and each of these tabs will be a separate session) that the customer opens to compare the products or services we offer**.

As we said at the beginning – in order to see the entire path that the customer goes through on our site, we need to analyze all the tabs/sessions/the whole visit. Why?

## Only analyzing visits will give you the full picture 

Some customers explore sites using just one tab. But the vast majority of them, open a lot of tabs to compare products, descriptions and photos. For a complete analysis, we need to check what our client has done on all the tabs. Why? Let’s consider two cases.

_**Assumptions**_: the user opens 7 tabs, each tab is analyzed as a separate session, the user makes a final purchase.

When analyzing each tab separately, we can wrongly conclude that there are not one, but seven users, of whom only one made a purchase and the rest left our site without being the lucky owner of our product. Going further we draw another conclusion – the conversion rate on our website is slightly over 14%. By formulating further untrue statements, we come to the conclusion that in order to increase the conversion rate, we have to increase our advertising expenses and maybe even redesign our website. After all, since as many as six users have left it, something must be very wrong with it. Do you see how many incorrect conclusions we reached because we were analyzing sessions, not the visit? Now let’s take a closer look at the second case.

_**Assumptions**:_ the user opens 7 tabs, all tabs are analyzed as one visit, the user makes a final purchase.

Analyzing all the tabs as a whole visit, we have a full picture of what is happening on the site. We can see that this is one and the same customer who opened seven tabs just to compare products before making a purchase. The conversion for this analysis will be 100% (one customer = one finalization of the transaction). Since this is the best possible conversion rate, we don’t have to think about additional expenses for advertising campaigns or changes on the website.

As you can see, correctly analyzed sessions and visits significantly influence the interpretation of data and business decisions. What is worth remembering is that:

- we analyze whole visits (not single sessions);
- the visit may consist of several sessions;
- the analysis of sessions only can lead to wrong conclusions and bad decisions.

If you still have some doubts, or maybe you aren’t sure if your analyses are correct – go ahead and let us know, we will be happy to assist you 😊

If you have any questions, doubts, would like to implement analytics or solve a problem on your website (or maybe you just want to say “hi” 😉) – drop a line at [paulina@cux.io](mailto:paulina@cux.io). We will be more than happy to hear from you ❤️ And if you would like to receive newest information about our product, sign up for [the CUX newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b).

Visits or sessions? Where is the difference?

Visits-vs-sessions.png

When analyzing a website, its users and their actions, we can look at a whole range of indicators. For example, we can analyze the number of users (how many people enter our site), conversion rates (how many people move from one place to another), sales (how many products or services have been bought by our users) or the amount of active time of the visit on the website (how many minutes the user has spent on our site actually exploring it). But that’s not everything. There’s one very important indicator, without which web analytics won’t be complete. Do you know which one?

![Make analytics easier](/uploads/3_1_38346eaaab.png)

Therefore, if analytics is already on the agenda in your company, this article will only be a repetition of the issues you know well. However, if you are just about to start your adventure with data (or are at the beginning of it), it may turn out that the tips we have prepared for you, will be a valuable source of information, and might help you in drawing even more accurate conclusions.

We know very well how important analytics is for any company. But the fact that you simply have an analytics tool (like ours) doesn’t make you an expert. More important than having one, is actually understanding analytics, learning how to use it, and knowing how to look at the data properly and how to draw correct conclusions. If you can correctly analyze the data you see, you will have a powerful weapon in your hands against conversion drops and low sales.

To help you a bit in upgrading from “amateur” level to “medium-pro” level, we have prepared 5 tips for you. Read them carefully and remember. If you want to, write them down on the post-it and hang over your desk, so you can come back to them at any time. We guarantee that with them in mind each following analysis will be easier, fuller and more insightful.

![5 tips to make analytics easier for you](/uploads/2_1_075dda2dfc.png)

## TIP 1: Your biggest competition is your customer’s problems, not other companies.
We often face clients who come to us and say: “They (the competition) have implemented something and it works great. That’s what we want!”. We always tell these clients that it is not other companies that are the biggest competition. The biggest competition is the problems that our customers are facing on our website. Unclear path, errors in the form, too small font or images, lack of possibility to find required information. [All this makes the purchase process impossible to complete](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/show-me-your-website/). In this case, your potential customers simply give up and go to one of your competitors.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ It’s a situation that – we think – each of us has experienced. Full of emotions, joy and impatience, we have to face a difficult task – filling in the form. Unfortunately, it is the place that – in most cases (although not always, we do not generalize) – creates a bottleneck for the client. In our case, the insurmountable barrier was the choice of delivery date. The company didn’t predict that someone would want to choose a delivery date two weeks away from the date of purchase. The lack of such a possibility made the client decide to purchase from a competitor.

**REMEMBER!** Analyze users’ behavior on your website carefully, look for bottlenecks that appear on the purchase path. Make decisions based on data, not solutions introduced by your competitors.



