Methodologies for monitoring website performance. Issue 4 (12th June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Moral, Paz; Gonzalez, Pilar; Plaza, Beatriz
• Is Part Of: Online information review. Volume 38:Issue 4(2014)
• Page Start: 575
• Page End: 588
• Publication Date: 2014-06-12
• Subjects: 025.04
• DOI: 10.1108/OIR-12-2013-0267
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-4527

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</title> <p> – Online advertising such as Google AdWords gives small and medium-sized enterprises access to new markets at reduced costs. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the visibility and performance of a website and to test the effectiveness of online marketing using the data provided by Google Analytics. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</title> <p> – The authors use a class of econometric time series models with unobservable components, Structural Time Series Models (STSM). The authors allow for time-varying trends to take into account the non-stationary behaviour displayed by time series. The authors illustrate the model using daily data from a local tourist website. Three specific questions are addressed: do paid keywords campaigns increase the volume and quality of search traffic? Do paid keywords affect the volume and quality of the unpaid traffic? How do paid and unpaid keywords perform? </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</title> <p> – The results for the case study show that: first, online campaigns affect traffic volume positively but their effectiveness on traffic quality is uncertain; second, paid keywords do not affect the volume and quality of unpaid traffic; third, the increase in traffic volume is not always due to the paid keywords and the lowest quality visits come from paid traffic. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Practical implications</title> <p> – This analysis may help webmasters to design successful online advertising strategies. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</title> <p> – This study contributes to the development of user-friendly methodologies to monitor website performance. The analysis shows that STSM is a suitable methodology to test the effectiveness of online campaigns and to assess the changes over time in the performance of a website.</p> </sec> </abstract>