2.09. What data does my website generate?

Here we study all the data that it is possible to collect through its site, and the information that can be taken from it.

Using tracking data to better understand your web audience and their browsing journeys

A performing arts venue's website can generate valuable data about its audience through the implementation of traffic monitoring tools, also known as tracking. In the field of digital marketing, data tracking is a fundamental tool for analyzing and understanding user behavior on a website. What type of data can be collected through tracking? How can this data help better understand one's audience?

This information is mainly divided into four categories: demographic data, behavioral data, geographic data, and technological data. The insights gathered make it possible to gain a deeper understanding of users' expectations, preferences, and browsing habits.  

You reach people more effectively when you know them better.

Christopher Marcresponsable communication du ZEF - Scène nationale de Marseille

  1. Demographic and location data: this includes the age, gender, and geographic origin of individuals visiting the website. These data are particularly useful for segmenting the audience and tailoring content and marketing strategies to specific groups. They make it possible to adapt featured content-for instance, by highlighting shows popular with certain age groups or offering events suited to their geographic location, especially for off-site performances.
  2. Behavioral data: these concern how visitors interact with the site. They help identify user journeys and determine conversion funnels (see dedicated sheet). By analyzing navigation paths-that is, pages visited, visit order, and consultation duration-it becomes possible to spot potential drop-off points and improve the website accordingly. Behavioral data also help identify individuals who abandoned their shopping cart, allowing for automatic follow-up to encourage them to complete their purchase.
  3. Data from newsletter and social media interactions: data from interactions with newsletter campaigns and social networks provide insight into the content that most engages your audience.

Among available tracking tools, Google Analytics dominates the market, despite its insufficient guarantees regarding GDPR compliance, as noted by the CNIL in 2022.

The use of this tool, while raising issues of data sovereignty and the circulation of captured data, remains possible provided technical adjustments are made and a proxy is used. Other "trackers," as they are called, are more strongly recommended as of 2024 for their GDPR compliance. These include Hotjar, AT Internet Analytics, Simple Analytics, and Matomo.  

Everything must be tagged! Even if you believe certain information won't be usable, tracking should always be anticipated.  

Fabien Le Brusqchef de produit web au Parisien

How to start a tracking approach?

The first step in implementing tracking is to determine what you want to learn or understand about your audience through this tracking process. This means that before delving into the technical aspects of tracking, you must define your objective and the performance indicators (the well-known Key Performance Indicators) you wish to measure. The next step is to establish a daily monitoring of these indicators and to gradually refine both your approach and your digital marketing strategies based on the information and insights gained through tracking.

Many venues develop sophisticated tools but only use them on a superficial level: they monitor page views, visit durations, and possibly their origin, without going further. However, there is much more to be learned from this data. But doing so requires specific training, a clear definition of goals, and a time investment.

Tracking data on a website is not limited to collecting basic statistics: it is a powerful tool for deeply understanding your audience. By analyzing demographic, behavioral, geographic, and technological data, organizations can personalize their content, improve user experience, and refine their marketing strategies. Leveraging these elements allows for a more accurate response to visitors' expectations and, ultimately, better performance for the website and the institution it represents.

However, care must be taken to analyze this data with the necessary discernment, and to be wary of hasty conclusions based on short-term trends, seasonal biases, or irregular data analyses, which could distort your true understanding of the audience. That is why it is essential to regularly monitor this tracking data.

Adopt a simple and consistent approach with clearly defined objectives from the outset

The current trend in digital marketing is to minimize tracking actions, driven both by respect for privacy and a desire to reduce the environmental impact of marketing activities. Indeed, tracking actions involve the storage and generation of large amounts of data and metadata. This is why it is all the more important to carefully determine which data is truly useful for achieving the set objectives, and to focus exclusively on those.

These tracking reduction trends also anticipate a near future in which cookie-based tracking will likely no longer be possible (see the sheet "Tomorrow, a world without cookies?").  

To go further

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