The Page Categories report groups pages based on navigational structures on your website. You can monitor the page view and conversion influence, and assign a value to pages based on the amount of revenue or conversion behavior that the page influenced.
The category hierarchy that is used in this report for pages on your website is defined in the Category Definition File (CDF).
The following examples are page categories that can be defined in the Category Definition File (CDF) for reporting in the Page Categories report.
- Customer Service
- General Customer Service
- Warranty
- Privacy Policy
- Return policy
- Company Information
- Online Chat
- Store Finder
- Product Reviews
- Mobile
- Product-Related Content
- Such as gardening tips, how to fly fish
The Page Categories report is commonly used to identify the under-performing pages of entry in a website and uncover opportunities to enhance landing-page effectiveness. You can identify the top ten pages of entry, noting the average time-on-page and bounce rate for each entry.
- For pages with high bounce rates
- This result might indicate that users are not seeing the information that they expect, and are immediately departing. Consider all the referral sources that lead users to these pages and the offerings and promotions on the page, and optimize accordingly. For example, ad copy on paid-search marketing might be improved to give users a better idea of what to expect when they click through the link, resulting in more qualified traffic.
- For content with high usage and value
- These site features are already providing great ROI. The biggest opportunity here is to target customers that use this content with email or content-specific offers to increase the number of visits they make to your site.
- For content with high usage and low value
- This content draws customer attention but does not successfully drive them to convert. Consider allocating resources to enhance the creative, content, or features for these pages to increase customer value and conversion.
- For content with low usage and high value
- This content drives customers to convert but does not receive much visibility. Consider promoting this content or site feature more prominently on the home or category pages of your site, and in navigational areas.
- For content with low usage and value
- These site features should be prioritized very low in terms of your site resource and budget allocations, overall.
Page Categories report use case
This use case describes how to use the Page Categories report to maximize site stickiness and conversion rates.
- Identify the key content sections of the company website that you want to analyze.
- Obtain the number of sessions and conversion rates for each page category or page name.
- Create two more columns within this data set, one for value and one for usage.
- To assign labels to these columns, you obtain the average number of sessions and average conversion rates across categories.
- For value, you sort by conversion rate. For all categories equal to or greater than the average, you assign a value of high. For all categories below the average, you assign a value of low.
- For usage, you sort by session volume, and for all categories equal to or greater than the average, you assign a value of high. For all categories below the average, you assign a value of low.
- Create a 2 x 2 matrix with value and usage as the axes, then label each quadrant according to your business need (see the example output).
- Label each of your categories according to the quadrant into which they fall for analysis.
Each content category or page is mapped to a quadrant in a 2 x 2 matrix, as shown in the following example.
| Low | High | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Value | Drive Awareness
These content categories or features provide high value but are underexposed. Drive more awareness of these features by placing them prominently within key pages on your site. |
Maximize
Content or features in the quadrant drive significant traffic and are used by valuable customers. Target users of these tools to increase their visits and lifetime value |
High |
| Do Nothing
These content categories or features generate little value and receive minimal traffic. Few resources should be allocated to these areas because they do not heavily impact site performance. |
Invest
Content or features in this section are highly trafficked but do not convert visitors. Seek to improve content or features in this quadrant to capitalize on the value of this traffic. |
Low | |
| Usage |
The following is an example of the data chart results:
| Content Category | Sessions | Usage | Conversion Rate | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tips and Tricks | 4150 | High | 7.20% | High |
| Product Features | 3726 | High | 1.20% | Low |
| Product Comparison | 3198 | High | 0.9% | Low |
| Enlarge Product Image | 2913 | High | 4.50% | High |
| Rebate Information | 1724 | Low | 6.60% | High |
| Recipes | 1441 | Low | 2.30% | Low |
| How to Accessorize | 963 | Low | 3.10% | Low |
| Gardening Basics | 500 | Low | 4.70% | High |
Based on the Page Categories report results, you reach the following conclusions: The Gardening Basics content is effective at converting visitors, but it is poorly trafficked. Your team decides to promote this content more heavily on the gardening category and product pages to drive more traffic to this website feature. The product comparison tool drives considerable customer interest but does a poor job of converting visitors. You decide to analyze this tool in greater detail to determine what changes can be made to encourage conversions and to improve user experience.
How to troubleshoot pages listed under No Category Assigned
Pages that are listed under No Category Assigned in the Page Categories report indicate a problem with either the Category Definition File (CDF) or the Digital Analytics tags. Pages are listed in the top-level No Category Assigned category when Digital Analytics receives category information from a page tag, but the category ID is not present in CDF. Pages are listed in a No Category Assigned subcategory when the pages do not send category ID information in the Digital Analytics tag.
