Web Page tagging: gathering data through code

Page tagging refers to the im­ple­ment­a­tion of tags in the existing HTML code of a given web presence. These markings help to analyse the behaviour of users when they are moving between two page views. As a client-side method for gathering data, it presents an al­tern­at­ive to server-based log analyses, and it’s often also referred to as a web analysis. It is important that web page tagging be un­der­stood as a separate entity to con­ven­tion­al tagging methods: this involves labeling content in social networks, blogs, or websites, in order to structure topics. Different tools are available for users to help them evaluate their collected data and add tags, like Google Analytics. The in­form­a­tion from Google Analytics can reveal how much traffic goes through a site, how long these visitors stay on average, and the re­spect­ive page or screen size of the devices they’re using.

Contrary to tra­di­tion­al log analyses, the found­a­tion of page tagging as a cross-server method was laid in the 90s by so-called web bugs, known as tracking pixels or pixel tags. These single pixel graphics, which were added to the HTML code and could initially only be viewed by website visitors, offered a con­veni­ent solution for tracking the frequency of page visits. If a user called up the re­spect­ive page, then the tracking pixel, which was located on an external server, was down­loaded. This made it possible for providers to collect, store, and analyse data for their customers.

Around the mil­len­ni­um, page tagging web analytics were optimised, by making the pixel tags invisible and adding JavaS­cript Code to them. These tags are also added to the HTML documents, revealing in­form­a­tion about the re­quest­ing client (visitor’s browser). This allows website operators to find out which operating systems visitors are using, where they ori­gin­ally come from, and which keywords brought them to your website. In case the client de­ac­tiv­ated JavaS­cript, then only the tracking pixel is down­loaded. This only registers the page visit, so no other user or device details can be followed. 

Page tagging is relevant for anyone in­ter­ested in actively main­tain­ing the constant growth of their web project. And there’s no doubt that the gathered data is es­pe­cially valuable when it comes to sales-oriented marketing; the potential to use this data to attract new users, readers, or customers shouldn’t be un­der­es­tim­ated either. Here are a few examples of the valuable insights that can be gained from page tagging results:

• The device used: more and more users are accessing the internet via mobile devices. Having mobile pages and a re­spons­ive design (i.e. op­tim­ising sites for all devices) should always be a priority for any website operator. Page tagging lets you find out more about the user visit dis­tri­bu­tion of one page to another. Make sure to keep industry-specific de­vel­op­ments (e.g. the growing number of purchases completed on mobile devices) in mind when working with this tech­no­logy.

• Popular topics, content, search words: high click rates and longer page views indicate that your published topics and themes have aroused your viewers’ interest. Operators of blogs or news portals are able to gain valuable input this way, which can be used for future planning. In­form­a­tion on the keywords used is es­pe­cially in­ter­est­ing when it comes to online shops and other web services.

• Con­ver­sion rate: observing con­ver­sion rates, i.e. the value that indicates the positive number of trans­ac­tions in re­la­tion­ship to the total number of visitors, is an in­dis­pens­able e-commerce measure. This way, online shop operators are able to find out how many users turned into paying customers. A con­ver­sion can even be something as simple as re­gis­ter­ing for a news­let­ter, clicking a link, or down­load­ing a specific file.

• Bounce rates and internal searches: the moment in which a user leaves your site can just as easily be de­term­ined as the last website they accessed. Bounce rates can be in­dic­at­ive of weak content or technical short­com­ings. For this reason, it’s crucial to inspect the func­tion­al­ity of in­di­vidu­al elements, the general loading time as well as the menu nav­ig­a­tion factors. A clue that the latter aspect isn’t func­tion­ing as it should be is if users do not fre­quently use the menu, or internal search function, on your website.

Although web page tagging is often con­sidered to be the same thing as web analysis, the latter aspect en­com­passes a large spectrum of measures for har­vest­ing data. Here, things like log analyses, cookies, compiling click redirects, tracking AJAX, Java, and flash elements come into play. All of these data gathering methods help deliver valuable in­form­a­tion that you can analyse for your own gain.