Best practices: using web analytics

View the most visited pages, the origin of visitors, the most popular activities, keywords, and the results of the Talent Scan.

We use Fathom Analytics as our provider for web analytics; measuring, collecting, analyzing, and reporting web traffic to understand and optimize the use of your platform.

We chose Fathom because they offer simple, GDPR-compliant analytics, unlike providers such as Google Analytics. The great thing about this setup is that no cookies need to be stored to collect the data, ensuring you always comply with the latest privacy regulations.

Within our platform, we offer a partial overview of all web analytics that we can display through Fathom’s API (a method to connect platforms). You can access this by following this path: profile icon > admin panel > analytics > website (at the bottom of the page). We display the following data:

• Unique visitors
• Page views
• Traffic sources
• Device usage

Here are a few examples of what you can do with the data:

• How many people visit my platform?
• Which pages are most visited?
• Where do my visitors come from?
• What devices do my visitors use, and where are they located?
• Which activities are clicked on the most?
• Which search terms are most commonly used?
• How often is the talent scan used?

 

---

 

How many people visit my platform?

The effectiveness of your platform can be measured in various ways, but one of the simplest methods is by looking at website traffic, month over month.

When discussing web traffic, we can refer to:

• Page views (the total number of times a page on your platform is visited)
• Visitors (the total number of people who visit your platform)

Generally, visitors are the key metric, as they provide an idea of how many people are visiting your website. By comparing visitor numbers month to month, you can see whether your platform is attracting more or fewer people.

The reason we suggest looking at months instead of days or weeks is that there can sometimes be spikes that make it challenging to compare shorter periods (such as from viral social media posts or someone sharing a link to your site on a large forum). By examining a longer period, these types of spikes are smoothed out, providing a clearer view of overall trends.

In addition to visitors and page views, you can also look at the bounce rate and the average time a visitor spends on your platform:

• Bounce rate refers to the percentage of people who visit one page on your site and then leave without clicking on any other pages. For example, if ten people visit your site and five of them don’t click on any other internal links, your bounce rate would be 50%. A high bounce rate indicates that people are not exploring beyond the initial page they landed on, so you’ll want to keep this rate low.
• Average time on site shows how long people stay on your platform, giving an indication of how engaging they find the content. Note that this value is not calculated for the last page a visitor views, as there’s no subsequent page click to measure against.

These metrics can provide valuable insights into user behavior and the effectiveness of your platform's content and structure.

 

---

 

Which pages are most visited?

Once you're keeping an eye on the overall growth of your site, you can dig a little deeper to discover what people do when they visit your website. You can do this by looking at the number of page views (you'll find this table at the bottom left of your dashboard's homepage—see below).

This helps you see which pages are most popular (and conversely, which pages aren’t getting as much traffic as you'd like). Knowing this allows you to adjust your content or internal links to drive more traffic to important pages or to focus your attention on the pages that are performing best on your site. You can see the following data:

• Entries shows the number of people who arrived on your platform through this specific page. Most often, people enter through your homepage (marked with a single "/" in the dashboard), but not always. Popular blog posts can often be the top entry point for your website.
• Visitors indicates the number of people who have visited that page, while views represents the number of times the page has been viewed. The small difference is that one visitor may view a page multiple times, so the number of views is always equal to or greater than the number of visitors.

If you click on a page, you can see the data and chart for that specific page over time. Besides viewing when visitors accessed that page, you can also check the bounce rate and average time on page. This helps you fully understand whether people are engaging with your content or just quickly leaving. Additionally, it can provide insights into the success of your post or campaign by looking at the traffic that comes in on or around a specific day.

 

---

 

Where do my visitors come from?

In addition to understanding which content is most popular, it's also valuable to know where your traffic is coming from. This could be from Google (their search engine), another website, a social network, or even an email.

Knowing how people find your platform (where they come from) helps you better understand what is or isn’t working in terms of building brand awareness and attracting new visitors. Here are a couple of examples:

• If you tweet frequently and consistently share blog posts, you should see a high number of referrals from Twitter.
• If you invest a lot of time in SEO, you should notice an increasing number of referrals from Google.

These insights can help you determine where to adjust (or even abandon) your marketing strategy.

You can find this data in the bottom right corner of the chart on your dashboard's homepage. The "Referrers" section shows exactly which sites and sources are generating traffic, giving you a clear picture of what’s driving your visitors to your platform.

In the "Sources" tab, you'll find a summary of this data, categorized into four sources:

• "Direct" - visitors without a referrer present (direct traffic to your URL).
• "Paid/campaign" - visitors coming from an online advertisement (Google or Bing).
• "Organic" - visitors arriving from a search engine or website organically (i.e., not through paid/campaign efforts).
• "Social" - visitors coming from a social media site (such as X/Twitter, Facebook).

