4 Questions You Should Ask Every Visitor
Credit: rp72 | Flickr
At a recent conference, I heard spokesmen for AP, Reuters and Chicago Tribune discuss the future of free web content. They, in general, agreed that changes are needed because:
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Media producers need to generate more revenue
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Congress needs to redefine "fair use"
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Google needs to share less information (or more revenue)
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Advertisers need to support professional content
But you know who never came up -- not once, not even a passing mention ... the user. No one raised the question, "What does ... the user ... need?"
This is the Holy Grail question that measures our web sites' reason for being. If we can't answer that, how can we hope to develop content, services or offerings that are relevant enough to be worthy of their attention?
And who better to answer that question than the people visiting our sites. With clickstream metrics, we can track pageviews, unique users, time on site -- but do we really know our users?
Analytics guru Avinash Kaushik, shared the questions he would ask visitors in a recent blog post. Then iPerceptions boiled those down to their simple, easily deployed 4Q survey that allows any site to take the temperature of its visitors. Oh, it's customizable and free, too. Those questions come down to the most simple, but critical topics.
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How would you rate your site experience overall?
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What was the primary purpose of your visit?
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Were you able to complete the purpose of your visit?
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If no, why not? If yes, what did you value most about the web site?
With 300 responses per month, you have a statistically valid response to the most important questions you need answered to secure the future of your site. And this KPI (key performance indicator) is one that Avinash says is the most important thing you can track. Plus it's something your current analytics won't tell you. But those who care enough about their users and the future of their site, will care enough to ask them, "how's it going?"
The info you get back could make all the difference.
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