Clickstream analysis tracks user clicks to improve user experience, marketing campaigns, and productivity. It can provide insights for testing, marketing analytics, and productivity. ISPs may sell clickstream data to companies for analysis.
Clickstream analysis is an approach to examining how users interact with web pages and software programs that relies on tracking user clicks. While browsing, users use the mouse to move from page to page, to activate menus, and to perform other tasks. This information, the click stream, can be used in a variety of ways to improve user experience, develop better marketing campaigns, and analyze productivity in a workplace or similar environment.
One way to use click stream analytics is in testing. When people interact with a new program or website, observing how they navigate can provide important information. The stream of clicks can indicate that a component is damaged or not working as expected, suggest that some navigation changes should be made, or show that people are not using the site or program as expected. Software testers and people who test websites before they go public are told to explore their options as much as possible and sometimes try to deliberately break into the program or site. A clickstream analysis can provide important insights into how they interacted with your computer during your session.
For marketing analytics, looking at click streams is very important. People use clickstream analytics on e-commerce sites to find out what makes consumers opt-in or opt-out of offers, and to see how to optimize the process. The goal is to encourage as many visitors as possible to complete transactions. While the site may be designed to appeal to people from an aesthetic and search engine optimization perspective, which ensures that people find the site and like what they see, if it is difficult to complete a transaction, potential customers may be deactivated. Clickstream analytics provide insight into how potential customers interact with your site and shopping cart, enabling people to implement new features and improve navigation.
The clickstream can also provide insight into productivity and efficiency. More clicks usually mean people have to go through several layers of options to get to the places they want to go. Making material more accessible and organizing information in more logical ways can reduce the amount of time people spend browsing, while increasing the amount of time they spend actively working.
Internet service providers may maintain information about their customers’ clickstreams and may sell this information, without identifying information, to companies interested in performing clickstream analysis. The servers also maintain clickstream data, allowing people to track activity on a particular website or family of sites.
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