This breakdown helps you understand the various ways people are finding your platform, allowing you to assess the effectiveness of different traffic sources.

 

---

 

Which devices do my visitors use, and where do they come from?

At the bottom of the page, you'll find three additional tables that provide insights into the type of device and browser your visitors are using. You can also see which country your traffic is coming from.

As you can see, there’s a lot you can do with this general data. Below are a few specific examples that relate to our platforms.

 

---

 

Which opportunities are clicked on the most?

You can investigate this at the platform level, but these insights can also be viewed at the organization level [LINK].

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the pages table.
2. Search for "/activiteiten/". This will display all pages with that term in the URL (including the slashes). Our platforms are structured so that this search provides an overview of all activities. Note: this term may vary depending on the platform (e.g., "/stages/" or "/vacatures/" – it depends on your settings).
   1. You will now see in the top left that you have filtered by your search term. If you click the cross, the filter will be deselected. See the image below for reference.
3. Below the chart, you'll now see an overview of all the pages.

You can use this overview to identify patterns. Which activities attract the most traffic? Are there specific types of activities that stand out?

And what could be the reason? Is it simply well-written descriptions? Are there certain popular keywords? Are the organizations excelling in their marketing efforts?

As you can see, data alone doesn’t provide all the answers. However, it can certainly point you in the right direction. Good luck!

 

---

 

Which search terms are used?

Follow these steps to find out which search terms are being used:

1. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the pages table.
2. Search for "/vrijwilligerswerk/". This will display all pages with that term in the URL (including the slashes). Our platforms are structured so that this search provides an overview of all pages visited in the volunteer opportunity database/activities overview page.
   1. You will now see in the top left that you have filtered by your search term. If you click the cross, the filter will be deselected. See the image below for reference.
3. Below the chart, you’ll see an overview of all the pages.
4. There are a few general URLs that all end with "/activiteiten". Note: this term may vary depending on the platform (e.g., "/stages" or "/vacatures" – it depends on your settings):
   1. ".../vrijwilligerswerk/all/activiteiten" and ".../vrijwilligerswerk/search" indicate that the volunteer opportunity database was visited without any filters applied.
   2. Links with a city in the URL indicate that a search was conducted for that location.
   3. Links with "from-home" indicate that there was an active search for activities that can be done from home.
   4. Links with "flexible-location" indicate that there was an active search for activities with a flexible location.
   5. Links with "naam-stad,+land" indicate that there was an active search for a specific location, with a postal code within that city.

Additionally, there are specific URLs that have terms after "/activiteiten/". Note: this term may vary depending on the platform (e.g., "/stages" or "/vacatures" – it depends on your settings):

1. ".../vrijwilligerswerk/all/activiteiten/ouderen" indicates that someone selected the "ouderen" filter.
2. ".../vrijwilligerswerk/activiteiten/kinderen-jongeren+onderwijs" indicates that someone selected the "kinderen & jongeren" filter, plus the "onderwijs" filter.
3. These terms can represent both interest areas and activities.

You may also notice some URLs with a question mark followed by additional text. This can also provide valuable information:

1. "...?search_radius=25&q=buddy" indicates that the search radius was set to 25 kilometers, and the search term "buddy" was used (q stands for question).

All URLs with ".../vrijwilligerswerk/all/organizations" are related to the organization overview page/social map. The analysis works the same as described above.

Based on this data, you can identify where your platform is being heavily or under-utilized and which interest areas are most popular. Very useful!

 

---

 

How often is the Talent Scan used?

Follow these steps to find out how often the Talent Scan is used and what the highest scoring outcomes are:

1. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the pages table.

2. Search for "/talentscan/". This will display all pages with that term in the URL (including the slashes). Our platforms are structured so that this search gives you an overview of all pages accessed through the Talent Scan.

   1. You will now see in the top left that you have filtered by your search term. If you click the cross, the filter will be deselected. See the image below for reference.

Below the chart, you'll see an overview of all the pages. Each type has its own ID:

1. The Trainer --> "/talentscan/0"

2. The Practical Type --> "/talentscan/1"

3. The Entrepreneurial Type --> "/talentscan/2"

4. The Communication Expert --> "/talentscan/3"

5. The Reliable Support --> "/talentscan/4"

6. The Social Type --> "/talentscan/5"

7. The Computer Expert --> "/talentscan/6"

8. The Creative Type --> "/talentscan/8"

By analyzing this data, you can determine how often each type is selected and gain insights into the most common profiles among your users. This can help you tailor your content and opportunities to better match the interests and strengths of your community.

This data provides insight into the overall usage of the Talent Scan and shows which types are most common, as well as identifying those who are uncertain about their strengths or preferences.

 

---

 

That’s it! If you have an example that isn’t covered here, let us know! We’d love to hear from you.