Before you begin, install the Digital Analytics Plug-in to access the Digital Analytics TagBar.
- Open the Digital Analytics TagBar.
- Check the tags for the pages under No Category Assigned.
- For pages listed under No Category Assigned at the top level, check the category ID in the corresponding Page View tags and ensure that the category ID is mapped correctly in the CDF.
- For pages listed in a No Category Assigned subcategory, ensure that the Page View tags contain the correct Category ID.
- Make any necessary changes to your Page View tags or CDF.
- If you make changes to the CDF file, the updated file must be uploaded to Digital Analytics.
The next time the report is processed, the Page Categories report reflects the updated category structure.
Key performance indicators for the Page Categories report
Focus on these key performance indicators when you analyze data in the Page Categories report.
The Page Categories report provides the following metrics in the default view.
- Sessions
-
The total number of sessions. A session is defined by a sequence of records collected by a common session cookie with no more than 30 minutes (default) of inactivity between collected records.
- Page Views
-
The number of views that each page received during the selected time period.
- Page Views / Session
-
The average number of pages viewed in a visitor's session that can be attributed to this marketing channel during the reporting time period. The metric can be used to determine the stickiness of a website and the level of engagement.
- Online: Sales
-
Total sales of purchased items calculated for orders completed via online channels.
- Orders / Session
-
The average number of orders per session: Orders divided by Sessions.
- Bounce Rate
-
The percentage of sessions for total visitors who viewed only one page during the session and it was a page within the specified content category.
- Percent of Sessions
-
The percent of all sessions represented by the current record.
- Percent of Total Page Views
-
The percent of all page views represented by the current record.
- Percent of Total Entries
-
The percent of all entries represented by the current record.
- Percent of Total Exits
-
The percent of all exits represented by the current record.
Additionally, if you edit the Page Categories report, you can add these metrics.
- Average Time on Page
-
The average amount of time (displayed in minutes and seconds) that visitors spent on the specified page or pages that roll up into a content category during the selected time period.
- Buying Sessions / Total Sessions
-
Buying sessions divided by total sessions.
- Departure Page Views
-
The number of times that a certain page is the last page viewed before a visitor leaves a site.
- Departure Rate
-
The ratio of sessions that ended on a certain page to all sessions that viewed the page.
- Entry Page Views
-
The number of times the page (or a page within the category analyzed) was the first page viewed to start a visitor's session.
- Entry Rate
-
The ratio of sessions that initiate on a certain page (or a page within the category analyzed) to all sessions that viewed the same page (Entry Page Views divided by Sessions).
- Event Points
-
The total number of event points. Event data is collected by the Conversion Event tag. Action Type = 1 reflects an initiation. Action Type = 2 reflects a completion. Passing Event Point values is optional.
- Event Points / Session
-
The average number of event points per session: Event Points divided by Sessions. Event data is collected by the Conversion Event tag. Action Type = 1 reflects an initiation. Action Type = 2 reflects a completion. Passing Event Point values is optional.
- Events Completed
-
The number of conversion events completed. A count of the collected Conversion Event tags where type = 2. Event data is collected by the Conversion Event tag. Action Type = 1 reflects an initiation. Action Type = 2 reflects a completion. Passing Event Point values is optional.
- Events Completed / Session
-
The average number of events completed per session: Events divided by Sessions. Event data is collected by the Conversion Event tag. Action Type = 1 reflects an initiation. Action Type = 2 reflects a completion. Passing Event Point values is optional.
- New Visitor Percentage
-
The percentage of all visitors who were making their first visit to the site: New Visitors divided by Unique Visitors.
- New Visitors
-
The total number of new visitors (persistent cookie values that were not seen previously).
- One Page Sessions
-
The total number of sessions that consisted of a single page.
- Online: Average Order Value
-
The average value of a submitted online order: Online: Sales divided by Online: Orders.
- Online: Average Shipping & Handling
-
The average shipping and handling fees for transactions completed via online channels.
- Online: Buying Sessions
-
The number of sessions in which an order was placed via online channels.
- Online: Orders
-
The total number of orders placed in online channels. A count of the Order tag.
- Sales / Session
-
The average sales value per session: Sales divided by Sessions.
- Total Shipping & Handling
-
The total shipping and handling value.
- Unique Visitors
-
The number of unique visitors who visit the specified page or pages that roll up into a content category during the selected time period as determined by the Digital Analytics permanent cookie.
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