## TIP 2: Analyze entire visits.
We repeat this like a mantra: CUX, unlike other tools, allows you to analyze entire customer visits on the website, not just individual, single sessions. Okay, but what’s the difference? This is a typical question that may appear in the head of a person starting the adventure with analytics. Well, A VISIT on the website may include several SESSIONS. A session would comprise of all of the tabs opened by a client. It’s no surprise to anyone these days that a client, while buying on the Internet, will compare products, check their properties and prices in many tabs. In order to take a holistic look at a customer’s journey through our website, we need to analyze their whole visit, starting from the first tab they opened and ending with the one where they saw the thank you page after completing the purchase. Analyzing only individual sessions can give us an incomplete and sometimes even misleading picture of what is happening to the user on the site.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Imagine a customer who wants to buy shoes. He doesn’t quite know what he wants, he’s not sure about the color or material. He goes to the website and chooses the shoes he likes the most. Of course, it’s not one pair, but eight. He opens each product site in a separate tab to make it easier for him to compare them.

And now imagine that we analyze each open tab as a separate session. It would turn out that we have eight customers on the site, of which seven didn’t make a purchase! The conversion rate is only 12.5%. Not too much.

And now let’s analyze it as it should be – treat all eight tabs as a visit of one client. He made a purchase, and the conversion is 100%, because we know that there was only one client, not eight of them. Can you see the difference now?

**REMEMBER!** Analyzing separate sessions is like watching only 20 minutes of a movie – you’re getting familiar with the action, but you have no idea how it will end. In a qualitative analysis only, a full visit provides the full context of user behavior and helps to understand his interactions with your website.

![Analyze entire visit](/uploads/5_1_e30be27b7c.png)

## TIP 3: Analyze all events, even the smallest ones.
There are cases of customers who want to analyze only the main steps on their website. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but remember – the more we dig into the path a client goes through on our site, the more details we see, and the more accurate decisions we can make. You can analyze all kinds of actions that the client performs on the site: click on a specific element like a link or a button, page scroll, form submission, focus in or out while clicking into a form field. You can also create your own custom event, based on the specific business model you’ve implemented on your site. Thanks to these details, we will be able to capture all those micro-events that can slip away from us when we look at the shopping path from a bird’s eye view.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Let’s assume that we look only at the three main “points” in our shopping path: entering the product page, going through the form, displaying the thank you page. Each of these steps will have its own conversion, but with so little information, it will be difficult for us to determine what the reasons behind the numbers are. If, however, each of these steps we will complete with additional events (such as marking approvals, filling in the data fields, choosing the date of birth), we will be able to know very precisely where the customers are facing difficulties.

**REMEMBER!** Analyzing only URLs, we lose information about all potential micro conversions and problems. Don’t hesitate to analyze whatever events you want.


## TIP 4: Analyze the user’s natural path.
When designing a website or shopping path, we have an ideal vision in our mind. We give it to our customers and what turns out? That it isn’t so perfect for them. That something doesn’t suit them, that they don’t understand it, they think it’s unnecessary or they’re missing something. Don’t worry – there are as many paths as there are users. Don’t try to impose your visions on them, because the effect may be the opposite of what you would like to achieve – they will get pissed off and go to the competition (see TIP 1). Try to analyze this shopping path, which is natural for the customer, the most comfortable and the fastest. It may turn out that it is the customer who will show us the best solution.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Sometimes when designing materials for the website, we try to provide our clients with as much information as possible. This makes our website difficult to read and often the process of getting to know it unnecessarily long. You should definitely check how your customers navigate the site – it may turn out that placing Terms and Conditions at the very beginning doesn’t make any sense, because customers want to get to know them at the very end of their visit, while choosing the payment method.

**REMEMBER!** Assuming that clients go through your website with the paths that you have designed for them, is just wishful thinking. Users are like cats – they go wherever they want to go. So try to analyze each purchase path and react as quickly as possible if one is found to be impassable.

## TIP 5: Analyze the purchase path step by step.
Don’t analyze in a hurry. Remember that sometimes it is worthwhile to spend 10 minutes more on analysis, but to be sure to go through all the data. Don’t skip any steps, each one of them can show you where to improve micro-conversion. Do not leave the analysis for later. The longer you wait, the more potential changes you will face. Analyze carefully, step by step, to be able to extract as much information as possible from the data.

_**EXAMPLE:**_ Imagine that while analyzing the site, you focus only on the most important places from your point of view. This approach may result in skipping places that may be difficult for the customer. Be sure to watch all steps, because each of them can be a place where your potential client will resign from buying your product. Sometimes even the most well-designed element on the site can convert poorly, sometimes the most beautiful graphics can bring weak response rates, and we’ll only know that through careful data analysis.

**REMEMBER!** The devil is very often in the details. Don’t trust your gut feelings or the solutions implemented by your competitors – watch your customers’ behavior carefully – sometimes the best solutions are suggested by the users themselves.

We hope that these tips will brighten the analytical path in your head 😊. The insights you get from analyzing data can become a powerful tool in your hands to make changes for the better. Just remember to approach the data with an open mind, knowing your basic business goals.

![Think outside the box to make your analytics easier](/uploads/1_1_9470ec723f.png)

If you have any questions, doubts, would like to implement analytics or solve a problem on your website (or maybe you just want to say “hi” 😉) – drop a line at [paulina@cux.io](mailto:paulina@cux.io). We will be more than happy to hear from you ❤️ And if you would like to receive newest information about our product, sign up for [the CUX newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b).

Analytical-tips-and-tricks.png

The importance of analytics in business is no novelty in 2020. Experts say that everyone should implement analytics in their business as soon as possible (if you haven’t done so yet), companies should then try to gain as much knowledge from the data as possible, and make decisions based on numbers, not gut feelings. And that’s all correct, we couldn’t agree with these experts more.