Using data to understand behaviour and optimise experiences

Website analytics data gives nsw.gov.au publishers essential knowledge to shape our strategy and decisions. 

Gathering and interpreting data is a powerful tool that all digital professionals can use to inform decisions. At nsw.gov.au, our insights and optimisation team is constantly using anonymised customer data to make informed decisions and create a better user experience. 

The main way we do this is through the Google Analytics 360 (GA360) platform, which is widely accepted as one of the industry-standard and enterprise-level solutions to understand website user activity. 

GA360 tracks users, content interactions and shares non-identifying information about the people who visit nsw.gov.au. For example, you can see how many visitors have come from Facebook and other channels and how many have come from search and direct visits by typing nsw.gov.au into their browser. You can also get general information about where visitors may be located, whether they view on a mobile phone and how they navigate across the site. 

On news websites, the goal of tracking data may be to increase the amount of time a reader spends on a page and the number of articles they visit. For nsw.gov.au, our goals tend to be more centred around helping users to find the information they need quickly and take the next steps to complete their desired tasks. Through collecting content analytics and user interactions, we can gather trends and insights that inform ongoing site improvements.
 

Why use data?

There are a few reasons why it is becoming standard to rely on data for this information. 

Firstly, nsw.gov.au, like any organisation, has a number of stakeholders and decision-makers, and they may have different views on how information should be presented. With our access to comprehensive site analytics, we can make customer-centric decisions based on this data. We can use data to decide what content to prioritise in line with what people are looking for on our website.

For instance, if we’re going promote a particular page on Facebook, data reveals a much higher percentage of users will view using a mobile, so we know to optimise the key information for smaller screens. 

In December 2021, 75% of customers accessed nsw.gov.au on a mobile, compared to 89% for those referred from Facebook. This information can be leveraged when making decisions about content layout and key calls to action. 

Data can help to point out if something is wrong. If we see a spike in ‘Page Not Found’ errors, we can track back on the source of this traffic and take steps to fix the link. We’ve been able to update broken links in Google search results this way. 

Trends can also be identified using website analytics to keep our content current. If we see an increase in people looking for a topic, we can make sure this content is better promoted on our website. Search insights can also help us adjust our content to use more customer-centric language based on the words people use. For example, many outlets began the pandemic by referring to the ‘Coronavirus’ and then ‘COVID-19’. This has since become simply ‘COVID’. 

However, we don’t rely on a data point alone to tell the whole story. We recommend always looking at data in context with your site or content objectives. For example, a page designed to help someone transition to an external website may have a shorter time on page compared to another with a longer video news story. Both high and low values make sense when you consider what each page is designed achieve. 
 

By tracking user behaviour, content and page interaction analytics, nsw.gov.au can create a more user-friendly experience. We are able to see trends over time and use clear data as evidence to make decisions and improvements, rather than assumptions. 

The key focus of our insights and optimisation team right now is making sure we have good foundations for consistent analytics tracking across the site. This will support more flexible robust reporting, trends and insights, which are integral to making ongoing improvements to our site and customer experience. 

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