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Analytics: Filters, Internal Search and Behavior Maps

Modified on: Mon, 21 Nov, 2022 at 1:30 PM

The ability to analyze your online presence helps you to improve your visitor experience and maintain your competitive edge. Making good use of digital analytics requires a grasp of how to discuss data, an understanding of collection techniques, and the ability to act on data to improve your website. Analyzing user behavior provides insights into the way visitors use your website.

This page is intended to teach you the basics, by helping you get started with:

If this is your first time using this feature, we recommend taking a quick tour with our Analytics Overview In-App tutorial. You can also reference more ways to learn if you'd prefer to follow along with a webinar, or take a formal course in our Siteimprove Frontier.

How do I create filters?

Note: Only Admins or Account Owners or a customized role with the manage filters permission can create filters. 

Filters apply additional context to your analytics data and allow for more in-depth analysis of specific types of visitor behavior. For example, if your website targets an audience in a specific geographical region, it would be beneficial to use a geography filter in order to remove data from visitors that are out of scope. And because Siteimprove preserves all of your original data, filters can be turned on and off as needed, as well as be applied retroactively.

One of the first filters we recommend setting up is an IP filter, as it's important to be able to differentiate between outside visitors to your website and visitors from within your organization. You can follow along with the resources below to get started:
Help Center Article: 

How to set up an IP Filter (Video):

How do I use the Internal Search feature?

Knowing what your visitors are searching for once they land on your site can be extremely valuable! Siteimprove's Internal Search feature tracks terms entered into your site's proprietary search engine, and records actions taken as a result of the search. It will help you identify gaps in available content (if no results are available), and opportunities to better align your content with the search intent of your visitors.

Please contact Siteimprove technical support to have Internal Search term tracking configured on your account.

Check out the resources below for more information on how to get started with this feature:
Help Center Article: What does Internal Search track?

Internal Search Tracking (Video):

How do I set up Behavior Maps?

Behavior Maps provide a visual representation of how visitors are using specific pages on your website. They come in 4 different varieties:

  • Heat Map - what draws visitors' attention?
  • Scroll Map - how far down on a page are visitors willing to scroll?
  • Click Map - how do visitors interact with a page's elements?
  • Segmentation Map - how do users from specific locations interact with my pages?

We highly recommend setting up behavior maps during your first few weeks with Siteimprove so they're ready when you need them. This is one of the few features that doesn't work retroactively, meaning we can only start collecting data for this feature once you specify the URLs you'd like behavior maps on. You can follow along with the resources below to get started:
Help Center Article: How to add a page to Behavior Map
How to add a Behavior Map (Video):

More Ways to Learn

Siteimprove Frontier is our new education suite that includes: 

  • Courses in Performance, Accessibility, Analytics, SEO, and more
  • Certifications to help you develop and showcase your Siteimprove expertise
  • Live coaching sessions in an office hours format to get help with your specific needs
  • Community to connect with other Siteimprove customers and share best practices

Check out Siteimprove Frontier

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