Digital Analytics
Analyzing Sue Rock Original's web analytics and social media.
Overview
Sue Rock Originals Everyone, Inc is a non-profit textile charity based in New York City. For 14 years, Sue Rock has directly supported survivors of domestic violence by providing classes to develop skills in the needle arts, and is looking to expand her audience reach and engagement online.
Project Goal
Raise awareness of the Sue Rock Originals brand and grow audience to increase textile sales, using the social media accounts and websites.
Project Scope
Conduct a comprehensive analysis of Sue Rock Originals’ social media and websites.
Social Media:
Instagram
Websites:
suerock.com
sue-rock-originals.myshopify.com
My Role
Usability Researcher and Analytics Researcher
My responsibilities included:
Interviewing the client to understand their needs
Collecting and analyzing data, specifically conducting the IG qualitative analysis
Creating Google Studio Dashboards
Brainstorming findings with the research team
Formulating recommendations
Team
Valerie Saunders
Yolanda Tian
Pei-Yun Chung
Methodology
This study consist of three main parts: 1) Quantitative and qualitative analysis of Sur Rock Instagram Account, 2) SEO Audit of the , 3) Web Analytics of Sue Rock Originals and Sue Rock Shopify websites.
Instagram Analysis
Data from 203 posts within an observational period of September 2018 to April 2020 was gathered using Supermetrics and downloaded as an Excel file and analyzed. We applied quantitative methods to look at the trends and engagement throughout the observation period, and qualitative methods to probe social media strategy in general. Particular attention was then focused on the most successful posts and their visual and text features.
SEO Audit
SEO Audit is used to optimize a website as well as all the content on that website. SEO requires an understanding of how search engines work, what people search for, and why and how people search. Combining technical functionality with marketing, successful SEO makes a site appealing to both users and search engines.
Web Analytics
Our proposed dashboard contains a combination of visualizations for the following metrics: sessions, overall users, bounce rate, traffic sources, and most viewed pages. Segmentation were by user type (new vs returning), , devices and traffic source. The dashboard is set to show insights from April 2020 and updates regularly.
Instagram Analysis
The first phase of the study was to conduct a quantitative analysis of posts with engagement as a metric. The tools we used for this phase were Supermetrics to download the data, Excel to manage data and Tableau Public to make visualizations. Some of the analysis we did were posts by media type, engagement by media type, engagement and posting count by date, average engagement by month, engagement by day of the week, engagement by hour of the day and engagement by month of the year.
Engagement by media type
The media most used by Sue Rock is single image, accounting for almost 90% of the posts. However, video and carrousel have a better engagement than single images.
The average engagement tends to be evenly distributed in most days of the week, but Sunday reaches an outstanding peak.
Engagement by weekday
Recommendation #1
Based on the analysis of Sue Rock’s posting and engagement we recommend instituting a posting calendar to consistently post during times for optimal audience reach.
The second phase of the study was to conduct a qualitative analysis of the Top Ten Posts with Highest Engagement Rate.
From the analysis of the most engaging posts we learned:
● Sue Rock is a good model for Sue Rock Originals
Sue Rock is a dynamic and appealing face of her own brand. Among the Top 10 Instagram posts for the company, 8 of the images are of Sue Rock.
● Energy & authenticity shine through in several of these top photos.
Warm smile, active posture, and confidence are compelling ingredients for engaging Instagram audiences. (#2, #3, #5, #7, #8).
● Open call for models may be a formula for increasing engagement.
Actively reaching out to their followers with a call to action or a direct question appears to generate a two-way conversation with followers.
● Plus-positive media with plus size models wearing the fashion drives engagement.
The #1 IG post shows three models showing off the clothing. This image showcases the fashion as well as the inclusive message directly and visually.
● All about the fashion.
Four of the posts particularly highlight the fashion at the core of this business (#1, #2, #9, #10).
● Multiple photos in grid do not create as much engagement.
The grid of images that creates one image in the Sue Rock Originals account screen do not create as much engagement as the strong solo images.
Images from top ten posts (in order) with engagement rate score listed below each photo
Recommendation #2
● Combine strong photos & videos with concise captions & industry-relevant hashtags.
● Periodically sharing one long, meaningful post will provide a powerful connection.
SEO Audit
The SEO analysis was conducted focusing in four categories: General, HTML, Content, and Architecture. To get the comprehensive analysis, multiple tools were utilized including: MozBar, Woorank, Semrush, PageSpeed Insights, Mobile-Friendly Test, AMP Test.
After analyzing Sue Rock’s SEO these are some of the insights we got:
1. General
a. Google Search input “Sue Rock”, the name is the same as a movie on IMDB, an actress (Sue Rock).
b. Google Search must input “Sue Rock Originals” for getting Sue Rock’s website.
c. Google Search input “Sue Rock Shopify”, the website is the second Google Search result after Shopify ads.
2. HTML
a. Suggest different page titles for Sue Rock Shopify to distinguish from Sue Rock Originals and Shopify. For example, Sue Rock Shop or Sue Rock Store.
3. Content
a. Optimize keywords to long-tail keywords for more clearly defined intent. For example, "best sustainable fabrics for women of all sizes," or "domestic violence survivors New York."
b. Include more searchable keywords. For example, keywords ”sustainable fabrics”.
c. Update Sue Rock Originals website to the current topic and contents as Sue Rock Shopify.
4. Architecture
a. Even if all photos are under 500 KB, if there is a large number of images on a page it can cause issues such as slow loading speeds.
b. Resize images in Sue Rock Originals website to make all of them under 1000k.
SEO Summary Table
Recommendation #3
Rename page titles with descriptive words.
Create a keyword-content map to rise in search results.
Add Sue Rock Shopify link to Sue Rock Originals website’s for promotion.
Resize photos for faster loading speed.
Web Analytics
We also did an analysis of the quantitative data of the two websites Sue Rock Originals and Sue Rock Shopify. The tools we used for this purpose are Google Analytics and Google Data Studio. Our proposed dashboard contains a combination of visualizations for the following metrics: sessions, overall users, bounce rate, traffic sources, and most viewed pages. Segmentations were by user type (new vs returning), location, devices and traffic source.
The dashboard is set to show insights from April 2020 and updates regularly. Facing the limitation on quantity of data, we made a conscious decision to make a feasible analyzing template to assist Sue Rock Originals to further understand her online audience.
Insights from Analytics:
The majority of users (53%) use mobile devices, followed by desktop (40.9%).
Traffic mainly through referrals.
The biggest source of referral is Facebook.
Sue Rock Original Dashboard on Google Data Studio
Sue Rock Shopify Dashboard on Google Analytics
Sue Rock’s Shopify site lacks engagement. As it can be observed in the screenshot of the dashboard on the left, most users spend less than 10 seconds scanning through the website.
Recommendation #4
Popularize both websites through more sources to reach a wider audience and improve the strategy to promote products.
Set up ecommerce goals for Shopify site.