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Gemius has monitored Point.ru using gemiusHeatMap research
2007-08-10
Gemius SA, the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe, has published a case study research report on its new product – the gemiusHeatMap. The report presents the results of click monitoring of the Russian news portal Point.ru.
gemiusHeatMap explained
gemiusHeatMap is a new product designed as a click map which is visible directly on the researched web site when viewed through our special HeatMap browser. The gemiusHeatMap service guarantees credible, third-party statistics that can be used to sort news lists according to their popularity or to analyze the usability of the menu structure. It is also possible to:
- analyze the popularity of links located on the web pages
- list products or news in the order that reflects the users’ interests
- compare the number of clicks and visitors by hour, day, week or monthcheck which sections and materials your visitors are most interested in
- create more attractive headlines which will increase the popularity of the news
Use of the gemiusHeatMap application is indeed intuitive. The interface looks like a normal Internet browser. It has a main menu, a toolbar and an address bar.
Pointing the cursor at the references displays the number of clicks and visitors on the particular link within the last hour, day, week and/or month. It is also possible to switch to percentage display mode. Additionally, drop-down lists provide quick and easy access to information on each link on your web page.
The methodology of the gemiusHeatMap study is based on JavaScript codes, which are placed throughout the pages of the researched web site. Consequently, not only are the statistics of clicks on the links gathered, but also the visitor who performed those clicks can be recognized.
The study’s main findings
In May and June 2007, Gemius conducted case study research for the Russian web site Point.Ru, which is an online magazine – a daily source of news, financial indexes, social events, personal investment opportunities and entertainment. The monthly audience of Point.ru is about 130,000 visitors (cookies), who generate more than 420,000 page views (source: gemiusTraffic June 2007). Information on the site is updated every hour, therefore it is important to constantly monitor the popularity of its headlines and sort them in the most convenient way for the users.
Thanks to the gemiusHeatMap study, it was possible to evaluate the main click indexes. The research revealed which sections were the most popular and provided the most important information about the navigation elements.
The detailed structure of the main menu on the Point.ru web site is divided into three categories: WorkDay, Pragmatics and Coffee Break, and functions as a starting point for navigation through the whole portal.
The picture represents an outline of the Point.ru menu structure in the HeatMap browser. The intensity of the highlighted red color indicates the popularity of the menu elements. While WorkDay and Pragmatics are sorted in the most logical way – from the most popular to the least, the Coffee Break section needs some improvements.
The gemiusHeatMap study also revealed much more, just a brief summary of the results shows how useful the research is for web developers and publishers:
- The most popular link elements are sections in the left-side menu.
- The in-site search function is popular among the visitors, which demonstrates their loyalty and interest in the archived materials.
- The picture-header in the center of the main page is not always popular, despite its premium location. On the contrary, it is clicked only when its topic attracts the users.
- Visitors carefully choose the news they want to read, they do not just click on the top headline. Monitoring these statistics on a daily basis provides a very detailed overview of the visitors’ interests.
- Point.ru visitors usually read web site materials very thoroughly – from ‘cover to cover’, even if the story is 2 or 3 pages long.
To sum up, web site owners now have the possibility to analyze the number of clicks, continuously monitor news ratings and gain a deeper insight into traffic patterns.
As Alena Sakharova from Point.Ru comments:
gemiusHeatMap is a very efficient statistical system. Statistical tools that we had before could not create the whole picture of click amount for sections and interactive elements. gemiusHeatMap presented very interesting statistics of click amount for the main menu. It has proved the correctness of the design conception for the main menu and revealed weak spots in the structure of the Coffee Break block.
This statistical product allowed us to evaluate all the interactive elements on the web site by their click ratios. It will definitely help us redesign the portal not blindly, but knowing its consequences beforehand. Especially, we are going to broaden the possibilities of the use of popular navigation elements and implement successful (as the research showed) solutions to lift traffic of the low-clickable sections.
Besides the navigation research results, we were very satisfied with the real-time updates in the gemiusHeatMap statistics. Very often, after checking the data in gemiusHeatMap, we implemented changes to headlines and banners that had not generated enough clicks, and subsequently the traffic significantly grew after that.
Also, it was very important for us to estimate the average length and scope of the sessions, finding out that visitors were really interested in the content itself, not just in the headlines. Based on this, we can modify the content accordingly.
The gemiusHeatMap study kept us from making a wrong decision about the financial block of the site. Initially, we presumed that it was not very popular, however, we are now going to add even more content to it and offer additional topics there for our visitors.
As a conclusion, we would like to recommend this statistical tool to raise the efficiency of a web site’s content and promotion to other web site owners.
Gemius SA - the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe. The company has been dedicated to Internet market research since its founding in 1999. Resulting from its efforts to maximize trust, authenticity and accuracy, Gemius is already present in several countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The company’s main business areas are - statistical, marketing and media research in the Internet. In Russia, Gemius opened its business offices in July 2006 and now runs not only client-dedicated projects but also conducts initiative research such as an e-commerce study or audience measurement.
Download a complete version of the press release in a Word file.
For detailed information please contact: International Operations Department - contact@gemius.com